Late in the evening of Sep. 10, 2007, after all the people cleared out of
the house, I went to my office and started writing a vignette about the
day's events - learning that he was hurt, being notified of his death,
calling family members and receiving calls as family and friends learned
that we had lost Mike.  I let the piece sit for about 18 months before I
revisited it and polished the writing in the form of creative nonfiction.

I submitted the revised piece for publication to the magazine Westview,
which describes itself as "a journal of language and literature."

The magazine, with my piece in it, went to print last Monday.  The editor
told me, "your writing is beautiful, the best thing we have published in a
long time."

Proofs are now with the editorial staff for mark up, and final printing is
scheduled for next week.

I have seen my name in print bylines since I was 16 years old and working
for my high school newspaper.  This continued through college and graduate
school.  I have had letters to editor published in Time, Sports Illustrated
and National Review.  In the early 90s, I had a long piece dealing with our
operations in Panama published in the Army Green Book, a magazine dedicated
to ground warfare.  In the mid 90s, I had a piece published in the CVE Piper
that described the devastating kamakaze bombing of the USS Shamrock Bay.  I
published a newspaper for 10 years (and intend to restart that effort later
this year as a web-only publication).

But getting this piece published in Westview constitutes a personal high
mark for me.  It was hard to write.  Harder than I can tell you.  I am glad
somebody else liked it.

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