Love, Zac by Reid Forgrave

Author:Reid Forgrave
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2020-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Zac had always wanted to be an “Army badass,” so he joined the Iowa Army National Guard.

Superiors pointed to him as a model soldier. He twice won the Commanders Coin of Excellence, and he earned his airborne wings. “He was a truly bright young man who chose to be in the infantry because he wanted to do what the infantry does,” said Father Jacob Greiner, the chaplain for Zac’s battalion. “He thought he could do the most good by being one of the guys who kicked down doors. With Zac everything was a challenge. He saw a challenge and wanted to beat that. Everyone who knew Zac Easter said he was one of the best.” He was respected so much that he was named his company’s guidon bearer, meaning that in formations he had carried the flag that represented the unit. That was a big honor. First Lt. Chase Wells, Zac’s platoon leader, regarded him as someone a football coach would call a good locker room guy: Someone who was smiling and laughing, confident but never a jerk, smart enough to do things higher than his rank but committed to being part of his team.

After Zac participated in the US Army Air Assault School—a ten-day course designed to prepare soldiers for things like rappelling out of transportation and assault helicopters on insertion or evacuation missions—commanders approached him about becoming part of the 75th Ranger Regiment, an elite airborne light infantry unit in the army. Zac was stunned, and thrilled. It was a dream, to become a US Army Ranger, among the biggest badasses in a military filled with badasses: His vision of the ideal man. They gave him a packet and sent him home to think about the possibility. When Zac told his father, Myles was immediately worried. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would mean certain danger for someone like an Army Ranger. The father who’d sent his son into harm’s way on the football field, a place where that harm used to seem pretty innocuous, was terrified of sending his son into harm’s way on the battlefield. When the military told Zac there was a backlog for Ranger school, his dad was relieved. Zac was put in a holding pattern for this Army Ranger dream. His parents urged him to enroll in more college classes while he waited.

On the surface, Zac looked like the perfect candidate to become an army badass. Below the surface, though, he was coming apart. His military buddies saw hints of it from time to time. Miller and Zac did basic training together. They were fast friends, battle buddies, each other’s first partners as soldiers in training. One of the drills they did in training had to do with land navigation. Commanders gave them a protractor and told them it was their most important navigation tool. Again and again, the commanders drilled it into their brains: “DO NOT lose this protractor.” Zac lost his immediately. He had no idea where it went. The commanders were furious.

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