In Uniform

In this essay, William Pierce writes about his relationship with those who serve and how admiration and confusion can coexist.

This essay first appeared in Volume 9.

—for Chris Walsh

Two days before Christmas, in 2012, the leader of SEAL Team Four killed himself in Afghanistan. His father, as it happens, was a mentor of mine in the 1980s, a lacrosse coach who let a spindly ex-runner be the student manager of the team. Harry had helped me take pride in my athletic strengths, such…