- USAF Academy Department of History
A Cabin in the Mountains and Other Short Stories
by John L. Cirafici
Two young adults, each struggling with the nearly overwhelming burden of major trauma in their respective lives, are forced to confront their demons. With a backdrop of combat in Iraq, fighting wildfires in Idaho, and alienation from family, they seek, as a couple, to create a new reality. This is the story of how each struggles to come to terms with the past and forge a future together.
Barbara Jean please come down the mountain; we miss you
Two mountain rescue specialists are among searchers looking for Barbara Jean, missing on Pike’s Peak. They seem to be closing in on her as they find clues, but sightings elude them. To pass the time they talk about past rescue incidents. Some, however, turn out to be almost too painful to recall.
A Morning in Mobile
A short story that includes in its main elements the KKK, the Industrial Worker’s of the World, and social injustice. The story is set in late 1968 when an old sailor tells of his incarceration in a Mobile, Alabama jail, back in 1922. He was just a pawn in a larger struggle between the IWW and the KKK. The listener, a recent Vietnam War returnee recognizes in the old man’s story parallels to issues that have been on his mind since returning to the United States, and perhaps the means to understand them.
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas in Sarajevo
A combat veteran facing his own demons comes face to face in war torn Bosnia with the victims of genocide. If he can figure out how they cope then possibly he can find peace within himself.
