When I posted about my friend Marty Cesana on Memorial Day, some of you said you’d like to know more about him. We’re all too complex and cool to summarize, of course, and most of what you’ll read about him is that he was a West Pointer and a combat engineer and really good at it and all that stuff. But those are the easy outlines. He was also quiet and smart and fixed all our bicycles. He had a cat named Tigger. He joined the rest of our group of lieutenants when we got rowdy, but when he’d had enough he would disappear without apology. He was my pen pal when he was stationed in Korea. Maybe I’ll share some of his letters next Memorial Day.

In the meantime, please enjoy his recipe for Kahlua brownies. Yes, big tough combat engineers also sometimes bake their own brownies for the potluck. I tend to prefer brownies from a cheap-ass boxed mix, but for homemade these are pretty good!

You might also enjoy a creative non-fiction story I wrote titled “Dirtbag Lieutenant” that publishes today, in the Military Experience and the Arts annual Veterans Day issue, “As You Were.” I pulled this one straight from my guts, with the help of the good folks from Consequence Forum and the So Say We All veteran writers division. Have a look at some of the other stories and poems and photographs while you’re there!

Enjoy your free meals at Chili’s, all you other veterans! You paid a lot for them.

Salute,

Nancy