Loving or hating MREs really depended on which ones you got. This excerpt from Field Notes from the Sunset Brigade includes a quick lesson on both the classics and the utterly horrific. (At least in 1999.)

Sharing our art can be a nerve-wracking experience since any effort to entertain carries an innate possibility of total embarassment. The QB's pass can sail into a mascot's head. The ballerina might tumble off the stage. Fortunately for artists, there's also momentum from going too far to turn back.

The opening of Field Notes from the Sunset Brigade flashes back to my Tony Roma's delivery days and features The Smashing Pumpkins' "1979," a masterpiece which is somehow both futuristic and timeless. My hope is it establishes the book as a coming-of-age story from the first paragraph.

Here are just a few of the many reasons I’m writing Field Notes from the Sunset Brigade.

Excerpts from the introduction to Field Notes from the Sunset Brigade.

"Field Notes from the Sunset Brigade" is a coming-of-age memoir set within the US Army. This is the cover, based around a portrait my friend Steve took the morning I shipped off to Basic training. New chapters will post weekly on Substack.

Announcing "Field Notes from the Sunset Brigade: A Young Man's Lessons and Mishaps Within the World’s Most Dangerous Bureaucracy." This story will serialize over the next few months on Substack. Stay tuned and follow along for updates.

Hi I’m Jordan, an author from PDX. I have books of my own, I've ghostwritten others, and contributed to Willamette Week.

Now I’m serializing Field Notes from the Sunset Brigade—a memoir of my lessons, mishaps, and adventures as an American soldier on Substack.

I wrote this prayer for fellow Americans, and especially for those feeling angst.