After Combat, the Unexpected Perils of Coming Home
Sgt. Brian Keith boarded the plane home feeling a strange dread. His wife wanted a divorce and had moved away, taking their son and most of their bank account with her. At the end of his flight lay an empty apartment and the blank slate of a new life. βA lot of people were excited about coming home,β Sergeant Keith said. βMe, I just sat there and I wondered: What am I coming back to?β
A Year at War: Between Firefights, Jokes, Sweat and Tedium
They tell stories about girlfriends, wives, drinking and sex. They wrestle and play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. They share music on iPods and check football scores on BlackBerrys. They debate evolution and chase chickens. They argue over comic-book heroes and then tell more stories about sex. During a six-day mission in Afghanistan with Delta Company, First Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, both sides of frontline life were on display. Firefights, truck-flipping mine explosions and earth-shaking mortar exchanges. And the pauses in between, when life in their encampment felt like a guys-only slumber party.
A Deception, and a Reluctance to Ask Questions
Last month, after actual veterans uncovered his deceptions, Richard Strandlof was detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then arrested by the Denver police on an outstanding warrant for driving with a suspended license. The veterans group he helped create, the Colorado Veterans Alliance, has disbanded. And now Mr. Strandlof, apparently penniless, remains in jail on $1,000 bail.