Why I Wrote "The Honor Was Mine"

"Why did you write this book?"

It sounds like such a simple question, yet every time a reader poses it my mind reels back to such rich memories of my earliest days on military bases: the shock of entering into a strange, powerful new culture, the reckoning over months and months and months, the mistakes and misunderstandings . . . and then the respect and dedication that rose up in me as I began to grasp their world.

It was as if I went from having a foot-wide view of life to a view that was pushed wide open in all directions. I wanted others to have that same view-widening experience of coming to understand military service members, combat veterans and military spouses. I hoped readers’ lives would be enhanced by these remarkable stories.

Here's how I spoke about it at a recent reading.
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