Army Gulf War veteran left the military without the tools to combat the demons his service brought out in him during training and deployment.
Bill Glose
Bill Glose served as a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division, deploying as part of the first American troops to enter the Gulf War. As a paratrooper, he tallied 60 jumps, a fact his knees continually remind him of now. After leaving the Army, he became part of a writing community and started to write about his military experiences. Since then, he has written five books of poetry, one book of fiction, and hundreds of magazine articles. Glose’s work has appeared in Army Times, The Missouri Review, The Sun, Narrative Magazine, The Writer, and NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac. In 2011, he was named the Daily Press poet laureate. Other honors include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story award and the Heroes’ Voices Poetry award.
Posted inReflections
Silence Was My Father’s Fortress. I Shared It for a Time Until Poetry Set Me Free.
To deal with the emotions roiling inside, I emulated my father, who never spoke about his time in Vietnam. I often got angry at simple things, exploding.
