Too many dead friends. Some died in combat. Others died from suicide after they came back home. Not long after I was discharged I attempted suicide and was hospitalized. There were no easy answers. In the hospital, we had group therapy. Some ...
Thanksgiving in the Second Battle of Fallujah
By mid-November 2004, my platoon had been clearing houses from dawn to dusk for more than a week in the city of Fallujah in Iraq’s Anbar Province. It was tiring and monotonous work. The sounds of distant gunfire and explosions were incessant, but ...
My Favorite Marine Corps Birthday
Third squad assembled into our proper order of formation for our dress blues inspection. It was Nov. 10, 2005 — the 230th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, aka the world’s finest fighting force. Humidity was common aboard Marine Corps ...
We Won’t Be King: What One of Sean Connery’s Finest Films Tells Us About Afghanistan
Hours after Sean Connery died on Saturday, I watched The Man Who Would Be King because I’d heard it was a masterpiece. And as a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, I wanted to see what the film could tell me about the country whose land I fought ...
Another Look at Erich Maria Remarque, Author of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’
Many Americans have come to know the work of Erich Maria Remarque through his acclaimed 1929 novel All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel — often assigned as required reading in high school — is widely considered the German author’s defining ...