Outside the Wire

American Soldiers' Voices from Afghanistan

Christine Dumaine Leche

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780813934129
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Biographies de sciences sociales

A riveting collection of thirty-eight narratives by American soldiers serving in Afghanistan, Outside the Wire offers a powerful evocation of everyday life in a war zone. Christine Dumaine Leche—a writing instructor who left her home and family to teach at Bagram Air Base and a forward operating base near the volatile Afghan-Pakistani border—encouraged these deeply personal reflections, which demonstrate the power of writing to battle the most traumatic of experiences.

The soldiers whose words fill this book often met for class with Leche under extreme circumstances and in challenging conditions, some having just returned from dangerous combat missions, others having spent the day in firefights, endured hours in the bitter cold of an open guard tower, or suffered a difficult phone conversation with a spouse back home. Some choose to record momentous events from childhood or civilian life—events that motivated them to join the military or that haunt them as adults. Others capture the immediacy of the battlefield and the emotional and psychological explosions that followed. These soldiers write through the senses and from the soul, grappling with the impact of moral complexity, fear, homesickness, boredom, and despair.

We each, writes Leche, require witnesses to the narratives of our lives. Outside the Wire creates that opportunity for us as readers to bear witness to the men and women who carry the weight of war for us all.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Spc Chantal Ogaldez
• Sfc Billy Wallace
• Sgt Catherine Lorfils
• Pfc Anonymous Female
• Sgt Jarrell Robinson
• Sgt Sean Moore
• Spc Karl Mulling
• Pv2 Anonymous Female
• Sfc Michael Bramlett
• Sra Michal Sakautzki
• Sgt Latayna Orama
• Sgt Kevin Zimmerman
• Pvt Veneta White
• Sgt Jose Githens
• Sgt Anonymous Male
• Sgt Christopher Williams
• Sgt Michael Diggs
• Sgt Jessie Evans
• Sgt Elether Fareaux
• Pvt Emily Anderson
• Spc J. J. Saldana
• Ssg Trina Priddy
• Spc Anonymous Male
• Pvt Eneshia Myles
• Sgt Benjamin Lowery
• A1C Nicolas Gonzalez
• Sgt Jeffrey Lambert
• Tsgt Jonathon Lemaster
• Sgt Josh Wyly
• Sgt Joseph Colvin
• Sgt Dan Yoke
• Spc Andrew Stock
• Soldiers Tell Why Writing Classes in a War Zone Matter
• On Teaching Writing to Soldiers and Veterans
• Writing Prompts
• List of Abbreviations and Military Ranks