When you join the Marines, you lose all sense of personal space and privacy. You shower with other Marines, eat with other Marines, share a barracks room with other Marines. It’s no different when you go to war, either. Everything is shared and spaces are communal.

Though some do end up with a room of one’s own. These few get a private plane ride back out of the war, back to America. There, a private ceremony awaits them. And a few days later, in a place called Arlington, they’re given that little room all their own, as seven Marines fire their rifles three times each, and their family receives a folded flag.

I grew up moving around the country. After graduating high school I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as an infantryman, deploying to Afghanistan twice. Fast forward six years and I’m now a husband, father, Purdue University alum, and author of the novel “His Name Was Zach”. Learn more about me and my writing at His Name Was Zach.