[ A Woman's Touch:

Ready to Kill ]

First published in the Washington Post Magazine, Feb 24, 2008.

If the hand that pulls the trigger in wartime belongs to a female soldier, does it make a difference? 

THE SCOWLING MAN DECLARED IT LIKE an order: "You don't fly this." He was in his 40s, a civilian. With his knitted brow and jutting jaw, Marine Capt. Katie Horner recalls, the man seemed half perplexed, half ticked off. About what, exactly, Horner wasn't sure at first. 

"Yes," she said, "I fly it."

"No, you don't."

"Uh, yes. I do," she said.

The man yelled, "But you can't fly this!"

He yelled some more. "It has guns!"

Finally, he found the words to yell what it was that was making him so confused and angry: "You're a woman flying an attack helicopter!"
The scowling man is not alone in objecting to the very idea of a woman operating a machine designed to kill in combat...

Read the entire article and view the slide show in the Washington Post Magazine. You can also read a transcript of Kristin's live online chat with readers of the article, hosted by washingtonpost.com.  To return to this website after reading, click the back arrow on your browser.

[ Us and Them: Their War ]

First published in the Washington Post Magazine, July 22, 2007.

Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population serves in our military. In a time of war, what should that mean to the rest of us?

MILES OF CHAIN-LINK FENCE RUN through the coastal Carolina pine forest. Armed Marines guard the gates. Pass through those gates, and, at first, you might not realize you've left the civilian world behind. Inside this cluster of military installations are tidy neighborhoods, shopping centers and a golf course. But deep in the fenced-off woods, at the edge of a firing range, a sergeant stands over a Marine. The cords in his neck strain as he roars: "You don't have time to watch your rounds go downrange! You got Iraqis shooting at you! Reload!"...

Read the entire article in the Washington Post Magazine. You can also read a transcript of Kristin's live online chat with readers of the article, hosted by washingtonpost.com, or listen to the radio discussion on Australian radio. To return to this website after reading, click the back arrow on your browser.

[ Your Money at War ]

First published in the New York Times, Feb 9, 2007.

Though some claim that all Americans are making sacrifices for the war on terrorism, it’s just not true. The few who are sent to fight and those left behind who are an intimate part of their daily lives are the ones whose mental health, finances and relationships are taking the hit.
What we need is a war tax, dedicated to financing the support services needed by military families and combat veterans. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a long-term costs-of-war tax. Because the tax I’m proposing, like the needs it’s intended to meet, will not end when the war does...

Read the entire opinion column.

 [ Anticipatory Grief ]

First published on Military.com, July 2007.

While my husband, a Navy chaplain, was in Iraq with the Marines, I imagined a knock at my door. I imagined uniformed Marines telling me that my husband was dead. I imagined the funeral. I cried in the shower, sometimes felt like I couldn't get enough air, and one day in church had an almost uncontrollable urge to get up and run out. Not only did I not know all this craziness had a name -- anticipatory grief -- I didn't know there were techniques to cope with it...

Read Kristin's columns on Military.com. To return to this website after reading, click the back arrow on your browser.

 [ Chaplains at War:

In the Hands of God ]

First published in the Washington Post Magazine, April 30, 2006.

Just before sunrise on a foggy road outside Mosul, Iraq, a convoy of supply trucks is escorted by a dozen armored U.S. Army vehicles, including a Humvee with a three-man crew. This is some of the most dangerous duty a soldier can pull in Iraq, because insurgents target convoys with their weapon of choice: improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Among service members, IEDs are the single greatest cause of death.

[ Individual Augmentees ]

First published in slightly different form in Military Spouse Magazine, Nov/Dec 2007.

Navy wife Delila Kleinhenz got five days notice -- five days to absorb the news that her Sailor was being ordered to Iraq to serve as a Soldier with the Army. She remembers nearly going ballistic, thinking: He has no background for this! Her husband Mark, a Navy reservist, had never worn camouflage in his life. He knew how to dive a submarine but had never been trained in Soldiering 101.

To prepare for deployment, the Navy sent Mark to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, to bone up on combat skills for thirty days before heading to Iraq. Back home, Delila's preparation consisted of a deployment packet that arrived in her mailbox...

Read the entire article.

[ Deployment Survival Guide ]

First published in Military Spouse Magazine, May/June 2006.

Read the entire article.

[ Chaplain Confidential ]

First published in slightly different form in Military Spouse Magazine, Jan/Feb 2006.

When the service member's wife came into the chaplain's office, it was clear she'd been crying. Chaplain Brian Waite assured her that anything she said wouldn't leave his office, not without her permission. Soon she was hinting at abuse.

"I don't want to get my husband in trouble," she said softly, "but we need help."

According to the military, you can talk to a chaplain about anything and it's all confidential. But... could the service member's wife count on Chaplain Waite to keep her secret...?

Read the entire article. 

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