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The War Horse
My Platoon’s Fight To Survive—and Heal From—The Bloodiest Battle in Iraq A Marine Platoon’s…
November 10, 2004Crossing Fran
Javelin missiles shriek through the sky. Machine gunners fire from the rooftops. Artillery thumps in the distance moments before a thunderstorm of steel rain pours around us.
Phase Line Fran was a…
“No One’s Gonna Make It Out of Here” Watch My Platoon Recall Fallujah, the Iraq War’s Bloodiest…
In November 2004, I was a 19-year-old lance corporal assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. We were at al-Asad, an air base in Iraq, when we were told to pack only what we could carry. We strapped our packs to the sides of…
Silence Was My Father’s Fortress. I Shared It for a Time Until Poetry Set Me Free.
I grew up on Air Force bases overseas, bouncing from one country to another. While most mothers were marking heights on kitchen door frames, mine was packing cupboards and taping boxes for yet another move. My father was a pilot, his plane…
Q&A: How, When and Can the U.S. Military Be Deployed in American Cities around the Election?
In this highly polarizing and deeply consequential election season, law enforcement and intelligence groups have been warning that violence or unrest poses a threat to Tuesday’s election—and what could come next.We’re already seeing it:…
At 24, I Tried Not to Make Waves. Ten Years Later, I Wish Had a Do-Over.
Ten years ago, I wandered into my first military spouse hiring fair. My resume read Honors College, summa cum laude and included a section at the bottom that read recently passed a secret-level background check, but my lack of work…
It Took 8 Deployments, 3 Pregnancies, and $43,700 in IVF Treatments for Kristin and Joe to Have …
The crib and changing table are still in the baby’s room, empty and untouched since Lieutenant Commander Kristin Bowen and her husband, Lieutenant Joe Turnbull, assembled them more than a year ago.Inside the closet that she painted pink, a…
Far-Right Suggests Military Just Authorized Lethal Force Against Americans Ahead of the Election. It…
Just as former president Donald Trump told Fox News last week that he wanted to use the U.S. military to “handle” what he called the “enemy from within” on Election Day, an obscure military policy was beginning to make the rounds on…
I Thought the Marine Corps Would Offer a Better Life. It Was Another Place I Didn’t Belong.
Editor’s Note: This story was published in partnership with San Quentin News and was written during a writing seminar for incarcerated veterans in April hosted by The War Horse at California’s San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Tens of…
San Quentin Incarcerated Veterans Share ‘Proud, Poignant, and Painful Episodes’ during War Horse…
In a peaceful setting inside the chapel at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, 18 members from Veterans Group San Quentin who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines gathered to reflect, assemble, and tell their stories at a…
Emissions War Escalates—Pollution From World’s Militaries in Spotlight at UN Summit Should…
In the winter of 2022, Lennard de Klerk was running a carbon-neutral ecolodge in a tiny Hungarian town when Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of refugees crossed the border into Hungary.De Klerk, a Dutch engineer…
Play Hard. Get Dirty. Use Good Saop.