Outside the Wire: American Soldiers' Voices from Afghanistan

Acknowledgments

xxiii Acknowledgments With gratitude to the soldiers who were students in my creative writing and English classes in Afghanistan. We shared difficult living conditions, rocket and mortar attacks, and small planes. I felt honored to work with each of you. You protect us all. I will always remember. With love and thanks to my husband, Jacques, who believes in my passion for teaching soldiers wherever they happen to be deployed and who makes me feel that dreams are possibilities and then supports me as I live them. It’s been (and remains) a great ride, honey. I would like to say thank you to the University of Maryland University College Europe. UMUC began offering face-to-face courses to soldiers in 1949, followed soldiers to Vietnam, and has since provided education to soldiers and veterans throughout the world, both in war zones and on bases in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the globe. I bow deeply to your program. I would not have been able to complete this project without the continual support and remarkable vision of Cathie Brettschneider, Acquisitions Editor for Humanities at UVa Press. None finer. Your passion for this anthology, your commitment to the soldiers’ words, kept me inspired along the way. No doubt our collaboration was meant to be. Enormous thanks as well to Ellen Satrom, Managing Editor, also of UVa Press, whose fine, artistic eye brought the language in much of my own writing into tighter focus. You always knew what I intended to say. Your praise of this project gives me joy. Thanks to Austin Community College Dean of Communications , Hazel Ward, Dean of Arts and Humanities, Lyman Grant, and Department Chair of Creative Writing, Charlotte Gullick, all of whom saw the need for veterans-only courses, made them happen, and asked that I teach them. With gratitude to 2nd Lieutenant Kelly Singleton Dalton, helicopter pilot in the Second Gulf War and author of a remarkable thesis submitted in 2010 in completion of a master of arts degree xxiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS from Georgetown University titled “From Combat to Composition: Meeting the Needs of Military Veterans through Postsecondary Writing Pedagogy.” Kelly, you both lived the soldiers’ military and academic experiences and then cogently and passionately enlightened the rest of us. My understanding of the issues veterans face as returning students comes, in part, from you. Sincere thanks. The following family members and close friends were with me every step of this project. You were patient in listening to my fears, but like the best of friends, you nudged me ever closer to my dream: Blake Leche, Heather Montgomery, Mandi Leche, Mike Montgomery , Dorothy Barnett, Joann Cohn, Jack Getman, Diane Gregg, Keith Kesler, and Terri Leclerq. Each of you is an inspiration, and I love you. OUTSIDE THE WIRE ...