When I spoke to his mother on the night of February 4, Sonny Mazon's body was still alive. In reality though, Sonny left this world a week ago when he hung himself in his prison cell and slipped quietly into a comatose oblivion. I was aware that Sonny had left...

I didn't understand what I was experiencing the first few times that I relived the day that PFC Ara Deysie died. One moment I would be sitting in a restaurant or driving to Chapel Hill, and the next I was watching through a young man's eyes as the first round...

The world became a shade colder with the passing of Dr. Robert Whitton of Davidson College on November 11, 2011. I'm not normally squeamish about death. War has shown me too many dark things for ordinary tragedies to shock me anymore. Robert's death, however, has shaken me with an unexpected...

There are few things more un-democratic than the abuse of violence to silence a voice of protest. And yet that is exactly what we have seen at university campuses and in city parks across the country over the past weeks. Some have argued that this outburst of brutality...

Several years ago I arrived at a friend's wedding wearing my dress blue uniform. I felt sharp and important in spite of the three lonely ribbons on my chest. Before the ceremony a couple who had served in World War II sat in the pew behind me and eagerly introduced...

I spent three days mulling over what I would say at PFC Ara Deysie's memorial service. There I sat with ringing ears in my hospital bed at Forward Operating Base Salerno making the conventional notes about his heroism, character, honor and the like. In my eyes, the memorial would be...