For Veterans Day we're revisiting two interviews about war. Elliot Ackerman served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, during which time, he says, he witnessed the absolute worst — as well as the absolute best — that human beings are capable of. Ackerman is also a journalist, novelist, memoirist and National Book Award nominee. His Silver Star is for leading a platoon in the Battle of Fallujah in Iraq. Historian Matthew Delmont talks about the more than one million Black people who served in the military in WWII, the contributions they made and discrimination they faced, and those who struggled for equality in civilian life. Delmont's book is Half American. Film critic Justin Chang reviews David Fincher's new thriller, The Killer. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of.
Complaints about people using the pronoun they.
To refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is fresh air.
I'm Tanya Moseley.
Veterans Day is tomorrow, and today we feature interviews with and about veterans.
Elliot Ackerman is a former marine and intelligence officer who has become a reflective and elegant writer about war and its consequences.
He was awarded a silver star for leading a platoon in one of the worst battles of the war in Iraq and the Battle of Fallujah during urban house to house combat.
The citation said his contagious combat leadership and ability to instill this type of dedication is the stuff of legends.
In his memoir, places and names, he wrote about what was going on in his mind during the battle when his men took a lot of lives while losing members of their own platoon.
In a New York Times review of the memoir, Ann Bernard described it as a classic meditation on war and how it compels and resists our efforts to order it with meaning.
Ackerman did five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was nearly killed at the end of his final tour.
Ackerman has also written several novels and has been published in the New Yorker and the Washington Post.
He's also a contributing writer for the New York Times in the Atlantic.
His most recent article in the Atlantic, titled a Knife Fight in a phone booth, is about urban combat and what israeli troops are likely to face in Gaza.
Terry spoke to Elliot Ackerman in 2021.
He told her, as a young man, he was fascinated by the depictions of war he saw in films and tv.