Reflections

“It is on the ship—assume you have it. We will find and beat this thing down.”The alarming words from our skipper about Covid-19 aboard the USS Ronald Reagan caused a cascade of restrictions for our standard operating procedures while on…

This article is part of Short Changed, a series looking at the noncombat deaths of women going back to 9/11.As of Jan. 17, veterans thinking about hurting themselves can get free crisis care, including inpatient, for up to 90 days at…

My husband’s phone rang on our way to get ice cream, and my heart sank just as the baby in my belly kicked. I rubbed and patted the bump, soothing away her restlessness and my immediate need for butter pecan.“So, she woke up with his…

A Delta Force unit zipped over the barren desert. Two Black Hawks contained assault forces. Four Little Birds carried riders and artillery. It was a perfect blue sky in Taji, Iraq. The operators stalked a high-profile target. All went…

It is March of 2023. I am in a cafe watching the Iraq War’s early stages play out in short clips on a television mounted on the wall in front of me. Marines barge through doors in Fallujah, unsure if it is violent death or an empty room…

I steered the jeep off the dusty, rutted main road and rattled down a well-worn track until I beheld a bizarre juxtaposition of images: the silhouette of a thousand-year-old Hindu temple cheek by jowl with something resembling a porcupine…

“Sean, can you go assist that gentleman outside? He was in the Marines too, so I figured you’d have something to bond over.”I rolled my eyes. This was my first job post-college, and I didn’t like advertising my service in the civilian…

The fireplace crackles, just starting to warm the lodge’s lower-level living room on a quiet autumn evening in upstate New York. Someone lets loose a sigh, prompting me to look up and observe my company. Three others are cozied into their…

In the summer of 2015, some six months after exiting the Marine Corps, I took a run, not unlike hundreds before it. This time, though, I heard something snap in my back and collapsed to the ground. After five, maybe 10 minutes, I stood and…

Her fate was sealed before she even stepped off the plane at Agana Airport (Guam) in 1979. That’s a fact. The officers and chiefs had decided that the ensign was going to fail—they were not going to let a female line officer tell them what…