Big Tobacco Goes to War

I first “met” Big Tobacco when my husband Mitch came across Big Tobacco’s blog post “Shabbat in the Sand” — about observing Shabbat while on National Guard deployment in Iraq. I found the blog post so compelling that I emailed Big Tobacco (pen name to protect his identity) and asked if he would write a guest post for me about being Jewish in the military today.

Then in launching this website, my daughter Yael came across Big Tobacco’s early blog post “Intertwined” — about wearing his dog tags and his Jewish star intertwined around his neck as he prepared to be deployed. This is another compelling piece of writing — though you may laugh and cry at the same time.

Read Big Tobacco’s two blog posts here:

Big Tobacco on Being Jewish and Going off to Iraq

Big Tobacco on Shabbat in Iraq

After you’re read these two blog posts, you’ll want to read the one Big Tobacco wrote for my blog Mrs. Lieutenant. Enter your name and email address in the email opt-in box found on the right-hand side of every page on this website and you’ll get a pdf copy of this blog post.

I hope you read this post because it is incredibly moving on the topic of being Jewish and in the military today. And I also hope this blog post will give those of you who have never served in the military — or been close to someone serving in the military — a true sense of what it means to be Jewish and in the U.S. military.

P.S.  Big Tobacco is pictured below at an unnamed FOB (Forward Operating Base) in Iraq.