By Robert Britt, Staff Writer
As 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 for 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 from the 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 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 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 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.
Robert Britt 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-9/11 veterans with service work in their communities.
This article appears in 2013-02-15.