In the VA’s emergency room, Molly Pearl and her husband made the imperceptible shift between soldier and patient, wife and caregiver.

Read her story.

Liz O’Herrin Lee finds peace in an unknown future in the presence of Australia’s living memorial built by and for the country’s World War I veterans.

Read her story.

Augusto Giacoman danced to Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” as his convoy patrolled Mosul, Iraq. And then the IED exploded.

Read his story.

J.P. Lawrence thought he knew his happy-go-lucky friend from deployment until he learned that Belland had struggled with addiction and died by overdose.

Read his story.

David Chrisinger learned to treat a writer’s words with the proper care before publication after a student veteran was pushed to the brink of suicide.

Read his story.

Jackie Munn and her husband quietly said their last goodbyes before she boarded the C-17 headed to Afghanistan and her Cultural Support Team assignment.

Read her story.

M. L. Doyle deployed to Bosnia, in 1997, two years into the NATO peacekeeping mission. Today, she reads about “widening ethnic cracks” and wonders when conflict ends.

Read her story.

Our writing seminars are where the best writers of today pay it forward to the most promising writers of tomorrow. The stories of military spouses during 17 years at war have largely remained untold. We are excited to work together to change this narrative.

Learn about our Fellows.

Melisa Thomas held the little girl in her lap as their Humvee sped to meet the helicopter, uttering “English-nonsense” to keep the child from passing out.

Read her story.

Tenley Lozano dove the retired aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, encountering great barracuda and memories of the ship she’d been serving on six months prior.

Read her story.

Teresa Fazio reviews Kate Germano’s new memoir, in which the retired lieutenant colonel makes the case for the reforms she made at Harris Island, which ultimately got her sacked.

Kelly McHugh-Stewart lost her military ID when she turned 21, and in turn, the ability to easily visit her father’s grave at Fort Leavenworth.

Read her story.

Liesel Kershul faced crushing shame feeling that being a military spouse has kept her from fulfilling her potential. After 15 years, she's found peace.

Read Liesel's story.

Augusto Giacoman went in for a haircut, high and tight. Then things went horribly wrong.

Read his story.

Nathan and his unit traveled to Oman in 2013 to train with its military. Quickly, training evolved into an experience the Corps had not prepared him for.

Read his story.

A midnight raid on a West Point down in which Augusto Giacoman was armed with hot sauce prepared him for war better than West Point's rigid rules.

Read his story.

Michael Carson talked philosophy and tragedy in a Mosul coffee shop. Back in the U.S. he’s still asking questions for which there are no answers.

Read his story.

Drew Pham saw his refugee parents in Afghan civilians. Compassion, he thought, was the answer. But a part of his soul hardened as he learned to love war.

Read Drew's story.

Sarah Holzhalb wonders if the migrants she and her Coast Guard boat scooped out of the water are alive today, and what lives they returned to.

Read Sarah's story.

Maggie Seymour set out on a cross-country run to reconnect with herself and find the ground under her feet. Along the way she found a sense of home.

Read Maggie's story.

Brendan O’Byrne returned home from the Korengal to a chorus of civilians calling him a hero. For years he’s struggled to define that word for himself.

Read his story.

He bore his son’s body to the Americans’ base and let the blood drip and congeal on the wooden deck. And then he left, and left the blood behind.

Read Jackie's story.

Kelly McHugh-Stewart's father died in Afghanistan on May 18, 2010. Since then she's had two separate graduations—both were on the anniversary of his death.

Read her story.

One night stuck in a shipping container during an air raid drill is enough to make anyone claustrophobic. Problem is, Yvette Pino already was.

Read her story.

Scott Reel learned quickly that he could resist the Corps' structure and suffer, or he could play the part of the good Marine, do his time, and then leave.

Read his story.

Sarah Holzhalb endured a marathon of funerals shortly after separating from the Coast Guard. All these years later, the month of March still sucks.

Read Sarah's story.

Jackie Munn spilled hot chai on her lap and the girls erupted in giggles. They danced, smiled, asked why Munn had blue eyes. Then came the whip.

Read her story.

As traffic slowed to a stop and the color drained from his face, Liesel Kershul began to see that Tom had changed. Then he tried to kill her in his sleep.

Read her story.

Nathan Eckman wonders what a recall to service would mean for the life he’s built since exiting active duty, and if he’d answer that call.

Read his story.

Augusto Giacoman parked his Stryker under the streetlights and then the bomb exploded. What happened next is a hazy mixture of memory and nightmare.

Read his story.

Elizabeth O’Herrin found solace in writing about her war, and she wonders and wishes she could ask her grandfather if he felt relief in writing about his.

Read her story.

Anxiety over the military sexual trauma she withstood plagued Rachael Harris when she came home. Her adopted dog, Fern, barreled through those walls.

Read Rachel's story.

Two years after a helicopter carrying Marines crashed in the Nepali mountains, Marine veteran Teresa Fazio encountered the wilderness that had claimed them.

Read her story.

War poisoned his body and threatened his life. To survive, Drew Pham had to lose all chance of fathering a child.

Read his story.

Augusto Giacoman almost jumped for joy when he was assigned his first midnight raid, but what he saw that night quickly changed his mind.

Read his story.

The War Horse publishes fact-based, public service journalism that benefits more than 4 million Post-9/11 veterans, their families, and our fellow citizens.

Read about some of the biggest and clearest examples of our impact.

Our team measures the success of our work by impact, by which we mean real-world change spurred by our reporting.

Learn about the generous donors who make our team's impact possible.

Nina Semczuk arrived at the National Training Center in California prepared to train; she wasn’t prepared for a fellow soldier to die.

Read Nina's story.

Jerad W. Alexander fired his first machine gun at 12 and was hypnotized. Not many years later, patrolling Iraqi streets, he learned the weapon's power.

Read Jerad's story.

Waiting in the lobby of the mental health unit, Francisco Martínezcuello wonders when, in his then-17-year career, he stopped trusting the Navy.

Read his story.

In Joe, Drew Pham found a supportive peer and guide. One careless act threatened their relationship, forcing Drew to really consider what Joe means to him.

Read his story.

Nathan Eckman wrote off the idea of having a relationship while he was in the Marine Corps. When he met Emily, the Corps helped forge their relationship.

Read their story.

David Chrisinger grapples with his guilt about not having served, and draws on his own experiences of feeling powerless to connect with a friend who did.

Read David's story.

Our team is a proud participant of the Shorenstein Center’s Single Subject News Network, funded by The Knight Foundation. Along with our colleagues at The Marshall Project, The Trace, Chalkbeat, The Hechinger Report, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, and The Center for Public Integrity, we share learnings on how non-profit and independent outlets like ours can best engage with readers like you.

Augusto Giacoman’s humanity was reduced to instinct as the rockets began to hit, and he understood how the frog he encountered as a child must have felt.

Read his story.

Liesel Kershul used to worry about her Marine pilot husband only when he deployed. Now, with flight hours down and aircraft crashes up, she worries about him when he goes to work.

Read Liesel's story.

Rule #2 of Submarines: Don’t Crash The Fucking Submarine

Read Tim's story.

Drew Pham grieves for the family of the man he killed at war. His peers and commanders told him it was a good kill, but how can a kill be “good”?

Andrea N. Goldstein lost her sense of home when she left home for college and the military. Moving to New York City, she learned to come home to herself.

Scandal after scandal, sexual predators in the military continue to harass and assault with impunity. Military brass pay lip service to eradicating the problem. Explore how the Defense Department has skirted accountability for nearly 40 years.

View our interactive timeline.

Seven years ago this month Lance Corporal Kyle Carpenter suffered grievous wounds after shielding another Marine from a grenade blast in Afghanistan. Somehow, he survived.

Our award-wining story of his remarkable recovery.

A week-long writing retreat that brings a dozen Post-9/11 women veterans together with leading military reporters, veteran advocates, educators, and mental health leaders.

Learn about our fellows.

Nearly two years after separating from the Marine Corps, Nathan Eckman struggles to define "service" and understand how to serve as a civilian.

Read Nate's story.

Read Liesel's story.

Joy Craig's childhood was anything but stable. After graduating high school, foster care forced her out, and she was homeless. Until she enlisted.

Read her story.

Dustin Jones misfired as Marines fell around him. Today, living stateside, he sometimes struggles to separate reality from dreams.

Read his story.

Elizabeth O'Herrin handed the groggy patient his Purple Heart. Immediately, she worried she'd made a mistake, giving it to him so soon after his amputation.

Read her story.

Corps mistakenly outs first woman grunt, then denies multiple interview requests, citing her privacy concerns. Veterans call for transparency, celebration.