Excerpt
Memorial Bridge
Before dawn, Friday, July 8
The U.S. military is headquartered in Washington, but it is not of Washington.
Its heart lies a thousand miles away, or more-in the Army, at Fort Leavenworth;
in the Air Force, along a dozen different runways in the South and Southwest; in
the Navy, in Norfolk, San Diego and Pearl Harbor. For most in Washington,
Congress is the engine that drives daily life. When Congress is in session,
there is an extra energy in Washington's downtown. When Congress is
"in," people work later hours, and spouses are often missing at dinner
parties. But even so, the pace is generally the pace of Congress-rising late and
not engaging the world until about ten in the morning. The military sticks by
its own timetable in Washington, one that pre-dates democracy. It is a schedule
set on thousands of battlefields, where the most dangerous time of day is just ... read full excerpt from A Soldier's Duty ebook
