The other day I was sitting in my office when my 3-year-old daughter came running in. She was sobbing, unable to catch her breath or tell me what was wrong. Her face flush, with red circles emanating from her swollen eyes, she was inconsolable. In tow came my wife, somber-faced and also on the verge of tears. “What’s wrong?” …
bingham c. jamison
Hunting for Our MIAs
A few weeks ago I wrote about the last American service member killed as the U.S. pulled its final troops out of Iraq. Since then, I’ve been haunted by one fact that is sadly overlooked by the media (and even by the Commander in Chief in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night): U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ahmed Kousay Altaie, …
Dying to Withdraw…
On November 14th, two weeks before he was supposed to go home, Spc. David Emanuel Hickman became the last American service member to be killed in Iraq. While on a regular “presence patrol” in Baghdad, his vehicle was struck …
The Super Committee: Failure at Any Cost
It comes as no surprise that the bicameral and bipartisan super committee — that 12-person debt panel charged with finding $1.2 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years — failed in its mandate. Its members’ …
Redefining Patriotism: Reflecting on the Past Decade
In an era where yellow “Support the Troops” magnets adorn every other vehicle on the road and where rubber bracelets (color-coded for the cause célèbre) serve more as accessories than symbols of true compassion, I find myself wondering what we have learned as a nation during a decade of war. As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 …
A “Gift of Desperation”: A Marine Reflects on Combat and bin Laden, Who Put Him There
Standing shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the honor graduates from our Officer Candidates School (OCS) class, I accepted my award from the Commanding General with a crisp salute. My transformation from a frat boy trolling Rugby Road at The University of Virginia to a man deemed worthy to lead Marines was finally complete. It was …