Perfect love casts out fear
Early 1980s. Seventh grade. There was this girl, her name was Lily. She played violin, sang in the chorus, and I was in love. The only trouble was, she didn’t even know who I was.…
Tag: PTSD
Angry God
Not long ago—perhaps ten months—my therapist handed me a book called “Came to Believe: A Guide to the Second Step” by Chet Meyers. The book refers to the Second Step of Alcoholics Anonymous (and other…
Shame, Fear, and Starting over
It’s been a long time since I’ve done much blogging of a personal nature. There are a variety of reasons for that, but the overriding one is that I’ve had major changes and transitions in…
Prayer at Rumayla Chapter One
Purchase links: Kindle | Nook | iBooks | Google Play | Kobo | Smashwords | Chapters | Thalia The explosion to our front throws me against the back of the hatch, pain shooting up my side.…
What Does it Feel Like to Kill?
What does it feel like to kill? For some reason, that question’s been on my mind a lot lately. With Chris going off into the Marine Corps later this year, it came up at my…
Charles on the Diane Rehm Show: Mental Health and Iraq
10:00 Mental Health and Military Service in Iraq A new study shows more than one in three members of the U.S. armed forces serving in Iraq seeks help for mental health problems. We talk about the…
The Trials of Julian Goodrum
Lieutenant Julian Goodrum is the picture of an American soldier: a young man with quintessentially good looks and a friendly smile, despite the hell he has been through for the last two years. Goodrum served…
Even in victory, soldiers return bearing unseen burdens
Charles Sheehan-Miles and Robert K. Musil The little-told toll of combat is in the minds of the soldiers who fight. Every war, we forget the ordeal inflicted on soldiers, even those uninjured. After the war…
Another Gulf War Vet Opens Fire
“Are you okay?” My wife asked the question after we learned that Robert Stewart Flores, who killed three professors at the University of Arizona before shooting himself, was a Gulf War veteran. She asked me…
What Will I Tell My Children?
I’ll never forget the morning of February 27, 1991. As a young U.S. Army tanker, near the banks of the Euphrates River, two trucks raced through our position at roughly 2 a.m. We opened fire.…