This Troubled Ground

The year I spent in Afghanistan - two six-month deployments exactly four years apart - profoundly impacted my military career, my life, my view of the world and the people of the world, especially the people of Afghanistan and the many heroes from NATO and non-NATO countries with whom I served.

During a four-month assignment to the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Center at Dover Air Force Base, I supported the dignified transfers of more than 100 fallen US Servicemembers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. These experiences provided the foundation for our documentary "Bringing the Fallen Home," and the background and setting for the first half of my upcoming novel, "This Troubled Ground."

So my extraordinary, sometimes unbelievable experiences in Afghanistan and on the solemn tarmac at Dover  became the story I eventually constructed into the novel "This Troubled Ground." These experiences will stay with me for the rest of my life, and now they will be captured forever in print.