Topic: Reflections

‘Murphy’s Law of Deployment:’ What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong. But I Am Brave Enough.
Fifteen years later, I no longer cry in bathrooms, but I do follow the terrified-looking new spouses in to reassure them they are brave enough.

Banana Meringue Pie, Smokey Robinson, and the Christmas Bombings of 1972
When a deafening roar woke me on the morning of Dec. 18, 1972, I raced outside and watched in awe as wave after wave of KC-135s headed off the island.

We All Have Stories. After All, We Didn’t Just Watch History, We Made It.
Inspiration abounds, and in uniform, it is everywhere, every day, because every day we do things of consequence for our nation.

Come Thanksgiving, I Will Think of His Sacrifice and the Human Cost of War
I thought about his lost future and struggled to compose myself. I knew it was up to all of us who make it home to carry on the memory of those who don’t.

The Joy and Misery of Survival Took Root in My Soul. Neither Has Extinguished.
I didn’t deserve life any more than the guys who hadn’t made it. How the hell could I be celebrating at a time like this?

Nobody Leaves War Emotionally Healthy. The Path to Recovery Is Unique to Each Person.
Traveling to Iraq left me with a continued understanding of wartime trauma but not why some people’s paths end in suicide.

A Vision of a Russian Cultural Transformation Comes Full Circle and Shatters
I left Moscow feeling as if we’d accomplished what we set out to do. Hope for a free ‘information architecture’ reigned—for a while, then shattered.

Holding On When Leaving Feels Like Letting Go
I feel a sense of bereavement that I know, even in the moment, is outsized. But in a few weeks, my family will not own this home anymore.

He Used a Position of Power, In a Time of War, to Get What He Wanted.
I wouldn’t know that this is when I lost my sense of service. I wouldn’t know that there was a reason I couldn’t stand to be alone in a room with a man.