The desert and beyond

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:47:00 -0500

Stepping out of the Stone Age into the vast terrain of technology, particularly into the world of blogging, is a dangerous thing to do; at least for me, that is. Dangerous in the sense that I can let my random musings flow unchecked for all the cyber world to see. When I finally realized the world could no longer live without hearing what I have to say, I found myself in a dilemma of how I should handle such a daunting task. To shamelessly quote Ben Parker (Spiderman’s uncle), “With great power comes great responsibility.” So, fighting the urge to pimp myself as the second most interesting man in the world, which realistically I’m probably only in the back half of the top ten and I don’t drink Dos Equis, I decided to focus my efforts on chronicling my journey to get my first book published. Stand by, here comes the part where I shamelessly pitch myself and my product. My memoir, entitled When We Were Heroes: Twenty years after the Storm, is an account of my experiences in the Marine Corps and ultimately how I ended up in a firefight with Iraqi Republican Guard troops.

To clarify a thing or two, if this may sound slightly familiar, there’s some backstory here as to why now, twenty years later, and of course I’d be happy to share that with you now. I served in the Marine Corps from 1988-1992 and ultimately ended up being part of some historic events. However, when my tour ended I was suffering from a major case of burnout. I remember thinking to myself “too much, too soon, in too short a time,” but the reality is, I probably had a slight case of PTSD, if there is such a thing. So, I left the Marine Corps, went home to my native Texas, started a family, and refused to think about my time in the Corps. I refused to think about it so much that I almost forgot that I was even there. Then in 2001, say right around 9/11, I started thinking about it a lot as it all came crashing into perspective. Around this time, I began writing my story and made quite a bit of progress. Then, as I started thinking about shopping it around, a funny thing happened. A book entitled Jarhead, written by Anthony Swofford, hit the shelves and became a best seller. It was at this moment in time that I hit the brakes on my own memoir, cursing myself for being a step behind (although I had no way of knowing Jarhead was in the works and had no idea who Anthony Swofford was), and doing what mature people do, I pouted. For the better part of a decade I pouted and pushed my project to the side. What I came to realize during this time is that there were around 500,000 U.S. troops in Desert Storm and therefore there’s around 500,000 stories of what people experienced. Since Jarhead hit the shelves in March of 2003, there hasn’t really been anything written or published about Desert Storm. Of course, combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are much fresher and in the forefront of the market, but Desert Storm is an untapped oasis of stories that need not be forgotten. So, filled with self-doubt and not wanting to be called a copycat, I persevered and decided to continue the mission. I have worked as a police officer for the past several years and have had to deal with PTSD related incidents with the newest generation of veterans. In dealing with these incidents, I often see a reflection of myself and have been able to relate to them and help them only because I truly understand where they are coming from. I realized I was in combat, pulled the trigger, made the decision to take human life, and because of these things I have a story to tell. Therefore, I am pushing forward and damn the cost.

In future posts, I will share my journey to getting published and shamelessly pitch my book, When We Were Heroes: Twenty years after the storm as well as, I’m sure, some random musings that don’t really have a lot to do with anything. Such is the danger in blogging. So, until next time, stay thirsty my friends.

Photo

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:22:04 -0500

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes..."

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:20:06 -0500

“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
-Friedrich Nietzsche”