Discussion of "Let Home Go" by ARNG19D

Welcome to SM!

I saw this on the home page as featured story and as I started reading, I started thinking about your pseudonym. The story and your name match if, as I believe, ARNG stands for Army National Guard and 19D is the MOS for a cavalry scout.
Curious to know if I'm close....lol.

Regardless of that this was an excellent first entry to SM. I don't comment about grammar unless it's so bad as to make the story unreadable. What I DO care about is the story itself and verisimilitude. The story is well written but I think you glossed over a lot of the emotional impacts on young soldiers about to deploy...especially newlyweds and first deployers right out of school and basic/AIT. Sure, all of those emotional things could come up in subsequent chapters.

Verisimilitude: There are some not so good and some really bad NCO's around but, I think they are few. You didn't mention "Cookies" age or rank, but it's commendable that he noticed a potential problem and took it to his squad/platoon leader. I can't imagine an NCO turning over and telling a young soldier to handle the problem. Therein lies my problem with verisimilitude.

Not a biggie...just a comment....;o). If you would read a couple of my military chapters..."A Day in the Life 1, 2 and 3" and let me know what you think...

Make that "One Day in a Life"..ahem...lol.

Yes you are correct. My name does stand for that so you're right on the money there. Thanks for your input. I agree with you about NCO's. I used real life people for reference, though I should mention that he is the only NCO in the platoon who did things like that. He wasn't too good dealing with the emotional side of things. Other than that he was an excellent leader whom I have great respect for. I do understand your take on it and I shall keep it in mind for future chapters. I'll be sure to check out your chapters as well, thanks again for you comments.

Writing what you know is a good policy and it seems you know what your writing here. Rings true, and although I wasn't enlisted a lot of friends and family were. Would be interesting to read about your stories or experiences in the military. Always compelling, at least to me...