The United States recorded at least 17 life-threatening casualties during the first phase of the war with Iran, according to newly obtained Defense Department records that provide the most detailed accounting yet of troops wounded in the conflict. More than 400 casualties were recorded between Feb. 28 and April 8, with Army personnel accounting for […]
Army
Posted inReflections
Every Ambush in Vietnam Held Surprises. This One Ended in Death
More than five decades after 1968, an especially violent year of the war, the rain, hunger, and calamity in Vietnam’s Central Highlands remain etched in my mind. Death was the purpose of our ambush, and we found it. I was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 3rd Battalion’s A Company as a forward observer, tasked […]
Posted inReflections
My Father Was a Decorated Black Soldier With a Secret: Me
There was no celebration when my mother learned she was pregnant—only a conversation. Three married adults sat in a room weighing what my existence might cost them: a rising soldier in the United States Army with a reputation to protect, a mother facing the weight of shame, and a husband willing to raise a child […]
Posted inReflections
I Watched an Execution. Was She a Viet Cong Spy—or Just Fighting for Her Country?
The sun was a physical weight that afternoon, an oppressive, wet heat that seemed to pin everything to the red dust of our base camp in Kon Tum, Vietnam. I was 19, a supply sergeant, and my world was defined by our perimeter wire and the daily inventory of survival. “Notice anything strange about her, […]
Posted inReflections
Yes, I Served in Iraq. But What if People Mistake Me for a Hero?
The Department of Motor Vehicles was a good place to lose your identity, not find it, especially 30 minutes before closing. I sat surrounded by strangers balanced on wobbly folding chairs, the endless announcements blared extra loud, and you could feel an edge to the air every time a new ticket was called. Without looking […]
Posted inReflections
A Combat Infantryman Stood In the Gap. Made the Calculation. Pulled the Trigger. But At What Cost?
A decade has passed since I last felt the thud of a mortar hitting the perimeter or the specific metallic scent of an IED-charred road, yet I’m still waiting for the “homecoming” to actually begin. To the person standing behind me in the checkout line, I am just another civilian. Perhaps a bit too observant, […]
Posted inReflections
We Were Winning in the Middle East. But the Civilian Casualties Kept Coming
I watched our medics and nurses work on a small child, one of several who arrived at our makeshift forward surgical unit in northeast Syria. We had been running traumas for eight months, and the team knew what they were doing. I could see that the child had a clear airway, his color looked good, […]
Posted inNewsroom
Inside the Wait for War: Military Families Brace for What Comes Next
Caryl Banks dragged a kitchen chair beneath the overhead light and climbed onto it with a bucket of warm, soapy water balanced on the countertop. She wrung out a sponge, lifted it toward the ceiling, and began working it in slow, deliberate circles. Water slid down her forearm and dripped onto the kitchen floor. It […]
Posted inReflections
His Family Legacy Led Him to the Military. But He Found Contentment as a Family Man
I placed my passport on the counter; the officer stamped it and waved me forward. The corridor felt tighter with each step, the air thickening until everything around me took on a suffocating red hue, heavy, endless, and familiar in a way I wished it was not. “Daddy, I need tissues.” I awoke to my […]
Posted inReflections
I Thought Removing Confederate Names Meant Black Soldiers’ Legacy Mattered. Then, the Names Were Restored
During my junior year at West Point in 2017, I attended a ceremony honoring the namesake of the school’s newest barracks: Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. This was the first building at West Point named after an African American, and I glowed with pride knowing that the academy was finally celebrating a person who looked […]
Posted inReflections
He Hunted Roadside Bombs in Iraq. Now He Hunts Adventure to Combat PTSD
Over the last quarter-century, especially since the war on terrorism began, the United States has produced a quiet army of combat veterans. Many carry injuries you can see: shrapnel wounds, limps, missing appendages. Others carry scars you cannot: the flinch at fireworks, a 3 a.m. stare at the ceiling, the sudden urge to check the […]
Posted inReflections
I Decided Not To Go On a Patrol in Iraq. An IED Killed My Friends
On the morning of May 25, 2006, I didn’t go out. Capt. Doug Dicenzo invited me to come along to meet some local Iraqi leaders, and I had previously shown him the safer routes to take. But on the day of the meeting, I had other duties to attend to. Truthfully, I had survived enough […]
