Dot on the left

Meet another reader. West Point, Iraq, and what happens afterward. Also, 7 other things worth your time.

A little over a decade ago(!), I wrote a book called In a Time of War, about the U.S. Military Academy’s class of 2002. As an unexpected bonus, I became friends with some of the real-life characters in the book.

High on that list is Dave Swanson, who is now also an Understandably reader and supporter.

Let me give you a one sentence preview of Dave’s story:

Enlisted out of high school, went to the West Point prep school and then the academy, served five years as an infantry officer including some pretty intense combat in Iraq, and now studies, writes about, and gives speeches on leadership.

The real story is in the details, of course, and Dave will be our second “as told to” subject, below. These days, he lives with his wife and daughters in Austin, Texas, where he works for the University of Texas, and is a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University in Chicago.

After Fred Rooney’s as-told-to story last week, I heard from many other readers who were either (a) interested in doing one of the…