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, […]
Army
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 […]
Posted inReflections
I Carried Death’s Shroud With Me From Afghanistan. But I Do Not Fear It
Death first appeared in my life when I yelled, “Take cover!” Sirens wailing in the distance, flak vest slipping off my shoulder, I ran for the nearest bunker in the darkness. Barely 18 hours in-country. I hadn’t fully unpacked, butI knew the location of every bullet in my magazine, felt them digging into my chest. […]
Posted inReflections
After 30 Years in the Military, an Army Colonel Asks: Who Am I Without the Uniform?
The morning after my retirement ceremony, I opened the closet and stared. For 30 years, the Army had made getting dressed simple. Although the look of the uniforms changed over my career, the functions remained the same: PT, duty, and dress. Now, I faced choices every morning. What belt matched? Footwear? None of it felt […]
Posted inNewsroom
A Veteran’s Search for Healing Led to an Ibogaine Trip and an Epiphany: ‘I’ve Got to Let It Go’
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. Marc Dervaes sat straight-backed in a circle of 10 men at a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. The glass window behind him looked out on a pool deck and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Inside, sunglasses masked his eyes and a beard grew down to his chest. His blank […]
Posted inReflections
Curing Insomnia with Magic: How One Veteran Finally Got a Good Night’s Sleep
The ridiculous thing about war is that I remember being excited. For the first 90 days or so, I was constantly excited, and I don’t mean in a “joyous,” emotionally positive way. I mean excitement in the strictly physiological sense: raised heart rate, increased breathing, mind racing a mile a second. That state could describe […]
Posted inReflections
We Pined for the Comforts of Home. We Got Tube Socks and Old Candy for Christmas Instead
Green Berets lament Americans don’t understand the needs of modern soldiers after receiving tube socks and canned soup in Christmas care packages.
Posted inReflections
The Army Had a Crazy Thanksgiving Plan. I Had a Chainsaw
Soldier sent to ice sculpture school to create the Ranger scroll out of ice for the battalion Thanksgiving dinner.
