Arlinn Booth read one of my books when he was in high school. He had questions about writing, and I had questions about his military and security service, so we spoke.

Booth grew up in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, a place he describes as a “red, white, and blue little town,” referencing the country song “May We All” by the duo Florida Georgia Line. He was in kindergarten on 9/11 and remembered patriotism being at an all-time high in the years that followed. He listened to Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.” His grandfather served two tours in Vietnam, and his grandmother was active with Vietnam Veterans of America. His uncle served in the Marines from 1996 to 2000. All of this made it inevitable that Arlinn Booth would become a Marine after graduating high school in 2014. “I wanted to sit down at the table at the VVA and be part of the conversation,” Booth said.