From Colonel – to Disillusioned – to Writer
John Wemlinger’s
twisted path out of the military By Mike Kent
The journey out of the military and into civilian life can be a tortured trail. That thorny path can be true for rank-and-file soldiers as well as military commanders. For northern Michigan veteran John Wemlinger, he traveled that trail for 17-years, until he finally found peace and a calling between the pages of the books he was writing.
W
emlinger has just published his fourth book, “The Widow and the Warrior.” He writes about what he knows: military life. But in the process he created a twist on a new genre that he calls military romance. Don’t mistake his fiction as frivolous. Each of his books tackles serious subjects including veteran suicide, post-traumatic stress disorders, vagaries of military justice and the most recent writing addresses vigilante justice. Wemlinger was a senior Army aviator with 800 combat hours flying choppers in Vietnam. He rose through the military ranks, was in command of thousands of people and relished every moment of his military service. He retired at the rank of colonel. It was after that service where he had trouble adapting. “It took five or six years for me to accept that the profit motive was as powerful as it was,” says Wemlinger. “It was hard for me.” He says when his military career
18 – GATHER Veterans
