Brian Mockenhaupt has written extensively about the wars and veterans’ issues for The Atlantic, Esquire, Reader’s Digest and Outside magazines, which has included several reporting trips to Afghanistan and Iraq. He served in the Army from 2002 to 2005 and did two Iraq tours as an infantryman with the 10th Mountain Division. Prior to the Army, he worked as a newspaper reporter in Providence, Rhode Island, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He studied journalism at Northwestern University and holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College.
Randy Brown embedded with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit as a civilian journalist in Afghanistan, May-June 2011. He authored the poetry collection Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire. His essays, journalism, and poetry have appeared widely both on-line and in print. As “Charlie Sherpa,” he writes about citizen-soldier culture at: www.redbullrising.com; about modern war poetry at www.fobhaiku.com, and about military writing at www.aimingcircle.com. Along with Steve Leonard, he was also co-editor of the anthology Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War.
David Ervin served in Operation Iraqi Freedom as an infantryman. He graduated from West Virginia University and has written numerous nonfiction and fiction works.
Sarah Maples is a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and Afghan War veteran. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a graduate degree in publishing from George Washington University. Her writing has appeared in, among others, The Atlantic, Task & Purpose, ClearanceJobs, and the Line of Advance anthology Our Best War Stories: Prize-winning Poetry & Prose from the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards. Sarah is a freelance writer, editor, and coach, and the founder of After the DD-214, a resource blog for veterans.
Tammy Ortung is a 25-year Air Force veteran and an emerging creative nonfiction (CNF) writer, who graduated from the Converse College MFA program in January 2020. Her essays have been published in As You Were: The Military Review, The Wall Between Us: Essays in Search of Truth, a Juncture Workshop Publication, and she is currently working on a memoir of her Iraq deployment. Tammy served as a CNF co-editor for South 85 Journal for three years before joining the As You Were team.
Beth Liechti Johnson. U.S. Army veteran. Global War on Terror. Operation Iraqi Freedom (Kuwait). Cold War (South Korea, Ft. Bragg, West Germany). Writer. Editor. Coach. Creator of Launch Your Light, a journaling class. Her stories and poetry have been published in Sisters in Arms: Lessons We’ve Learned (anthology), Line of Advance, As You Were: The Military Review (Vol. 17), Mighty Pen Project Anthology, and the Cactus Wren-dition. Currently, she serves as a Director with Veterans Heritage Project and as an Ambassador representing Arizona for the Military Women’s Memorial.
Dale Waters retired from the US Air Force as a Brigadier General, having flown numerous fighter aircraft and commanded fighter units in peacetime and combat operations.. He has served with the US State Department, intelligence agencies, and the Department of Defense, the latter in a civilian capacity. He is a member of the Arlington Writers Group and has written and published several short stories as well as a novel, Marty’s War.
Jillian Danback-McGhan is a writer and Navy veteran. She is the author of Midwatch (Split/Lip Press, February 2024), a collection of short stories depicting military service and its aftermath from the perspective of women veterans. Her work has appeared in As You Were, storySouth, the anthology Our Best War Stories: Award Winning Poetry & Prose from the Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards, and elsewhere. More information about her work can be found at jilliandanbackmcghan.com.