The Johns Hopkins University Foreign Affairs Symposium presented me with the Anne Smedinghoff Award for “a life dedicated to service, social justice, and a commitment to others.”

I received an HW Wilson Fellowship to write plays in the MFA program at Fairfield University.

My memoir, Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years, was a finalist for the Books for a Better Life award.

Three of my essays have been listed as notable in Best American Essays (2011, 2012, and 2014), and one received special recognition in the XXXIX Pushcart Prizes (2015).

Hand-Clubbed Baby Seal was a juried finalist in the Veterans Repertory Theater playwriting contest 2022. The play has been selected for the Short & Sweet Festival three times: Dubai 2022 and 2023, and Sydney 2024.

Buttdial was juried and selected for the 2022 Things That Go Bump in The Night festival at Lowell Arts in Michigan.

Come Dawn was selected for the Salem State University Veterans Playwriting Festival 2023 and for the Maine Playwrights Festival in 2024.

Two of my songs won medals (one gold with special recognition, one bronze) at the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival.

One of my songs was anthologized by the Canadian Mental Health Association for the Music for a Better Mind program on resilience.

I received lots of awards and decorations while I was a soldier and Foreign Service officer. I think the one I’m most proud of is the William R. Rivkin award. The American Foreign Service Association presented it to me for “intellectual courage and the creative use of dissent in foreign policy.”

Image: Robert Turtil for the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is my dog Harry (2006-2020) the photo was part of a Department of Veterans Affairs resilience program called Stronger at the Broken Places.