Matson was killed on 14JUN03. Flag day. Also, the Army’s birthday. Fourteen June always sucks. All of Fort Knox gathers in the park near Main Gate to play softball and volleyball and to eat hamburgers and hot dogs and drink beer. They get to wear civilian clothes and enjoy the day. Even the post run [...]

It was August of 2003, hot and muggy the way only Kentucky can be. It was August of 2003 and becoming clear that Iraq wasn’t going to be the cakewalk everyone had thought it would be. And the Army was becoming desperate to meet its quotas, to fill its tanks and Humvees and armored personnel [...]

Many years ago, on a hot Friday night, I was cruising the roads of Knox looking for something to do. It was midnight, everybody still in the club, and I could’ve gone back to the station to drink a Dr. Pepper, watch some porn on the desk. But the radio was playing decent music so [...]

Midnight shift. Muggy clouds covering the earth make the trees seem so tall you think you could climb into the sky. Cicadas screaming into the night, searching for a mate. Henry has been driving these roads for three years now, knows all the back ways and shortcuts, all the places the patrols can hide at [...]

So Matson gets dispatched to the NCO club to pick up a drunk. This was something the Military Police would do if we weren’t too busy and we never seemed to be very busy. She drives up the hill, the parking lot empty, the club closed, and finds a man leaning against a light pole. [...]

His friend told him to come to LA. Told him that she had an extra room and a pool and a view. Told him that everyone is born again in California. He had lost his job, the store no longer economically viable, and the company gave him a severance which he blew on an Amtrak [...]

They have been in Hohenfels for a week now and it has rained every day. The ground is so muddy the trucks are stuck in place. Henry has long ago given up on trying to stay dry or warm. They are here with the rest of the brigade combat team training for the upcoming Kosovo [...]

Henry had always hated the winter sun. It was too white, too bright, and never warm at the right time. Henry tried digging into the frozen ground, but the ice broke his e-tool. He swore and moved the snow away with his hands and sat down between two trees. His toes and fingers tingled. He [...]

Matson and Henry sit in the Humvee waiting for Sergeants Woods and Paddock to return from the operations tent. The operations tent is a mystery to Henry. Every day Woods and Paddock come out with a new mission for the squad. Henry never knows what these missions are, doesn’t want to know. He is happy [...]

Henry sits against a white stone marker high up in San Francisco’s National Cemetery. The marker is one of thousands formed in rows with military precision. They remind Henry of morning formation and he smiles. The grass is freshly cut and the morning dew soaks pleasantly through his pants and wets his legs. The sun [...]