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. β€œA lot of people were excited about coming home,” Sergeant Keith said. β€œMe, I just sat there and I wondered: What am I coming back to?”

Author: James Dao
Published: May 28, 2011
Length: 13 minutes (3,283 words)

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.

Author: James Dao
Published: Nov 21, 2010
Length: 10 minutes (2,687 words)

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.

Published: Jun 7, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,398 words)