Brigid Brett

Even though they could have chosen to watch the Dalai Lama streaming live from their computers in the comfort of their closest Starbucks, students showed up in the thousands to see and hear him speak at the three universities in San Diego two weeks ago. They waited in line for...

In December 2006 Lori Holyfield heard a soldier being interviewed on National Public Radio. He'd been shamed by his commanding officer and his unit after self-disclosing he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

She listened as other soldiers talked about being discharged for "personality disorders"...

When Dave Walker talks about the time he spent at Ground Zero in 2001, he has to pause from time to time -- to clear his throat, try and stop a coughing attack or allow his escalating heartbeat to quiet down a little. Although he tries to hide it,...

My collection of war books is growing. They spread out on the long shelf behind my dining room table, sandwiched between Alice in Wonderland and the poetry of Robert Frost.

I first heard of Jonathan Shay's Achilles in Vietnam at a debriefing of Marines at Camp Pendleton who'd just returned...

If I hadn't known better I'd have thought it was just another early morning of basil picking in the hothouse at Archi's Acres Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) in rural San Diego County. But it wasn't just another morning. There was none of the usual good natured bantering I'd seen...

It's a perfect Oceanside day: wispy clouds moving across a blue gray sky and just enough wind to keep blowing over the plastic vases I've brought to put the red and white roses in. Eventually I give up and lay the flowers on the stone, framing his name. PATRICK RYAN...

There are ten of us in a locked cell back at the police station at the airport. Outside the cell in the corridor is a female soldier in camouflage fatigues, boots, and assault rifle. I'm weak from a bout of diarrhea during the night, no breakfast and trying to act...

Something odd happens the second day: I feel a strange kind of normal, or perhaps it's just a new stage of shock. The high alert thrumming is still there, I continue to feel feverish and my head still pounds, but it's all turned down a couple of notches. I decide...

Just as we're about to take our shoes off and lie down a policeman knocks on our door and tells us it's time to eat. We follow him downstairs and learn how mealtimes work at the detention center.

You have to stand outside the dining area and wait until...

Two policewomen take me into the strip search room. They close the door and pull on latex gloves. The fear of being strip searched is so powerful I am sure they can smell it. They frisk me thoroughly, but they don't make me undress. One of the women makes me...

When you stand in the yard of the Immigration Holding Center at Charles de Gaulle Airport, you can see the Hilton hotel and a life-size model of the Concord. Barbed wire runs along tops of the fences and four cameras watch us from the building. A man sits on a...