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‘Valhalla Can Wait’—The National Guard Stands at the Crossroads of Crisis
As of Jan. 17, veterans thinking about hurting themselves can get free crisis care, including inpatient, for up to 90 days at Veterans Affairs. They do not need to be enrolled in VA care. For immediate help, dial 988, then press 1. Editor’s Note: This is the second story in...
‘When They Came Home They Were on Their Own’—National Guard Grapples With Suicide Rate
As of Jan. 17, veterans thinking about hurting themselves can get free crisis care, including inpatient, for up to 90 days at Veterans Affairs. They do not need to be enrolled in VA care. For immediate help, dial 988, then press 1. Editor’s Note: This is the first story in...
I Had the Best Squad Leader in the Marine Corps. He Showed Us Kindness Is Not Weakness.
I served as an infantryman in the Marine Corps for 25 years, reaching the rank of master gunnery sergeant. I deployed seven times, including three tours in Iraq, and served five years overseas. I received numerous awards and decorations, including a Purple Heart and Combat Action Ribbon. I’m not broadcasting these achievements out of any bravado or self-aggrandizement but to establish a position of credibility for the bold statement that follows: I had the best squad leader in the Marine Corps.
‘Among the Most Significant Professional Development Experiences I Have Ever Had’–Impact of the Writing Seminar
This fall, The War Horse hosted our Writing Seminar for Military Spouses at Carey Institute for Global Good in Rensselaerville, New York, thanks to generous support from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, and other partners. The five-day, expenses-paid retreat brought together a dozen military spouses with a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, award-winning news editors, and a book editor from Penguin Random House. Together, they worked to help our 2022 War Horse Fellows find and shape their stories as active-duty military spouses, retired veterans who are now spouses, and more.
Resilient Is a Label for Military Kids That Absolves a Nation of Further Reflection
Our family motto was, “Don’t look back.” Eyes forward. It’s just easier that way. The call came as we settled into sleep. She’d taken a bottle of pills but said she hadn’t wanted to. I told her to go to the emergency room. She said she was walking that way. I don’t remember hanging up, I don’t remember telling Lee, I don’t remember driving more than two hours to Chapel Hill.
The Hardest Thing I Did in the Army Wasn’t Getting Shot At. It Was Asking for Help.
A few nights ago, I did something I rarely do. I met up with a buddy from my soldiering days. We had a good time, drank a few too many beers, and did what soldiers do best. We told stories. We laughed about the stupid things our Joes did in Iraq, how they got in trouble and saved our asses.
‘Faster Than Starlight’—How Troops Track Santa’s Trek Across the Globe
“He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. . . . There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.” — Francis Pharcellus Church, Sept. 21, 1897.
‘Murphy’s Law of Deployment:’ What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong. But I Am Brave Enough.
Before opening the door to my husband’s brand-new squadron, I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. I was 23 years old, and I didn’t know a soul there besides my new husband. Tonight was the first social event we attended, and I felt desperate to make friends. I opened the door and was greeted by men and women rushing by like green blurs in their flight suits. Everyone wore rigid faces, and the tension was thick as fog, making the hairs on my arm stand at attention. Every instinct in my body knew something was about to creep up behind me and scare me.
He Used a Position of Power, In a Time of War, to Get What He Wanted.
I am the worst person ever. I am THE WORST person ever. I AM the worst person EVER. I AM THE WORST PERSON EVER. i am the worst person ever. I lived with these thoughts for a long time, and my family lived with me living with these thoughts. They raced through my head as I took my girls to school, as I hugged my husband goodbye, as I sat not watching a movie during family movie night. Mostly they pushed me as I cleaned, cooked, worked, praised, gave, and gave, and then gave again. But it was the other times that kept the thoughts going.
Come Thanksgiving, I Will Think of His Sacrifice and the Human Cost of War
Family time eluded me for much of 2010. As my unit prepared to join the ever-growing number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Marine Corps kept us busy training in North Carolina and Arizona. When the Thanksgiving holiday rolled around, I was grateful to head home to Columbus, Ohio, to...
The Story Behind Operation Pineapple Express, a Daring Rescue Effort in Afghanistan
The abrupt departure of the final American troops from Afghanistan last year after two decades of war plunged Kabul into anguished chaos. Watching coverage of the withdrawal at home in Tampa, Florida, Scott Mann sank into furious disbelief. The former Green Beret had served multiple tours in the country, training...
Nobody Leaves War Emotionally Healthy. The Path to Recovery Is Unique to Each Person.
The U.S. military always takes care of its own when Thanksgiving rolls around, no matter what part of the world you’re in. In November 1968, that place was the fishing village of Rach Gia, where I spent the final five months of my year-long tour in Vietnam helping direct air strikes against the Viet Cong as an Air Force buck sergeant.
Climate Change Makes Things Harder for Unhoused Veterans
On a Friday afternoon in early September, the temperature stood at 94 degrees at Windsor Veterans Village just north of Santa Rosa, California—sweet relief from earlier in the week, when the mercury soared to 114 degrees. The sky looked hazy with smoke from the Mosquito Fire, which had already consumed tens of thousands of acres of forest in the eastern part of the state.
We All Have Stories. After All, We Didn’t Just Watch History, We Made It.
We all have stories. After all, we didn’t just watch history, we made it. We lost friends. We saw heroes. Some of us were heroes. We knew sacrifice and pain and sometimes we saw God at the strangest times. Many of us carry a heavy burden and all of...
War Horse Managing Editor Recognized by VA Secretary for Toxic Exposure Reporting
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough thanked The War Horse’s managing editor Kelly Kennedy for her dogged reporting on the health problems caused by exposure to toxic burn pits during a speech at the National Press Club yesterday. “About this time 14 years ago, Kelly started the thankless and rigorous...
Veterans-Turned-Poll Workers Defend Democratic Elections Against Threats Foreign and Domestic
When Kate Germano—a retired Marine who served for 20 years, including as the commanding officer of a training battalion at Parris Island, South Carolina—returned home from her stint working as an elections judge in 2020, she looked at her husband and said, “That was the most meaningful thing I’ve done as an adult citizen.”
War Horse Sues Marine Corps for ‘Black Book’ Tracking Officer Misconduct
The War Horse News has sued the Navy and Marine Corps, alleging that they broke the law by denying requests for a database of public information about officer misconduct. On Friday, The War Horse filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the Department of the Navy and the Marine Corps have repeatedly violated the Freedom of Information Act by withholding the records.
The Joy and Misery of Survival Took Root in My Soul. Neither Has Extinguished.
Even without my helmet and body armor, the district council chamber felt oppressive. The meager window units could not defeat the heat in southern Baghdad, at least not within the fading grandeur of this marble and columned space. I did my damnedest to stay awake, scribbling in a government-issue notebook while the local councilmen droned on in Arabic and our interpreter mumbled in English.
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