Army Specialist Mark Wilkerson (born 1984 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA) was in Iraq as an American soldier and Iraq war objector. Wilkerson enlisted in the US Army in the summer of his junior year of high school, before the September 11 attacks, through a delayed entry program. He served in a military police battalion and was deployed to Iraq. After returning from his first deployment, he came up with the conclusion that the American armed forces were not there for the reasons stated. He felt no longer able to serve the military in any aspect. After his first tour in Iraq, Wilkerson had filed for conscientious objector status but was denied. He appealed but would not be heard until returning from a second tour in Iraq what he found unacceptable.