Goodreads asked Dave Cullen:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Dave Cullen I assume you mean the book I'm writing now (due out in 2-3 years, tentatively titled "Soldiers First."

It was really a fusion of a couple different books I wanted to write, with a huge genesis.

I dropped out of college at 21 (3.5 years in, but nowhere near graduating, having tried a slew of majors) and enlisted in the army to help sort out my life--and I guess make more of a man out of myself. (I was gay, but in deep denial about that and still in deep self-loathing about being such a worthless fag.)

I kind of expected to fail miserably, but took to it like a fish to water, loved it and got sent to Officer Candidate School to become an officer. I had my first run-ins with fellow soldiers accused of being gay, which really scarred me a bit. For many, many years, I knew I needed to write about that. That was 1983.

Then in 2000, I wrote a piece on gays in the military for Salon.com, which led me to meet an active-duty army captain, who introduced me to many more, and their life was so fascinating that I spent 5 months with them and completely changed the Salon piece into an account of their lives. (Of all the soldiers, I picked the most interesting 3: all captains.) It was an 11,000-word piece which won a GLAAD Media Award.

I always expected to follow up, but didn't foresee a book. But I became friends with the guys, stayed close, and two of them went through such amazing turmoil, it screamed out as a book.

I wanted to write their story, but also a story about my experience, and another book about the three recent US wars: The Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan.

As I sorted these projects out, they gradually fused into one. (The two guys served in all three wars).

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