Don't Ever Call Me A Hero

Over at The Unconscious Warrior Project my wife and I are calling out to veterans, their spouses, loved ones, and significant others to tell us your stories. War takes its toll on so many different levels, and we want to hear what changes it has had in you, and what you have done in your life to live with these changes, work to approach them, and incorporate and work with them in your daily life.

Our goal with this project is to become a non-profit company, receive donations, and run veterans support and outreach programs from our home in Black Hawk, Colorado. We will have an open dialogue between veterans, discussing how we have changed and what we can do to not let some of the negative affectations of war take over our lives. We expect to begin groups this summer.

The stories we ask for now may be incorporated into a book that Sara and I are writing, that will hopefully help other veterans work in their relationships like we have learned to work in ours. It has been a long, arduous road, but one that is more than worth it.

So, if you are a veteran, a spouse of a veteran, active duty military, or a family member or significant other, we want to hear from you. How have you changed? How has your life changed? How has your relationship changed? What have you had to change to incorporate what has happened during war into your daily life? How has it affected you, for better or for worse?

Please visit The Unconscious Warrior Project to read more, or email us: Sara Perna or Mark Perna

Hannah (left) and Freyja, our beautiful girls

Monday night, our two dogs were on the deck playing. Hannah pawed the door to come in, and she came running. Freyja did not. I turned the light on to see her laying there, still, not responding to my voice. I ran out into the snow in my bare feet, wearing nothing more than a t-shirt. I knelt by her, and I knew she was in trouble. There was something stuck in her mouth, I thought she might be choking, so I grabbed it. It was cold. It was her tongue. I looked into her eyes and I knew she was already dead. The sound of anguish I made drove Sara to my side. I was horrified. I was perplexed. She was a year and a half, had no health problems, but there she was, just lying there, and she was gone.

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Soldiers inside a cave complex captured by a Pakistani offensive

After a long offensive in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan, Paki forces declared that they had seized a large network of caves in the Bajaur tribal area—a final militant holdout. This network of caves is just four miles from Asadabad, where I was stationed in 2005. While there are strongholds remaining along the border, at a press conference Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan stressed the tactical importance of this victory.

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