When Army Chaplain David Peters returned from active duty in Iraq nine years ago, he discovered that even though he no longer was living in the chaos of war, the battle within was just beginning.
Not long after he returned home, he got divorced ”and started serially dating and wondered, ’What is wrong with me?’ ”
But Rev. Peters realized that he had “to keep it together” for the wounded troops he was ministering to at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The Bucks County native joined a writing program and tried to find answers to the challenges he was facing concerning religion, sexuality and relationships. While he found plenty of books about war and post-traumatic stress disorder, they glossed over the more intimate subjects of love and sex.
“I decided to write the book I needed to read,” he said. For Rev. Peters, the struggle represented “the invisible wounds I brought back with me.”
The book is called “Death Letter: God, Sex and War.” It is named after those just-in-case letters penned by every soldier to their loved ones before they head off to the front. It focuses on God, sex and war, “the three biggest mythologies of our imagination,” the chaplain said.
The book has clearly found its audience, so much so that the story will be made into a movie to be filmed in Pittsburgh and other locations.
The book was published by Pittsburgh native and Army Sgt. 1st Class Erik Shaw, also an Iraq War veteran who started a publishing company as a way to help veterans with traumatic brain injuries and PTSD.
Research has shown that the arts, including expressive writing, help the brain heal after trauma, and they are part of clinical rehabilitation programs for veterans with brain injuries and PTSD.
Sgt. Shaw began the publishing company as a result of a traumatic brain injury he suffered in a roadside attack with an improvised explosive device in Baghdad in 2005.
“That’s probably where I made the big mistake,” he said of the immediate aftermath of the attack on his Bradley fighting vehicle. “We all declined the medical treatment. I paid for it later on. I masked it, but I knew something was wrong immediately.”
His publishing company is called Tactical 16 — the number of acres of the World Trade Center.
Sgt. Shaw, a 1998 graduate of Perry Traditional Academy, came home in 2006 and began penning his memoirs as a way for his now 10-year-old daughter Kayla to get to know him and his experiences in the war. At the time, Sgt. Shaw, who has been awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, wasn’t sure what the long-term effects of his injury would be.
“The doctors were upfront with me,” he said. “They told me I might have some issues when I get older. I wanted to document everything I remembered.”
Sgt. Shaw received an offer for his autobiography of 5 percent profit from a publishing group in Washington, D.C., but he had a better idea.
“I lived this thing. Why should they make more money than me?” he said. “That’s when I started Tactical 16. We have a 50/50 split with our writers. Most of my guys just want to write to heal.”
Members of the military, police, firefighters and other first responders have signed on to publish their works through Sgt. Shaw’s company, which has published 10 books so far and plans to release about 15 more soon.
“We don’t use ghost writers and we don’t focus on book sales,” although each book has sold around 10,000 copies, he said. “We focus on getting it all out on paper, all of the stuff you can’t say out loud. All of my guys are finding success doing it that way.”
The stories are lightly edited and raw, and they drew the attention of Uniontown moviemaker Cody Knotts, who has made mostly horror films.
Mr. Knotts said he knew as soon as he read “Death Letter” that it — and other books in the Tactical 16 library — would be ideal material for a movie, especially after the success of “American Sniper.”
Mr. Knotts has signed as director of the film, and other crew members are also from the Pittsburgh area, including Rob Ruscher of Wexford, who will be director of photography and Luke Mayernik, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated composer from Carnegie, who will be musical director. Local actors and extras will be used in the movie when filming begins, probably early next year. Veterans will be given preference.
“I think it’s a powerful story and that’s what sucked me in,” said Mr. Ruscher, who owns Ruscher Visuals.
The film aims to raise about $20,000 through an indiegogo.com campaign. Donations can be made at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/death-letter-god-sex-and-war#/story.
For updates on the filming, see the “Death Letter” page on Facebook.
Janice Crompton: jcrompton@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1159.
Correction, posted July 24, 2015: An earlier version contained incorrect information. The film aims to raise about $20,000 through an indiegogo.com campaign.
First Published: July 24, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
