One of my favorite quotes, in fact it has become my life’s mantra, is from Herman Melville’s book, Moby Dick, which reads, “The path to my fixed purpose is laid on iron rails in which my soul is grooved to ride.“

The path my life is now taking, and my fixed purpose started on 8 August, 2005. That was the day my warrior, my hero, my son—Staff Sergeant Christopher Falkel—was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan. He freely gave his life while saving the lives of his “brothers” and teammates during an incredible 54 hour battle with Taliban forces. Chris was a member of 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) and he was awarded the Purple Heart Medal as well as the Silver Star Medal for his valor and bravery during that great battle. Two days later, I began writing a book about Chris with his “brothers”, and we call it, The Making of OUR Warrior. I want people to understand the caliber of the man, soldier and warrior that my son was. Writing OUR book has been the hardest thing I have ever done, yet it remains my greatest accomplishment.

It took me three years to finish what I started two days after my son left us. And even though there were times while I was writing OUR book that I felt like I had been “hit by a truck,” once I finished a chapter, and particularly once I finished OUR book, I found a tremendous healing of my pain had occurred. So it was then, in the late fall of 2008 that I KNEW what I needed to do with the rest of my life— help other families tell their stories of their heroes.

Another thing happened to me while I was finishing OUR book. I literally wrote the entire book while sitting in a chair that was under the amazing portrait of Chris that was given to me by Mr. Michael Reagan of the Fallen Heroes Project
(to contact Michael, please visit his website at www.fallenheroesproject.org).
Michael has done over 1600 portraits of our fallen heroes for their families at NO CHARGE, for he truly believes that our families have paid the ultimate price. While I was finishing OUR book about Chris, it hit me like a locomotive this time that I wanted to do the same for the families of our fallen warriors.