street roots
Feb. 15, 2013
Veterans find truth in fiction
New anthology compiles veterans fiction on Iraq and Afghanistan
BY ROBERT BRITT
STAFF COLUMNIST
s the war in Afghanistan throttles
down, and Iraq fades in our national
rearview, much of America is ready to
close the books on these conflicts. But
many of the men and women who served on
these battlefields, coming home is only the
first step in putting war behind them.
Nearly a dozen years into sustained
military action, the story of what happened
“over there” and what our veterans and
their families continue to face here at home
is remains little understood. A new
collective of authors, however, is using short
fiction to expose the reality of these wars
and their aftereffects on those who have
served in them.
Co-edited by Army veterans Roy Scranton
and Matt Gallagher, “Fire and Forget: Short
Stories of a Long War” is an anthology of 15
short stories written by veterans of Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Representing a new generation of
veterans-turned-authors, the contributors in
“Fire and Forget” have returned home, at
least physically, and are now sharing their
works and sculpting the public’s perception
of these wars and how they’ve impacted the
warriors.
Gallagher, a former cavalry officer, spent
15 months as a scout platoon leader in Iraq
before writing about his experience in his
previously published war memoir. With
“Fire and Forget,” he hopes that readers
will walk away with added social
responsibility — understanding that when
wars are over, things don’t just end as a
statistical data point.
The title — taken from a class of high-tech
munitions that, once fired, require no
additional guidance — is suggestive of a
paradox that the editors introduce in the
A
Robert Britt
Robert B ritt is a
writer, photographer
and U.S. Army
veteran with two
deployments to the
war in Iraq. He is
currently serving a
six-month fellowship
with Street Roots and
The Mission
Continues, a
nonprofit that
connects post-9fll
veterans with service
work in their
communities.
preface: On one hand, the authors want to
remind readers of what happened in these
wars, and what is still happening to our
veterans of them. “On the other hand,” they
say, “there’s nothing most of us would
for rather do than leave these wars behind.”
According to Scranton, “there’s both a
selfish or self-centered desire to say ‘This is
what I saw,’ and there’s a social
responsibility component to say ‘This is
what I saw.’ ”
These veterans are trying to move
forward and find their identity of who they
are after these experiences, he says.
War — especially for writers — is great
material and part of who you are, Scranton
says. “There’s this conflict between relying
on it, exploring it, using it, and fighting it
and worrying about being trapped in it,” he
says.
Gallagher says it would be foolish not to
draw upon wartime experience. “But it is a
paradox,” he says. “And it’s one that I think
we all battle with every time we sit at our
laptops.”
The book opens with Jacob Siegel’s
Smile, There Are IEDs Everywhere. “It has
this ephemeral sense and this anxiety about
trying to hold onto what happened
downrange and trying to move on,”
Scranton says. “I wanted to put that story in
front because I think it gets at something
that is key to understanding the rest of the
stories.”
Each story in “Fire and Forget” highlights
its own issue: Siobhan Fallon’s vantage point
as an army spouse struggling to reconnect
with her husband; Perry O’Brien,
meanwhile, weaves a humorous yarn about a
soldier on the lam from the military and
preoccupied with thoughts of building an
army of killer rabbits.
Phil Klay’s description of the journey
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home from
deployment is
bookended with
powerful imagery
that takes the
story much
deeper and is
sure to impact
readers.
In Gavin
Ford Kovite’s
When Engaging
Targets, Remember, the
reader mans the machine gun on a
convoy mission in Iraq for a choose-your-
own-adventure style story. Its power is that
it takes readers along for the ride and
through the split-second decisions that
20-somethings are making everyday in
combat zones.
Scranton’s story provides readers with a
snapshot of soldiers on guard duty,
complete with depreciating humor, soldiers
fighting boredom as if it were the declared
enemy, and a looming sense of danger.
“Fire and Forget” is an effective cultural
text on multiple levels. Not only does it
serve as a historical milepost, reminding us
that we are waging the longest war in our
nation’s history, but it also serves as a point
of conversation. Readers will gain insight
into the emotional struggles faced by many
of our veterans during their transition back
home, and the veterans themselves will
undoubtedly find a connection to one or
more of the protagonists or their conflicts.
It can also be seen as a form of catharsis
for some of the authors.
“With each story, I think the author was
attempting to tell their own war story,
whether it came from Iraq, Afghanistan or
back here at home,” says Gallagher.
“Fire and Forget,”
available Feb. 15
from Da Capo
Press.
Co-editor Roy
Scranton (a
graduate of North
Salem High
School) and
contributors Gavin
Ford Kovite and
David Abrams (a
University of
Oregon graduate)
will be on hand at
Powell’s Books in
Portland on March
20 for a panel
discussion and
reading.
UFFEREOOVER
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