Being a Marine and later an international aid and human rights worker taught me how to read a room. Vietnam. Beirut. Somalia. Bosnia. Rwanda. Iraq. Afghanistan. Survival depended on noticing what other people missed. The shift in a crowd’s weight, the change in a voice, the silence that arrives before violence does. I came to […]
Marine Corps
Posted inReflections
I Still Have Hundreds of Texts From the Fall of Kabul. They Remind Me of the Promises We Broke
The message came from an Afghan man who had worked closely with the U.S. State Department: “I have also moved to another place today because of fear. I’m very tired of my life because cannot handle anymore running and keeping safe, my kids and wife.” The Taliban had captured his brother while searching for him, […]
Posted inNewsroom
Hegseth Made the Fitness Test Harder for Women in Combat Roles. Most Female Marines Are Passing
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to Quantico, Virginia, last September, he delivered a blunt message: Things were changing fast in the newly renamed Department of War. “No more division, distraction, or gender delusions,” he said. “We are done with that shit.” What mattered going forward, […]
Posted inReflections
The Global War on Terrorism Is Over—Except for the Veterans Who Fought It
This month marks 25 years since the attack on Sept. 11, which started the Global War on Terrorism. A quarter century. I have three kids who weren’t even alive for any of it. To them, it’s just a chapter in a history book. For many, a war that shaped my life has faded into the […]
Posted inNewsroom
He Earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. Why Did It Take Decades To Receive It?
Inside an office building in West Los Angeles, retired Marine Maj. James Capers Jr. stood tall and strong in his signature spit-shined black cowboy boots. Under the shadow of a red Force Recon Association hat and tinted glasses, Capers’ eyes wore a hardened look that made no effort to hide the darkness and despair that […]
Posted inReflections
The Marines Created a Warrior. But I Forgot How to Be a Woman
I secured my M-16 to my rack after a long, scorching day on the rifle range and touched my stomach. Cramps should be arriving any day—but they weren’t. How many weeks had it been? Where was my period? Where was everyone else’s? I had seen “Full Metal Jacket” and expected the experience it depicted: the […]
Posted inNewsroom
‘Sounds Like a Mutiny.’ Secret Recording Exposes Claims of Toxic Leadership After a Marine’s Suicide
Active-duty service members and veterans thinking of harming themselves can get free crisis care. Contact the Military Crisis Line at 988, then press 1, or access online chat by texting 838255. People who are not in the military can also call 988. “Who knows what was going on in Cpl. Mobley’s personal life?” The question […]
Posted inReflections
The Worst Job in the Marines: Telling Parents Their Child Was Dead. It Was Also an Honor
I wasn’t at my new assignment more than two weeks before I had to tell someone their son had died. As I prepared myself, a million thoughts went through my mind: What should I say? What should I do? Am I ready for this? How will the family react to me? I started to feel […]
Posted inReflections
Military Suicide Prevention Training Did Not Prepare Me for the Deaths of My Friends
When I think of suicide, I don’t think of annual training slides, 22 pushup challenges, or the “thoughts and prayers” from social media posts. Instead, I think about the phone call with my mom. I think about needing to call her because I had just been told that my friend had taken his own life. […]
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
A Marine Went on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land to Heal from War. War Found Him Anyway
The sirens started at midnight. I’d been asleep in my hotel room in Jerusalem when I was jolted awake by the piercing blast of sirens screaming into the night. Not the distant warning we’d heard days earlier when Houthi rockets flew toward Israel, but the full-throated city-wide alert that meant one thing: incoming. My phone […]
Posted inReflections
A Marine Fights a New War. This Time With Her Own Body
Marine perseveres through health problems after service
