: About Me

Soldier, student, citizen... I play so many roles in this life that it's hard at times to keep them straight in my head. Above all else, however, I'm a writer.

Writing allows me to sort things out in my head, to help others understand and will hopefully allow me to tell the stories of other soldiers like myself. Being in the military has helped me to experience things I'd never have dreamed of, but at times limits the things I can talk about without giving away too much information.

My passion is ...

writing?

I know too much about ...

hurt.

My parents always told me ...

to shut the lights off when I leave a room.

My childhood ambition ...

to write.

Why I write ...

to help others understand.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Anything by Elizabeth Gilbert.

My first job ...

working at a deli.

My best moment ...

making E5.

My inspiration ...

is other soldiers.

Politics, News & Issues > War & Peace A female soldier returns from Iraq: The aftermath

2 of 2

When she joined the National Guard at 17, Caitlin Mancus never expected that at the age of 23 she would be living at home with her parents, working a minimum wage job and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. After hearing a pitch from a local recruiter during her senior year of high school, Mancus decided that she would join her local National Guard unit, drill one weekend a month and go to the college of her choice for free. Her parents, Lynn and Jim, were "ecstatic." As most of her classmates were getting ready to spend their last summer before college at the beach, Mancus was ...

More..

• Helium Charter Member