Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, thousands of foreign volunteers have traveled to the country to fight alongside Ukrainian armed forces. Erik Giggleman—”Giggles,” a decorated US Army staff sergeant who survived two tours in Afghanistan—was one of them. Laura Beil’s moving profile of Giggleman is a miniature family epic, rooted in early exposure to the senselessness of loss.
Because of his experience, Giggleman spent his first weeks in Ukraine helping train other volunteers, but he quickly found his way to the front. At the time, Russia was occupying roughly a third of the Kharkiv Oblast, a key region in northeastern Ukraine, and had seized many of its cities. In September 2022, Ukraine mounted a counteroffensive. Giggleman joined a band of foreign fighters near the village of Petropavlivka. One of the new guys was a Canadian named Jack. His first day on the team, his commander gestured to the American with a vest full of grenades and said, “Stick with Giggles.”
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