Last month I attended a workshop called “Veteran-Civilian Dialogue.” It’s a program run by the non-profit Intersections. The purpose is to bring veterans and civilians together to talk about war and military service.

A reporter was there and jotted down something I said to the group which made it to the October 3 issue of Stars and Stripes:

Don Gomez, 29, served two tours in Iraq as an enlisted soldier, came home to go to college and is heading back to the military. He’ll start at Army officer candidate school this month. He said he was there because he sought a place where people could remove politics from their discussion of war, however briefly.

“You can yell at each other later,” he said. “We’re all human, and it’s important to connect as humans.”

My recruiter said he read my name in the paper today when I showed up to begin processing for OCS. Weird.

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