Tagged: military

A solider from Washington state has been charged with murder in the death of his pregnant wife.  Prosecutors also say Pvt. Isaac Aguigui of Cashmere, Wash., is the ringleader of an anti-government militia group that plotted to overthrow the government and poison apple crops in Washington state.

Last week the Department of Defense delayed anticipated furlough notices for civilian employees. The DOD said the two-week delay would allow it to analyze the impact of the federal budget sequester on its workforce.

But not everyone got a reprieve.

In her poem "What Stays Here," Colleen McElroy imagines life as a female soldier who must choose between loyalty to herself, and loyalty to a military code that says "keep quiet" and "get along." Like many of the poems in McElroy's ninth collection, "Here I Throw Down My Heart," (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012) the poem awakens us to voices and stories we might otherwise never hear with such intimacy and power.