Publications

I served twenty-four years as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, most of them in Special Operations. Although a work of fiction, this book is influenced by true events. These all happened in some capacity over the course of my career, and helped create a story I felt is worth telling. 

It’s one of distance, shame, fear, anger, longing, paranoia, and vigilance; a lack of closure; doubt, betrayal; the loneliness of leadership; and overall difficulty. It’s about pure vulnerability. It’s based upon the most talented, funniest, cruelest, basest, and interesting people I’ve ever known. Interspersed with humor, at times it was hard to identify and at others seemed starkly out of place. 

Where the real names of people are utilized, the approval of the individual or their families was obtained and are used with permission. I used real names in some cases as an homage to who these people are. Some of them gave the last full measure with their lives. It’s the least I can do.  All other characters are figments of my imagination, and any resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental.

Military service is unique. Tight bonds form between disparate groups of people who come to rely upon each other in dire situations. Sometimes these relationships are life-long, but most often, they dissipate with the passage of time. My experience was no different. We once pledged forever to the other; now we never talk.