The Scope of “Warfighter”

This is a document I prepared to form the scope and basis for my manuscript “Warfighter” – it was preliminary in nature and written in July of 2011 in Hawaii, before I had started the actual manuscript. This has not been edited since that date, some information may now be inaccurate, but it paints a sufficient picture of my intents, the actions I plan to execute to reach my objective, and some formalities about the nature of this process.

The PDF is viewable here:

Warfighter Scope – K. M. Blanchard – PDF

Text from PDF below:

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Warfighter

Kristan M. Blanchard

(AKA: “Trenton Phoenix” in currently published work)

Scope: 

The scope of this manuscript is to provide the public with intimate, accountable and thus accurate insights into the minds, and hearts of America’s warfighters – first defining them in a technical and tactical manner before depicting them as a whole – as men, as humans.

This work is more a chase of my own personal demons, and thus a fight for salvation than it is the development of a product or any use of monetary gain, and is motivated as such – appropriately so taking up a very fluid form. It is my firm belief that to understand is to forgive, and if we do not understand our selves and our world, we become slaves to each.

The motivation of this work has been derived from my own feelings of alienation and misunderstanding. Speaking purely on my own account, I have battled being feared and misunderstood by those of whom I have fallen in love with, and has caused a great deal of anguish and heart ache, as well as resentment and feelings that I cannot adjust and there for fit into this “civilian world” – like I “should have never left that country alive”.

These feelings and descriptions are both intimate and accurate, and I believe that they are not unique to my self, but to a breed of us – to many of us; of which some may not have the means or the will to express and there for understand the complications of war fighting, and its lingering if not eternally lasting effects on the psyche of the Warfighter.

It is thus my hope, my mission, and my passion to bring new light to human element of these warfighters, to bring understanding of the public to the closed group of select Americans that have earned their place in this group. Although the focus of this manuscript is not to define PTSD from a doctoral standpoint, obvious undertones dealing with elements that may be described as contributing to PTSD, or being correlated with it will be present. PTSD is relevant to this pursuit, and will not be overlooked, or cloqued.

The method of delivery is, of course, in book form, utilizing the interviews and personal accounts of other Warfighters – from the Commissioned leaders to the enlisted leaders and troops – and my own accounts. Through vivid and accurate language, and a powerful voice, I aim to bring the words of these warfighters to paper to combine them into a collection that resembles more of an intimate documentary than a narrative, and perhaps save some souls, some marriages, and maybe even some lives – my own included.

The use of audio sessions, written notes, diagrams, Marine Corps Doctrine (MCDP 1 Warfighting) and photographs will aid my research to delve into the hearts and minds of our warfighters. It is my aspiration to embed with a Marine Infantry unit in the current wartime operations in Afghanistan to take photos and other audio and written notes to bring further authentic and dynamic elements into this work.

It is not my intent, desire, or mission to interrupt or circumvent any mission, discipline or security practice in doing so – and a strict eye to operational security will be kept, and adhered to through-out the development and publishing of this work, in any of its forms.

Simply put, it is my mission to expose the dynamics and fallacies of what being a Warfighter means, both in country, and in our own home – as I believe many Americans truly don’t understand what a Warfighter is. We will change that.

Technical background information about the author:  Kristan. M. Blanchard.

Note: DD-214 is accompanied with this document. (Omitted)

Author of “Dark Tomorrow” – a 75-page story chronicling the events leading up to a young teenager girls ultimate death, to include several brutal rapes. Written at the age of 15-16. Published in Dec 2005, while in at MCRD, San Diego for Marine Basic Training.

Author of poetry compilation “Of Blood & Ink” – published December 2008, while forward deployed to Camp TQ, Iraq with 1/12 Charlie Btry, TFMP.

Kristan M. Blanchard is not employed by any news-reporting agency, publisher, magazine or any kind of Media Corporation or company, and has no formal education or degree pursuing literature – in fact, he is a current Business Major at The University of Phoenix in Mililani, Hawaii. This work is purely auxiliary in nature to his professional life. It is his intent to finish his degree in 2013, and receive his commission in the United States Marine Corps, to become an Infantry Officer.

The following are my primary questions I will have for the commissioned leaders of the infantry unit I am allowed to speak with, as well as their enlisted subordinates. Concluding these questions, I would invite each Marine to speak openly about whatever he feels relevant and needs expressing. It is my intent that these interviews, or more documentary discussions are executed in a lateral manner, and not a linear manner.

   Question 1: Technically and tactically speaking, what do you feel is a Warfighter?

Question 2: Can you please explain what you feel is the human component to this same Warfighter – a man, a son, a father, husband – describe them in the light of any other human being, or maybe in contrast to others. This question is obviously more dynamic.

Question 3: Please describe what you feel is the most difficult challenge of re adjusting back to “normal life”, and how possible that either has become, or hasn’t.

For the commanders:

Question 3: Please describe the delicacies and the burden of command.

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