Category Archives: Combat Veterans

“Be Safe I Love You” Highlights Struggle of Female Vet Returning Home

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In our most revered war literature, female soldiers are often nowhere to be found. A new novel tells a war story from a female perspective.

“Be Safe I Love You” by Cara Hoffman examines a topic still largely untouched in fiction– the struggles female soldiers face upon returning home from war. The story follows Lauren Clay, an Iraq war veteran who returns to her home in upstate New York haunted by her experience in the U.S. military. It’s an important new take on traditional, male dominated war literature.

 

You can read a review of “Be Safe I Love You” in the New York Times Sunday Book Review this weekend.

Army Platoon Artillery Jobs Open Up to Women

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One of the latest frontiers of integration in the U.S. military are army platoon artillery jobs. Women like 1st Lt. Kelly Requa are moving into these positions as the military marches toward its January 2016 deadline to open all combat roles to women. Requa is one of at least eight female lieutenants brought in to lead field artillery units in the 3rd Battalion of the 321st Field Artillery Regiment, stationed near Fayetteville, N.C.

Lt. Col. Christopher Valeriano, the 3rd Battalion’s commander, said in an interview with A.P. that it’s “pretty impressive to see the women coming in and running circles around the men,” he said. Valeriano said that he sees women outperforming their male counterparts all the time.

“Most of my female lieutenants outrun my male lieutenants,” he said. “On overall strength, the males are stronger. But the females — endurance-wise and running — really made these guys take their game up a notch.”

Read the full story from A.P.