November 16, 2003
*anthologized in “New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times”
EARLY one morning last July, my rifle company boarded a convoy of trucks leaving Nasiriyah, an Iraqi city 180 miles south of Baghdad, bound for Kuwait. After tossing my pack onto a truck, I looked back at members of the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police force, who were staying. (continue reading)
A Year Later, Lives Still Upended by a Storm’s Damage
March 16, 2008
LODI, N.J. – Last April, Leo Fuentes returned home from work to find a red notice tacked to the front door, telling him it was no longer safe to live there. A vicious northeaster 10 days earlier had damaged the retaining wall on the hill above his property, and town authorities feared the situation could set off a mudslide. (continue reading)
Frustration and Hope on the Syrian Border
August 22, 2008
Roughly 250 miles northwest of Baghdad, the border between Iraq’s Ninawa province and Syria is marked by nothing more than a single dirt berm. The mound is easy enough to walk, and in some places, drive a vehicle over. While the terrain is mostly flat, nighttime often brings a consuming darkness and electricity here is non-existent. (continue reading)
When Obama Comes Marching Over
July 19, 2008
As Senator Barack Obama arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan today to meet with military commanders and U.S. troops, anticipation is brewing in the media and among campaign watchers for his expected arrival here in Iraq.
But for U.S. Army soldiers at a small outpost in the Beladiat section of eastern Baghdad, hardly anyone even knew he was coming. (continue reading)
November 8, 2005
I hardly knew Sergeant U., but as it happened I was the last person to lay a hand on his casket.
Sergeant U. and I served in the same Marine Reserve infantry unit in 2002, when 9-11 was still fresh in our minds and any talk of invading Iraq was a rumor at best. (continue reading)
Qualms Over Clean Energy That Would Come From 12 Stories Up
February 22, 2008
WAYNE, N.J. - Hamburg Turnpike, a six-mile stretch dotted with strip malls and low-rise office buildings, does not seem like the place for innovation, and many people who live here seem just fine with that. (continue reading)
November 12, 2007
When I heard Captain McKenna was going to lead a platoon of volunteers from my old reserve rifle company who were heading to Iraq, I was relieved. He’d take care of them. He was an enlisted man’s officer. He was pure and simple a decent person, and a respected leader.
He was killed on Aug. 16, 2006-shot by a sniper near Fallujah as he went to rescue a wounded Marine... (continue reading)