I wrote an essay about finally feeling like a veteran. The feeling wasn't something that happened as soon as I got home from Iraq, it took years, actually. It took leaving the Army and moving from Anchorage to Arctic Village, and the death of another veteran for me to understand my place in the heritage of comrades of armed foreign conflict.
That essay appears in this new anthology produced by an organization called So Say We All. I hope you'll order a copy. There are at least twenty fantastic essays in here about various experiences of homecoming.
Peace.
