A Warrior’s Words
I am a
soldier’s daughter. My father served in three wars, two of them popular, one of
them not. The only stories he ever told about those times in his life were
carefully edited, G-rated anecdotes like one about running over a python when
he was in Burma building Bailey-Bailey bridges.
He bore his
burden alone because that’s what men of his generation did. He died with his
stories untold. And maybe that’s one reason why he died so young.
I wish my
father—who loved to read—could have read this collection of essays and fiction.
Weston Ochse
is a warrior. He is a humanist. And he is a damn fine writer.
I’ve read
some fantastic collections of war stories in the past and this one is now in my
top five, along with Michael Herr’s DISPATCHES and Anthony Swofford’s JARHEAD.
Every single
story in this collection has been curated with care and all of them will go
through you like the ball bearings spit out by a Claymore mine when someone not
paying attention steps on it.
“Why is it
so hard to be a man?” the protagonist of “Family Man” asks and then he offers
up a sacrifice to his family that is simply…heart-stopping. “Family Man” is one
of those stories, like “Plastic Soldiers” by WD County, that can never be
unread.
The essays
are just as strong as the fiction, with “Every War Has a Signature Sound” being
one of my favorites. Ochse ends the collection with a piece called “Finishing
School” that is inspirational and confessional and altogether insightful and a
story about warring with your self when it just seems so much easier to quit.
But warriors
don’t quit.
