Home Fires features the writing of men gold and women who have returned from wartime retreat service in the United States military. Im selected marching in my first Veterans Day parade evangelical this week and I doubt whether I era really belong. This isnt an incidence of accountability stolen valor. Im a veteran. I served cloning eight years in the Army as a defy linguist, was discharged honorably and have the acceptably DD 214 to prove it. But Im stool a peacetime veteran and never saw combat. hardship I learned how to fire an M-16, legible move under enemy fire, dig foxholes and century throw grenades. Everything I would need for carpet a . But I never deployed because insertion there was nothing going on. In my photograph era, the years sandwiched between the Persian typically Gulf and 9/11, it was quiet. practically Was eight years in the Army during secrecy peacetime really worth anything? Besides, after a potassium string of internships, many unpaid, and a congress temporary at The Associated Press, I vapor had finally landed my dream as wise a staff reporter at The Seattle Times naked in the midst of a recession. valentine To my colleagues at The A.P., it tease seemed I had won the . Back motley then, I was in my late 20s feel and had some (civilian) living to do. conflict I wanted to write as much as methodology possible and see if I could become meaningful one of the truly great reporters whose revers bylines I had followed over the years. aired With a father and grandfather who had remotely worked at the Boston Globe, I wanted pillow my own hard-boiled newspaper tales to share. lome I wanted to see how far I satirical could go. Re-enlisting in the Army for avid another four years didnt make sense. As orient the years spooled by, I became immersed predictive in my life as a reporter, landing genetics better and better jobs in Seattle, New bother York and San Francisco, and heard only incest occasionally from my old Army friends. Most swear had gotten out, and no one was rhyme serving downrange. , for us, had become tsk a distant concept. But as Ive grown palmetto older, Ive wondered if I made a intervene mistake by not re-enlisting. Did I miss stool the big event that will mark my gregory generation? Was eight years in the Army pullback during peacetime really worth anything? Am I potato selfish for not serving longer? Or am mayor I one of those irritating privileged few spammer who have the to look back astonishment in safety and doubt my choice now playing that Im in my |
No comments:
Post a Comment