I was home on a Saturday night and browsing through some channels. Commercials annoy me so I started to check out what was playing on HBO. "The Lone Survivor", was playing. I had remotely heard of the movie and honestly had no interest in it but tuned in to check it. I ended up catching the last 30 minutes of it. I saw the bloody firefight and started thinking about our Marines and the war in Afghanistan.
You see, from where I sit in my comfy home, what happens during war is completely foreign to me. Yes, I see a soldier and always thank him or her for their service. I see the bumper stickers on the BMWs in my neck of the woods that say "support our troops." I consider them shallow. Shallow, as in...is that the best we can do for these men? Perhaps the average American truly does "support our troops," but do I really understand what these men give up for me? I answered myself with an honest, "No." I do not really, really, really know what they go through. I know nothing about their training. My interest is in Marines, and more specifically, the infantry and I wanted to learn more.
Having a vivid imagination, one thought led to another and my conclusion was that, along with the realization that "support our troops" is about as effective as "just say no," I took the two issues; the firefight I had just watched, and what I concluded was that the majority of those who make up the American populous are seemingly completely detached from the true sacrifices our troops make while facing combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wanted to combine the real world in Afghanistan with the ignorance and lack of society's respect for our Military.
Kent Mullins was deployed as a machine gunner aka a "Grunt" in Afghanistan. Somewhere over the last few years, I came across one of his Facebook posts while he was deployed. It was comical. His sarcasm about his conditions and the higher ups with whom he dealt made me laugh. I friended him and he accepted my friend request.
He's an extremely popular figure on Facebook because his posts are hysterical. Yet, I knew that he was doing exactly what I do when I'm in a bad situation; I make fun of it and laugh about it. If I didn't do that, I would cry. Laughter heals...I'm a firm believer in that. Of course Kent's situation was on a much larger scale than anything I could ever fathom having experienced in my life. His wit and humor was posted during both his first and second deployment in country. Because of his highly intelligent manner of writing and the laughter it brings to his FB friends, his persona on FB is one everyone should experience.
My interest grew and I thought I'd write a blog about our Marines. Again, I do not in anyway disrespect or underestimate what the other branches of the Military sacrifice. It's simply that my interest was about the Marines. I guessed that they had the toughest basic training..... Three months versus six or eight weeks for Army, Navy, and Air Force. There had to be more to the life of a Marine and I wanted to know what it was.
I sent Kent a private message and asked him if he would be interested in me interviewing him about his deployments for my Blog page. He jumped on it. So it started from there.
We set up a time for a phone call. The project just seemed to take on a path of its own. I asked him questions and he gave me answers. I asked him if he wanted to talk about an actual gunfight in detail. He turned quiet and I could sense that he had just seen too much horror. He told me that he was not comfortable talking about that. He said, "If you've seen one, you've seen them all."
After my first conversation with this incredibly kind young man from Kentucky, I knew this was not going to be a blog. It was more than that. I knew I would not have enough for a full novel, so it ended up being turned into a novelette. Short, quick read, but it was an amazing experience to listen to Kent and take what he said, put it into descriptive writing, add some dialogue, and narrative passages. Something inside of me changed while I wrote that piece with him. I won't get into detail about the contents.....that is for sale. I will say this: Tears were streaming down my face as I wrote that piece.
Speaking of "for sale," I learned while I was becoming more introspective of the realization that our Marines are basically screwed over by the Government. With that took an honest look at my motives. My conclusion: If I'm going to write and yell to the world that America does not do enough for our troops, than it would make me a hypocrite to take royalties on this piece. Our soldiers endure brutal training, put their lives on the firing line for us and ultimately, upon discharge, have thick bands of red tape thrown in their faces. The hell they face in the Middle East extends directly back to them once they are sent state-side.
Many are probably too weary to deal with obtaining their allotted benefits of education, insurance, counseling and follow up care. I suppose some of them give up. I don't want that to continue to happen to these men. I want America to help them and give them exactly what they have earned and then some. This story did not belong to me. It belongs to the Marines.
I told Kent to take the royalties. He too refused, even though he did just as much work on this project as I did. He said, "This is not the Kent Mullins story and if it is written even remotely about me specifically, I won't do this. The Marines are a brotherhood and I am just a screw in that machine."
Humble as it sounds it's also an extremely explosive statement. He was talking about war. And in war a Marine does not have the luxury of emotion. They are in a life and death situation on a second by second basis. When I say "they," I am referring to the brotherhood that makes up a platoon or unit. He insisted that it be written in that context and I whole heartedly agreed that it was best.
With neither of us willing to take royalties, I suggested and he agreed to a compromise; we would set up a college fund for his baby daughter Samara. She's stunningly beautiful and I think she has brought Kent more happiness than he's ever had in his life. He agreed to those terms.
As a writer, it is my job to go into a character's mindset and live there. I am very good at being empathetic and have the gift (or curse) of easily putting myself in another person's mindset and seeing the world through their eyes.
Thus I put myself in combat in Afghanistan. I will never, ever say that I truly understand what it's like. No one can unless they experience it. I equate that statement with the morons who have no children, yet they give advice to those who do. One can never possibly understand what it's like to be a parent until his or her world is turned upside down with a love comes soaring at you like nothing you have ever felt in your life.
After interviewing Kent, I too had to downshift once the project was completed. I briefly stepped into his mind and felt his pain....some of it anyway. Of course my level of downshifting was a single speck of sand in comparison to what Kent endured upon his discharge from the USMC. Inside of this brave young man lives a mountain of a monster. It is with him every waking minute of his life.
For me, it was a few days. I was seeing orange. I was seeing Sedona, Arizona and hearing machine guns. I was looking in the face of a Taliban man and trying to figure out if he was a good guy or a bad guy (and wondering whether they have any type of dentistry in Afghanistan).
Kent is attempting to pick up his life where he left off prior to his enlistment. He has just started school. He and his fiancé, Heaven have a baby. I understand what it's like to be at that stage where you are just starting out, especially with a baby to support. Military pay is at or less than poverty level income. Supporting a new family and attending college full time is not easy for him.
I don't know if I will ever again experience such emotion in my writing as I did while working on Hell Beyond Hell. I could not stop writing and re-writing. I wrote for 15 hours each day and the more I wrote, and the more Kent and I interacted, the more passionate I became about this cause.
I passed off the final manuscript to him for editing as I do not know Military "language." He corrected, added and deleted. And then the fury of each of us working our tails off for five days straight came to a sudden halt. The story had come to life.
I turned the ISBN rights over to him, which basically means Kent owns it. I do not own rights to this piece. I wanted it to belong to Kent. As I said, he refused that, so I suppose it's safe to say that Hell Beyond Hell belongs to the brotherhood that is the USMC. I simply allowed a true hero to guide me in my art.
The last time I spoke to Kent over the phone was the final night of our work together. I was on the phone, guiding him through the on-line publishing process with Amazon. HBH was published in the late evening hours of February 15, 2015.
During the five days we worked together, I made sure to pre-promote it as much as possible with my FB friends. More importantly I did a lot of tagging on his page. People were excited for him. They wanted to know when it would be for sale. They expressed their avid interest and congratulated him.
They, as well as I, knew he does have a keen knack for writing. He gave regular updates on the progress, cracked jokes about the stress he and I were under to get this done quickly and without going into too much detail, hinted about some of the content. By this time, it seemed as if a frenzy of his friends were lining up to purchase this piece.
As I've mentioned a ga-zillion times, Kent has a wonderful sense of humor. The night HBH went to publishing on Amazon, he posted an announced to his ever-growing number fans that it was now (finally) for sale. He began his post with humble words indicating that that this was his first and last writing project He wanted to be left alone. He asked that he not be contacted for interviews. He wanted only to move on with his life and new family. But in typical Kent Mullin's shock-value style of humor, he ended his post with "BUT SHARE THE SHIT OUT OF THIS LIKE CHLAMYDIA IN A COLLEGE DORM."
Hell Beyond Hell; The Marine's War in Afghanistan exploded with rolling sales rolling and gained an elite status of a five-star review status on Amazon.com. Kent won't look back. I, by contrast want to take this to the next level.
The next level is a full novel which is currently in progress. It is entitled, Ghosts; The Unseen Disorder of PTSD. My interviews thus far have included Marine Grunts and civilian stories of a window into the lives of those who live with PTSD and its by-products of other psychiatric conditions. My goal is to reach as people from different backgrounds and life crisis that have caused PTSD. I want patients who suffer from PTSD and other unseen disorders to have a voice.
Ghost is formatted with each interviewee having his or her own chapter and telling their story. Each of them gives the reader an honest and very personal view on the painful events these folks have endured.
The stories range from Military combat situation, sexual abuse, bullying, dysfunction in families, work-related accidents and too many more issues to mention.
"Ghost" is written with a heavy focus on inner-strength, positivity and survival, thus providing hope for those who suffer from unseen disorders or have a loved one who does.
The reader is left to ponder many ways to conquer their personal demons and learn to live functionally amongst and are surviving while living with PTSD. With the variety of stories told from different people who come from many different backgrounds, my hope is that each reader will find
something for everyone.
PTSD is a huge issue in our society and civilians and veterans must deal with it and learn to live in harmony with the rest of our very busy and sometimes complicated society.
People who suffer from PTSD are chastised and ostracized by loved ones. I hope to change that.
Hell Beyond Hell; The Marine's War In Afghanistan is for sale on Amazon.com for download on Kindle or practically any other device for $1.99. I do not own a kindle but did purchase a copy for myself and was easily able to upload it onto my laptop. That particular piece is geared only toward the Marines.
I encourage anyone and everyone to purchase a copy of it.
My goal is not only that Kent's daughter, Samara get's a healthy college fund, but I want to provoke thought and allow the average American to peek through the window of the life of a Grunt. Education is key in this respect.
Finally, I hope it can help put the average American's life in perspective. We have the luxury of emotion, choices, backyard picnics and enjoying football on a crisp Fall Sunday afternoon. Grunts have two things they are allowed to concern themselves with in a combat situation; the guy on the right and the guy on the left. <3 JM
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