This book is the author's reflection of what came from a veterans' writing group called Warrior Writers, and from attending and having opportunities to read at open mics in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Facilitator with Warrior Writers, father, preacher, poet and peace activist.

ERIC WASILESKI: We are at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts. And what we’re doing here today is we’re demonstrating against the war, and we’re here to promote peace.

My name is Eric Wasileski. I grew up in Greenfield, Massachusetts. It’s in Western Massachusetts. I am a veteran. I served for eight years in the military — two years in the Army and six years in the Navy. And during the time of my Navy services, when I was in combat.

The reason why I personally came here is I have experienced combat. In December of 1998, my ship, U.S.S. Stout, was ordered to launch Tomahawk missiles into Iraq. And we launched 52 Tomahawk missiles into Iraq during the presidency of Bill Clinton. What we were doing was we were attacking people that could not attack us back. There was no way for them to strike back at us. So we were standing in a very safe, very secure place, launching some of the most deadly ordinance known to humanity. It’s kind of like — the folks on the ship were kind of like having a party. Like "Woohoo!" They were yelling and screaming. It was a killing frenzy, I’ll tell you. It was very difficult to see it. And this did not feel honorable, the fact that we were, in essence, slaying people, just killing them indiscriminately. My heart, it aches every time I think about what happened and the fact that I was a part of it.

I’m going to be committing an act of civil disobedience today, because I have done everything else that I could do. I have written letters. I have emailed. I have fasted. I have walked over 350 miles. I have done everything I could think of up to this point to try to bring peace, to try to bring understanding and try to get my message out. And I feel as though this is the last — this is the thing I have to do now.

I went to Westover Air Force Base and took part in a large demonstration, in part to voice my dissent as an American, as a veteran, and as a man of God. I definitely have a debt to pay to society, and that debt is I was a war maker. And the only way I can think of to pay that debt is to become a peacemaker.