Blood on Boots

I recently published a short essay on Medium talking about my reaction to questions about my time deployed. It took a tremendous amount of courage for me to put something so personal out to the world, and I am overwhelmed by the kindness people have shown me.

I'm still working on making sense of a lot of it, and this piece is my first attempt to find words to give it form. I am incredibly proud of this work, and hope it helps you at least consider the wounds you might not see, but might uncover when you ask about someone's deployment experience. It's not something you talk about.

https://medium.com/@torreemcgowan/have-you-ever-been-to-iraq-87342bd3ebe2