Part of the gig of a veteran-writer is talking to ROTC cadets and at the military academies about war and leadership.

These conversations and events serve as highlights for life on the road; they’re usually an engaged (albeit sleep-deprived) audience, for one, and they’re certainly a captive one. The same can’t be said at bookstores and the like when, as an author, you’re just hoping there won’t be any crazy and/or homeless people in attendance. (Nothing against my vagabond friends, but they tend to be more interested in heat and lodging than an exchange of bookish ideas.)

Anyhow, some fifteen years after 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, I realized this year that war isn’t just these cadets’ and midshipmen’s futures — it’s their pasts, too. Their... Read More