O-Dark-Thirty

Sep 18

The Death of the MRAP Tactical Commander

by Kristine Iredale

Radio cord coiled around my forearm like a snake
Hissing canons, soon expelled outside the wired gates.
I woke to knowledge of good and evil.
When I died they dragged my body from the Inferno
As the MRAP sent smoke signals to Heaven for days.

In 2008, Kristine Iredale deployed with the Washington State Army National Guard’s 81st Brigade Heavy Combat Team in Operation Iraqi Freedom. She is currently a student at Eastern Washington University.

Sep 9

A Night in the Delta

by George Thorne

The jeep idles along in second gear, tires soundless in the sandy rutted track. Momentum slows as the driver silently eases the clutch pedal to the steel floorboard, gliding the jeep to a coasting halt beside a chest high pile of sandbags. Before the jeep has completely stopped Carl swings both legs over the side and eases to the ground. Reaching into the cargo space behind the seat, he grabs his helmet and flak jacket. He is barely able to get his gear squared away, when like a ghost, the jeep slides away silently in first gear, the little four cylinder engine barely noticeable in the fading twilight of the paddy fields and jungle of the Mekong Delta.

Sep 4

A Visit to Dachau

by Margi Desmond

It is impossible to emotionally prepare for a trip to the site of the Dachau Concentration Camp—the first Bavarian state camp that served as a model for the vast concentration camp system under Schutzstaffel (SS) management during World War II. Living on Kreiger Kaserne, a United States military base a mere two-hour drive away and determined to pay her respects to all those who perished, Army wife, Amanda Lahane, felt it her duty to visit the site, regardless of her own feelings of trepidation. With her husband, Marc, deployed to Afghanistan, now was a good time to take the tour, so if the visit upset her, he wouldn’t worry about her. Mark was protective of Amanda and never liked to see her sad. Going on the guided tour with her new friend and neighbor, Rachel, was an ideal way to visit the site—both convenient and economical—given the atrocious gas prices in Europe.

Aug 31

2 Comments

Forecast

by Amber Jensen

An entire wall of the doctor’s office might have been made up of windows – the lower panes frosted for privacy, upper panels clear, allowing light in – and yet the room seemed clouded. Maybe it was late enough in the day that the sun had passed to the other side of the VA, to shine beams into hospital rooms where patients lay. Maybe the day was overcast, maybe the room had fewer windows than I remember. Or maybe the clouds were imagined, because this feeling of not seeing, not knowing, was nothing new.

Aug 26

Brace for Impact

by Brian Kerg

A thrumming rattle cracked the night’s solace. Alan sat bolt upright. The pounding of his heart echoed at his temples. Each pulse ached like the aftershocks of a steady quake of punches to his head. His first sharp intake of breath was that of a drowning swimmer breaking the surface of a frigid lake.

Read more

Aug 18

Three Days in April

by Nancy Dolan

For the first time in four long years I relished the arrival of each new day. Before sunrise I made it my habit to spring from bed and set my hands to chores. With the homestead cared for I planted myself in a cane-bottomed rocker on the front porch. There for hours on end, I trained my eyes ever stead forward toward the rickety, half fallen gate at the end of the long travel-worn drive.

Aug 14

Pointman Cometh

by David Pointer

Pointman incubated inside forgotten getaway car fumes

Pointman incubated inside father’s forgotten getaway car fumes

Pointman marinated inside social class exclusion, adhesions

Pointman marinated inside housing project fragmentation

Pointman marinated in echoes of other people’s flash sterilization

Pointman percolated under sequential compression devices
to include exclusionary collegiality in the school to nowhere

Pointman climbed atop the government cheese truck surveying asylum district of mental health intervention

Pointman climbed onto a previously asphalted path made possible by bio-chemical business agenda portfolios burning villages elsewhere

Pointman side-stepped onto a coerced-choice sidewalk of upward mobility illusion

Pointman was finally intercepted by the Marine Corps recruiter with sign-up papers

Pointman finally donned his splash guard goggles as other abnormal urinalysis-test teen applicants felt the blowback of emptiness, alienation, unfairness splashing into their eyes

Pointman arrived at Marine Corps Recruit Depot ready to kill everyone – like he oath-promised the President he would do

David S. Pointer served in the United States Marine Corps as a military policeman from 1980-1984.

Aug 11

Forward the Heroes

by Tony Brown

The destroyer NATHAN J. PIPKIN is rockin’ and rollin’ as a typhoon bears down upon us from across the western Pacific. Captain Johnson relays the order from Major Paulson to Lieutenant Hudson, who in turn barks it out to the top sergeant.

Aug 8

All Sewn Up

by Tom Probert

1. Somewhere in Yorkshire.

“Always carry a housewife; you never know when it will come in handy”.

Aug 5

1 Comment

Combat Infantry Bunny

by Carolyn Schapper

This is the story of my bunny. His name is CIB. He is my hope and happiness. My name is Carolyn, but everyone here in Iraq calls me Scrappy. I am the only female soldier living in my house. I feel very alone. Read more