There’s a story behind this story. This is the first thing I ever tried to sit down and write, about 15 years ago. It is raw and probably still needs work, but it’s where I was at 32 and fresh home from a deployment that impacted me and others in a lot of ways. It actually changed the course of my and my wife’s lives. It has colored the entirety of my daughter’s.
Anyway, over the years I periodically tried to find it a home at literary journals. No one was biting. Even the veteran’s focused journals took it to look at, said they would be back to me, then…radio silence for two years.
When asked to do a reading in Chapel Hill, NC, I pulled it out for lack of anything else to read. Then I gave it to my homies at SOFlete and I think it is finally where it was meant to be after 15 years.
I apologize to my Mom and Aunts for the potty language there at the end. I promised to only use the F-Bomb when it is appropriate. Tough thing is, when writing about Marines, it is always appropriate.
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