Arts project to help troops, write about experiences

Dick Benoit

Thursday, May 13, 2004 | 8:14 a.m.

The National Endowment for the Arts is offering a series of writers workshops to help troops and family members tell about their wartime experiences.

The two-day workshops will be held at several stateside and overseas military bases for troops returning from wartime duty in locales like Afghanistan and Iraq. The workshops will be led by distinguished writers such as Tom Clancy, author of "The Hunt for Red October," Tom Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down," and Bobbie Ann Mason, author of "In Country."

The first workshop -- for soldiers and their family members -- is slated for June 3-4 at Fort Drum, N.Y. Other workshop locations include: Fort Richardson, Alaska; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Hurlburt Field, Fla.; Norfolk, Va., and San Diego.

The Defense Department is working with the NEA to put on the workshops, Charles S. Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said.

Abell said that military personnel returning from duty in the war against terrorism have myriad experiences that many on the home front may never fully understand.

The NEA also is soliciting service members and family members' wartime recollections reflected in prose, essays, letters and other writings for a book anthology of recent conflicts. Submissions for the anthology will be accepted through Dec. 31, and can be sent electronically to submissions@operationhomecoming.org or mailed to Operation Homecoming, National Endowment for the Arts, Suite 519, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506.

Rancho grad in Italy

Army Spc. Greg Sanchez, Rancho High School class of 1998 and son of Greg Sanchez Sr. and Felecia Powell, both of Las Vegas, has returned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vicenza, Italy, after completing a deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with additional participation in Operation Northern Delay as an airborne infantry team leader with five years of military service.

In brief