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Powder, Writng by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq, is an anthology of short stories by women who are or have been in the armed forces. One of these, “The Controller,” was written by Christy Clothier, a former Naval air traffic controller, about her own attempted rape by another soldier, one example of the kind of abuse that’s rampant in the military but goes unreported for the most part. Christy is a friend and former classmate of mine who lives with her husband in Commerce City. While enlisted, she says she was so concerned with personal necessities like hunger and shelter that it took 9/11 to clue her in to the bigger picture. “It’s really shallow, admittedly, but I didn’t see my job as a part of a crowded machine—I just saw it as me trying to get through the military to get out of it—and doing the best I could in it, which was just talking to planes when they fly, and I didn’t correlate it to anything beyond what was immediately having to be done every day, like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna go there, work 8-16 hours, and make sure planes don’t hit each other,’ bujt it wasn’t until that day that it really like clicked, because I had to land all the civilian planes and launch all the military planes.”Her story’s title is a reference to her job at the time and her attempted rapist’s ultimate failure to steal control of her life. “I want so much to break this image or idea of the military is a purely masculine world,” she says. “Anymore, it’s not. But most of the abuse that happens is kept hush-hush because it’s still not fully integrated. I wanted to show the different layers, break those stereotypes. There’s another myth that people who join the military in general are these barbarians—but people don’t go in with the mindset: ‘Kill! Kill!” It’s actually trained into them. In a panel of writers and editors of writing about the military at the Tucson Book Festival, one of the things I realized is I would never want to kill someone or put the fear of death on someone the way it was done to me when I was attacked. When I said that and three or four guys got up and walked out. I was just happy they heard it.”
When she gave her professor the very first draft and asked her if it was good enough, the professor told Christy to send it to Kore Press, its eventual publisher, and Vermont College, our alma mater. “It was a little unsettling, since she was known as this very hard woman to impress, so it really boosted my confidence, her recommending that. [Kore Press] wrote back and said, ‘This needs significant editing.’ [laughs] Had it not been for the professor, I would never even have known about it. That was before I got to Vermont. After one month of working with advisors there, I sent it to Kore again, and they had a completely different response—they said they loved it and wanted to publish it.”
Comments
I knew Christy in the Navy. It is funny how she can write a story about the horrible things that happened to her when she was far from being a saint. I knew her as a woman who freely gave up sex to almost anyone (male or female). I am sure her second ex-husband could tell stories about her loose morals. I personally knew about her affair while she and her second ex were engaged and from what I understand she is currently married to the she last cheated on him with. I tell you these things because I dont want you or anyone else blinded by her charm and cute personality. She is vendictive and will do what she needs to do to get what she wants. I was stationed with her when she was assaulted and her contribution to Powder is full of half truths and discredits the other works of the book.
Dear Pushing Tin,
That was really classy. Hemmingway can be what he was and it's wonderful. Jack London? Hunter S. Thompson....oh, god! So Christi.....keep on writing....even if it's as Markella Twainy.
Sincerely,
Farnsworth P. Wigglesworth
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