I had three things in common with Claudene Christian. We were at USC at the same time, when she was a campus-famous Song Girl. She was raised in Anchorage and when I was eventually stationed there, many of the friends I made had been her friends in high school. And, knowing something about ocean rescues from helicopters, I felt connected to the Coast Guard crews who went to save her crew from the sinking Bounty during Hurricane Sandy, bringing home 14 alive but only recovering Christian's body.
In the months after Bounty, I could not stop wondering how a woman with such a background could possibly have ended up on a leaky wooden boat in a hurricane 100 miles off the coast of North Carolina.
In the months after Bounty, I could not stop wondering how a woman with such a background could possibly have ended up on a leaky wooden boat in a hurricane 100 miles off the coast of North Carolina.
My first major magazine feature and return to writing after Pararescue.
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Proud of this one. As a Delta Force soldier, MSGT Josh Wheeler lived in secret, but his final pictures in his uniform tell his story if you know how to listen.
As a former Pararescueman, I loved the achievement of the first two female Rangers. I tried to capture what their achievement meant form the point of view of those with Special Ops experience.
Sometimes, you get the assignment and you are so psyched because the subject is great. And then sometimes nobody calls you back. Not bad for a write-around.
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How the First Women Ranger Grads Are Inspiring Women At West Point
Soon after the first two women graduated Ranger school, I got a tip that they had visited West Point. Turns out they had visited the lacrosse team, so I got those interviews, and also got the school's recruiting head to talk about how they had reshaped the way West Point recruits women.
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Alaska: Where the Tea Party Trail Runs Cold
While I was at Arctic Man (see below), an editor at the Washingtonian asked me to take a look at the dynamics of the Senate race there, a race that could swing the Senate. For internal reasons, this story missed its real window by a couple months, but a fun companion piece to Arctic Man on the mindset of Being Alaskan.
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Roman Dial might be Alaska's most accomplished adventurer. In the summer of 2014, his son Cody went missing during a trek across Costa Rica's most famous jungle. As Dial searched, I talked to Cody's mom, recounted Roman's career, and laid out how a world class adventurer might search for a missing son in a remote jungle. Includes follow-up coverage when his body body was found.
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Deadspin (pre-meltdown) picked up this story, which I wrote for Lacrosse Magazine. It presents the murder victim from Serial, Hae Min Lee, as the vibrant teenager and aggressive, talented lacrosse player she was. I tracked down eight of her teammates, friends and coaches (only one of whom had talked to Serial's staff) and nearly all had very emotional memories of Hae. Serial, for all its greatness, did not take a lot of time to examine Lee, so I was happy to add this small piece to that puzzle.
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ARCTIC MAN
In the remotest spot in Alaska that you can reach with a car, a weeklong, booze and fossil-fueled Sledneck Revival bookended around the wildest ski race on Earth.
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OTHER STUFF
- Online, April 13, 2015
(above link is to Esquire feature, which is a condensed version of this original post from this blog. Several hints and points of information were cut for the Esquire piece for length).
UPDATE: Just below on this blog, a second inside joke/Easter Egg from the same episode. Not MASH related and much simpler than the post above, but perhaps even more visually jarring. A fun one.
In Defense of Randy Travis
It's country music, y'all, and Travis is about as big as stars get. A certain level of hell-raising is just part of the deal (also: Three Wooden Crosses, the saddest damn song you've never heard).
E! NFL Recaps
E! runs 'recaps' of nearly every TV series on the air. Why not the most popular TV franchise in America, the NFL? Every week, I found nuggets for E!'s decidenly non-sports demographic that resonated.
(NOTE: I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE THE 'REAL' NFL MEDIA DIDN'T NOTICE THIS)
Remainder of E! recaps
http://www.eonline.com/news/
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