Larry and Margaret were one of the few lucky couples of the Vietnam War to return to each other’s arms earlier than expected, but tragedy found a way back to them in the form of Margaret’s untimely death Margaret and…
Tag: Family history
Diana, Palestine’s Fiercest Makeup Artist
BY KATIE BARNUM Diana remembers the drive from Ramallah to Nablus vividly. It was her first return home after deciding to remove her hijab—a decision she had made nearly six months previously, over her family’s objection. Her palms were furiously…
Discovering A History for Myself: My Grandfather’s Wartime Writings
BY LUCIA ZERNER I first met my grandfather about a year after I arrived in the U.S as a Chinese adoptee. I visited him with my parents once or twice a year. By then he was living in a retirement…
A Different Experience of a Minority Group
BY BASBIBI KAKAR When Ramzia, a pseudonym to protect her identity, sees people migrating from one country to another, she doesn’t blame them. “You can’t be in a place where your life is not guaranteed,” she says. “You have to…
‘Organizational Interest Comes First’: One Intelligence Officer’s Experience with Interservice Rivalry
BY JENNIFER KELTZ Just because two officers are fighting for the same cause does not mean that they will work together. As a boy in New York, John Gentry never pictured that he would one day spend over twenty years…
Up
BY MINQI SONG Wes Lam never thought of himself as a stranger in the U.S. Army. A son of Chinese immigrants, Wes served in the army from 1999 to 2009, including one year in Iraq right after the 2003 Invasion. …
A Bridge Between Two Lives
BY MARJORIE TOLSDORF Bahram watched as his mother and sisters wept, soaking the white cloth that covered his uncle’s body with tears. He could hear his mother moaning her brother-in-law’s name over and over, morphing into a single monotonous tone.…
Just Beside History
By Stephen Schaber My parents hate being bothered by the telephone- the ringing, the holding, the talking. When someone calls they rarely answer it. In fact, the answering machine picks up after two rings. I find it incredibly annoying. They…
Jam and Famine
BY WHITNEY EULICH Moodie was 12 years old, when Germany invaded France. As World War II engulfed Europe, her father sent Moodie and her three sisters and mother to live in the family’s summer home in Chamonix, near the Swiss…