I don't always know what will trigger a flashback of my deployment to Afghanistan, but today, it happened to be the song at the end of the 2020 Mulan Continue Reading
Veterans
My Funeral: Let Whatever Pain Caused By My Loss Not Whitewash My Life
By the time I was eight or nine, the vision was refined. While other children pondered their future success, I ponder my inevitable and desired Continue Reading
The Measure of a Man: Ramadi, Iraq
By a Combat Veteran Ramadi, Iraq, 2011 Just relieved from shift rotation, I was finally able to lay down and get back to my daily routine Continue Reading
Stop Believing The Lie That No One Cares
By Britta Reque-Dragicevic This first appeared in Britta Reque-Dragicevic's blog "Life After War" and is republished with the author's Continue Reading
Coming Home from Afghanistan
By Chris Fitzmaurice The following is part of a collection of short stories titled Insha’Allah: Short Stories of the Long War in Afghanistan." Continue Reading
A UK Combat Veteran’s Fight After War
This originally appeared in vocal media as "Who is Justin Haywood?" and is republished here with the author's permission. ________ It was Continue Reading
Anything to Stay in the Fight
By an anonymous female Afghanistan combat veteran I was sitting on the plane somewhere over the American southwest thinking about how long I had Continue Reading
Our War
Editor’s Note: First published in The Havok Journal on August 23, 2022, this reflection remains as relevant on the anniversary month of our withdrawal Continue Reading
Afghanistan: The Price of War is a Piece of You
By Martin Jones In the graveyard of empires, experiences varied wildly: the year, the unit, the province, the problem, the strategy, and the Continue Reading
Curbside Gifts: A Pink Jeep and the Veteran Community
curbside gift: a physical object or an act of kindness that you give, often anonymously, without expecting anything in return I spent 27 years as Continue Reading
Living With a Time Bomb
I live with a time bomb. He looks like a regular guy. Maybe a little tightly wound: high and tight haircut, rigid posture, authoritative tone. He Continue Reading
What the Casualties in Iraq Taught Me about War
I deployed to Tallil Air Base, Iraq in September 2004 as a U.S. Air Force (USAF) Operating Room (OR) nurse with the 407th Expeditionary Medical Group. Continue Reading