A Veteran’s Odyssey After Hanging up the Uniform in an America He Doesn’t Recognize
“The story of Odysseus is the story of the day after—what happens when the battle is done? … My service wasn’t an accomplishment. It was a liability.”
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Help us growJohn Thampi was a captain in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps. He deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. He left the military in 2012. His writing has appeared in 9 Lines, The Rialto, Meniscus, Newtown Literary, and the Military Experience and the Arts journal. His work has been anthologized by Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre, Southeast Missouri State, and Middle West Press. He was selected to attend Oxford Brookes Veterans Workshop and has been featured in the Oxford Science and Ideas Festival, BBC Radio, and British Forces Broadcasting Service. In 2020, he won the Darron L. Wright Award for Veteran Poetry.
“The story of Odysseus is the story of the day after—what happens when the battle is done? … My service wasn’t an accomplishment. It was a liability.”