About Penfist
I am a combat correspondent. That’s not a metaphor.
I served as a Marine with MOS 4341 — the military occupational specialty for combat correspondents — then as a press chief, then crossed into the Army as a public affairs NCO. I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. I filed stories from places most journalists reached by satellite phone from hotel bars. I know what the machine looks like from the inside because I was a working part of it.
I was born in Canada, adopted by a Mennonite and Amish couple, and grew up in Bangladesh and Haiti before immigrating to the United States. I became a citizen. I raised my right hand. I believed in the thing I was fighting for.
I’m not sure I believe that anymore.
Dispatches from a Dying Empire is where I work through what I’ve seen — the wars, the institutions, the country itself — with the same discipline I brought to the field. No performance. No partisan cheerleading. Just the honest assessment of someone who paid for their credentials in the usual ways.
I live nomadically now, writing from a travel trailer somewhere in the American interior. My audience is anyone who suspects the official story doesn’t hold together and wants analysis that doesn’t insult their intelligence.
If that’s you, subscribe.
Penfist | Combat correspondent. Immigrant. Atheist. I fought for this country. Now I write about what’s killing it.
You can support my work here, on Patreon, or by purchasing on Amazon.
