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You Don’t Need to Thank Me for My Service. I Needed It More Than It Needed Me.
I’m proud of my service. Let me get that out of the way up front. But I don’t parade my service around. I don’t wear clothes that advertise it. There are no bumper stickers on my car. I rarely bring it up in conversation. Most people are...
I Expected to Miss Him When He Deployed. Then There Were the Things That Snuck Up on Me.
There were things that I expected to miss when my husband deployed. His laugh, his smell, sleeping next to him in bed. His him. And then there were things that snuck up on me. I missed being a parent with him. Not all the crappy parts—the disciplining, the nose wiping, the puke cleaning, and the lunch packing. Although I missed those too. But I missed the funny parts. The moments when you look at someone watching your child and they are just as amazed, amused, baffled, and delighted with them as you are.
A Chunk of My Life Was Taken From Me. You Could Say I Had a Bad Attitude.
When I returned from Vietnam in February of 1969 I had a bad attitude—a very bad attitude. I joined the Air Force to escape college and a broken heart (another story entirely). It turned out that the discipline, order, and focus the Air Force provided was exactly what I needed, and for the first 18 months, I thrived.
It’s Every Young Marine’s Dream. But I Don’t Like This Story.
Marine Maj. Andrew Hesterman first saw combat up close as a grunt during the Gulf War. His career culminated as an officer in the Iraq War, where he directed air support for the Marines in Fallujah. In this excerpt from Radioman: 25 Years in the Marine Corps, written by Hesterman...
‘I’ll Be Your Wingman’–I Was a Pilot. They Were My Brothers. I Can Still Feel Them.
Editor’s note: This is Part II of a two-part story. Read Part I here. Tumbling end over end, the remaining intact portion of the number four aircraft plummeted toward earth with Vince strapped to his ejection seat. He pulled the ejection seat handgrips and the rocket shot him clear of the wreckage, but the seat was damaged on impact and failed to automatically deploy his chute. He was fighting physics to the death, tumbling and spinning like a top; earth and sky blended together in a whirlwind of terror. After 17,000 feet in free fall, Vince managed to break free of the seat and got a full chute 400 feet above the ground. Physics had toyed with him.
‘Lead, Follow, or Get out of the Way’–We Really Did Live That Way.
Editor’s note: This is Part I of a two-part story. Read Part II here. You could always identify the schedulers. They were the ones who ran from room to room attempting to fill flight sorties when instructor pilots had canceled for some reason or another. That morning was no different.
War Horse Symposium Sheds Light on Vital Role of Military Journalism for Democracy, National Security
In an interview last week at The War Horse Symposium, comedian Jon Stewart asked Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks about a broad range of topics ranging from toxic exposure to veteran unemployment to declining national service. But the most attention by far has focused on an exchange about the Pentagon’s ballooning budget.
I Couldn’t Fix the Problems From Inside. To Be Part of the Solution, I Had to Leave.
I turned off the patient’s ventilator and stood over him as his heart slowed and his breathing grew shallow. It was his own body killing him now—and he would die with none of his family there to witness his final breaths. He was a stranger, but I felt...
Goats First, Women Last–Air Force Culture Protects Perpetrators, Silences Survivors
The city swirled around me in a kaleidoscope of colors: high-rises that gleamed in the sun like pastel-colored mirrors, palm trees with dancing emerald leaves, women in beautiful sparkly heels that peeked out from beneath their burqas. A line of camels walked along the road, pressed on by men in flowing robes. And in the SUV next to me, a goat sat in the front seat.
When America’s Economy Is in Turmoil, Veterans Can Step up to Lead the Charge
Just before Christmas in 2021, employees at Lincoln College, a predominantly Black institution in central Illinois, came into work to find their printers had started printing on their own. All across campus, they spit out the same message: Hackers had taken control of the college’s systems and locked employees out. To regain access to the systems—which controlled academics, finances, fundraising, and more—the college would need to pay a hefty ransom.
The Ripples of War Are Only Beginning to Spread. Is America Ready?
Drop a pebble into a pond and, after the initial splash, ripples spread across the water. It’s a familiar image, one we know so intuitively that everyone understands immediately what you mean by the phrase “ripple effect.” Yet, even when the pebble is a boulder, and the splash soaks us, we may not fully grasp how far the ripples will spread—or for how long.
This Is What We Do in America. We Pause. We Forget. Then We Begin the Next War.
My stepfather, brother, and I served in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are still there, frozen in the suck—a boomer, a Gen Xer, and a millennial—ducking mortars, mourning dead colleagues, and waiting for care packages curated by Mom. For seven years, I was an aid worker outside the wire and embedded with the U.S. military inside the wire. In the mid-2000s, I overlapped with one or both of my family members in each war zone. We rarely speak of it.
She Never Told Me Why She Took Me Under Her Wing, But I Would Have Been Lost Without Her
With less than a handful of days remaining in December, an eclectic range of Christmas decorations adorns the boats in the harbor. As my gaze drifts from the gently swaying winterized vessels to the gray haze across the horizon, my thoughts settle on my first ship: the USS Laboon. After...
Economic Insecurity for Military Families Predates Pandemic, Inflation
Mandi Afoa wanted a good cup of coffee. She had just moved to Fort Polk, Louisiana, from Texas with her husband, an active-duty Army captain, and their three children. She missed the coffee scene she’d left behind in San Antonio. Afoa had begun working part time at her children’s...
The War Doesn’t End. But as Long as He Keeps Fighting, I’ll Fight for Him, Too.
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. My husband is thinking about hanging himself with...
I Was a Shitbag. Now, I Help Carry Others Through Their Darkness.
When I shipped off to Army basic training at Fort Benning, my dad had a bet that I wouldn’t graduate, even though he encouraged my enlistment. See, my dad was a military cadet in the Philippine military. According to him and his friends, he was a leader among the cadets, from marches and drills to after-school shenanigans. Having served during a military dictatorship, he thought he had an idea of what I was in for.
The Country We Loved Didn’t Love Us Back. Maybe This Time Would Be Different.
Grade school poetry at its finest, I wrote these deeply profound words while daydreaming about having my very own bedroom someday. An introvert within a boisterous Desi family, I longed for space to take a deep breath after a long day—a refuge with posters of butterflies and kittens, and a desk for my journals and sticker collection.
Citizen or Soldier? A Blurry Balancing Act Has National Guard Reeling for Resilience.
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 third story in...
‘I Don’t Want You in My Navy’– Forging My Own Path to Those Silver Eagles
I was born in 1960, and if I had been born in ’58,. it would have been a completely different life. — Michele Howard, Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired), first woman four-star admiral and first Black woman to captain a U.S. Navy ship, Women in the Arts, Fall 2020. “You’re...
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