Shooting Ghosts by Thomas J. Brennan USMC (Ret.) & Finbarr O'Reilly

Author:Thomas J. Brennan USMC (Ret.) & Finbarr O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2017-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Media Boot Camp

We tell ourselves stories in order to live.

—Joan Didion, The White Album

Finbarr, London and Dakar, March–August 2012

The online comments from NYT readers get TJ thinking about how the public is detached from the reality of America’s wars, the military, and the kinds of experiences that make up his life and the lives of so many others. He wants to write a monthly blog or column about military issues to make that connection.

I’m not so sure. It’s an interesting concept, but I doubt TJ can write well enough or that he can identify the aspects of military life that might resonate with civilian readers. And I’m skeptical there will be much appetite for such a thing. One piece does not a career make, even in the New York Times. Still, he’s finding solace in writing—it’s therapeutic—so I encourage him to keep going.

“I find it helps me not only get things off my chest but it helps me organize things in my head,” he writes a few weeks later. He’s been working on something he wants to show me. “It’s not as eloquent as what I wrote about you because it’s still in the brainstorming stage so be gentle please. I’m a sensitive young man with feelings. Don’t break my heart.”

Spoken like a proud Marine. I open the file and read the short essay he has titled “Something Gets Left Behind.” It’s five paragraphs long and includes the following:

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