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(Originally posted June 18, 2018) “Time dims everything, pal”, said an older Brit reading these words, spoken by General Pershing at the dedication of the Chateau-Thierry Memorial in 1937 and then carved in stone below what can only be described as a squatting eagle (poised to spring, one assumes). I think the old Brit is […]

(Originally posted June 8, 2018) I arrived in Paris yesterday (Thursday) afternoon after very long sixteen hours of delays and flights and grumpy Norwegian Air employees, none of whom were actually Norwegian, as far as I can tell. My grandfather held the Norwegians to an impossibly high standard, as he believed they were the best […]

(Originally posted June 6, 2018) I should be packing. My flight to France and Belleau Wood and Eben leaves in a few short hours, and there is laundry strewn across the bed and I can’t find my phone charger. The cat, anxious and high on his new catnip toy, is trying to kill me by […]

(Originally posted May 31, 2018) I first met Eben Bradbury Jr. on a gloomy Sunday in February 2015. An academic publisher had recently announced a World War I project based on first-person documents, and I eagerly signed up for sixteen chapters. On this particular Sunday, I was researching and writing about the Battle of Belleau […]

(Originally posted June 5, 2018) I took a quick trip up to Salisbury to visit my friend Steve Bradbury this morning. Whenever I see him, I am reminded that he is a man of singular purpose, and that he is focused with great intensity on the gun. Also, he prefers to call it a cannon. […]

(Originally posted April 26, 2018) On June 6, I will be flying to France to spend the week with Eben Bradbury, one hundred years after the worst week imaginable. It’s honestly not a happy trip. Eben was a marine private, a handsome and thoughtful young man with a full life and a warm and loving […]