That morning, we all nodded and chuckled, smug in our assessment that the pilot of that first airplane screwed up. Tragic, but not much different than a navigational error that ran a ship aground. It was unfortunate, certainly, as lives were undoubtedly lost. But heads would roll, and we’d move on.… more
Tag Archives: Military
Shooting at Hurricanes
FICTION by Mario Aliberto IIIPop-Pop never talked about how the person you are when you ship off isn’t the person you are when you ship back. How a war story is only a story if it didn’t happen to you.… more
Hog Heaven
FICTION by Gary V. PowellApparently, lack of empathy is the one psychological trait shared by all elite warriors, all special forces guys, Max included. It’s that singular trait that allows them to kill without hesitation or remorse. Or, in the case of Max’s current job, the trait that allows him to acquire struggling companies with the sole goal of leveraging their value before gutting them and selling assets piecemeal.… more
Gender Soldier
FICTION by Rain RobinsonThere was a time that you can now no longer remember, when someone scraped you off their shoe and taught you how to be human. How to have arms and legs, how to have a face and a body, how to wear clothes and cut your hair and see things and be seen. There was an adjustment period, but after that it was a gloriously certain time, when meaning could be plucked fully-formed from thin air like ripe fruit. You loved that.… more
Anchor Detail
FICTION by Kristy BellI lifted a quick prayer for that fisherman, even as I watched him throw his back into reversing his course. What chance does a little guy have in this world, you know?… more
David Tromblay
BULL Interview by David TromblayPeople who had childhoods like mine did so comfortably numb. It was normal. It was all I ever knew. But here’s something I didn’t put in the book: in high school (after I got away from my father) I had friends who lived inside the foster care system. I used to go to their homes and hang out after school sometimes, because when I was little, I used to fantasize about being taken away and put into foster care. I knew it would be so much better.… more
Memoir by way of catalogue
GENRE NON-BINARY by STEVE COMSTOCKWhen I flew home on leave some lady in an airport told me I was lucky we were pretty much done fighting over there. When I got back to Alabama everybody was still shopping and laughing like nothing ever happened. I’d say something about being in the Army and someone would inevitably thank me for my service, but they couldn’t tell me anything about Afghanistan, or the war, or what I was doing there. What the fuck were they thanking me for?… more
Bogey
FICTION by Zachary LunnOver the last six months Bogey had been to a hundred different VA clinics, but this marked the first time he entered one with the aid of a crowbar.… more
