New York Times Profiles Pat Dollard.Com Regular
Dario DiBattista Jr., 24, an Iraq war veteran, is a student at Central Connecticut State University
Many of you have probably gotten to know frequent Pat Dollard.Com reader and commenter Dbo. Well so has the New York Times, who recently wrote this profile of him…
New York Times:
TWO years ago, Dario DiBattista Jr. borrowed his father’s Chevy Cavalier and headed north from his native Baltimore — a journey meant to search for a college where he could finish his bachelor’s degree, and to make a new start.
As an aspiring author, he might eventually publish a book about the old start — the one he began as a Marine reservist. There was much to write about his two tours in Iraq with a combat support unit and an outfit working to rebuild the country’s infrastructure. And perhaps about why, amid roadside bombs, sniper fire and mortar rounds he emerged without a scratch. “I am the golden child,” he told himself with a touch of guilt. And also the beneficiary of the “random geometry of chance,” as Nathaniel Fick, a former Marine captain, put it in his memoir, “One Bullet Away.”
But Mr. DiBattista’s own attempt at literature would have to wait. His more immediate need was a diploma, and his choices about where to get one were limited.
As a lance corporal whose enlistment was nearly over, he knew he would have to re-up in the reserves in order to qualify for education benefits. But he was done with the Marines; he had seen too much. The only avenue to a campus he could afford, he concluded, was the highway to New England.
Three states in the country offer tuition waivers to former reservists. Two of them — Texas and Wyoming — do so only for those who enlist there. The third, Connecticut, offers tuition waivers to all qualified veterans, no matter their place of enlistment. So Mr. DiBattista intended to visit all four campuses in the State University System and UConn as well.
Even so, he knew he was home when he arrived at his first stop, New Britain. Not far from the campus of Central Connecticut State University, he saw the Iwo Jima Survivors Memorial Park: bronzed figures of five marines and a Navy corpsman planting the flag on Mount Suribachi — a symbol of his own service and that of his grandfather, stationed in the Pacific during World War II.
After Mr. DiBattista enrolled at Central, he took on as many as 22 credits a semester as well as resident assistant duties. Easy, he concluded, compared to the burden he carried in Iraq. And yet there was unfinished business. As a spiritual but restless soul, he saw writing as a way to make sense of things.
He began a nonfiction book of his Iraq tours, titled “Go Now, You Are Forgiven.” It is raw stuff: “You don’t think about back home sipping lattes at Starbucks. You learn to feel the ambience of a lone man in a crowd that wants you dead. You learn to feel an order to the world, like understanding how to move with traffic, and quickly sense when something is amiss.” The memoir is a work in progress, maybe for another time, when publishers are not bombarded with first-person narratives about a controversial war.
And the undergrad curriculum, understandably, doesn’t ask students for battlefield accounts. So as a seasoned member of the senior class, Mr. DiBattista lived with the frustration that the country is not paying attention to the sacrifices of so many. How odd he had felt, after Fallujah, to be a waiter at Chili’s and say: “Hey, how are you? Can I get you a Coke?”
But then his creative nonfiction professor, Mary Collins, organized a writing contest open to anyone enrolled in the state system, and Mr. DiBattista embraced the challenge. The rules required writing about a book that influenced the student’s life. He chose the novel he had read at a friend’s insistence after returning from Iraq.
I came across his piece on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic World War I tale, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” because Professor Collins asked me to judge the dozen finalists. As a Vietnam vet, I was naturally drawn to what a former Marine had written. Even so, I was skeptical. Battlefield scenes do not easily translate into literature. Indeed, another entry, a nonwar story by a graduate student at Southern Connecticut State University, earned first prize. Yet I found in Mr. DiBattista’s work rare insight from someone so fresh from the battle. And so we called him to the podium as the second place winner, awarded him a $100 check and asked him to read from his piece.
It focused on how Paul Bäumer, Remarque’s narrator and tragic main character, became, in a way, Mr. DiBattista’s brother: “(We) looked at each other with silent stares, our arms curled over our skulls, in prone positions on the ground as bombs fell over us. We boozed together and talked of death as our inhibitions waned. We held hands as we returned home on a sojourn which felt like staying in an alien world.”
In a conversation I had with him, I had felt a sense of awe. My war was 40 years ago — ancient history. His still rages. And I wondered how many more essays about such wars will become future contest entries.
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Awesome!
Well, was it fair and balanced?
Are you pleased with it?
Maggie
April 26th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
April 26th, 2008 at 2:02 pmWay to go!
Dbo,
April 26th, 2008 at 2:02 pmThank you for your service young man.
And give some thought to self-publishing. That way, you will control everything and anything. Plus you reap 100% of the benefits and income from the book. It is a good way to go. Read up on self-publishing, you will probabally like what you read.
Hoorah to you!
DBO
you played a part in a very amazing thing in Iraq. I wish you nothing but the best in the future. you definitely earned it.
including marrying Natalie Portman
im interested in your opinion of whether the article was fairly written too.
April 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pmWelcome home and warning: Stay away from IVAW.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:58 pmDbo fuckin rocks.
April 26th, 2008 at 5:18 pmAwesome, just awesome
April 26th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
April 26th, 2008 at 6:14 pmThank you for your service Dbo! I am glad you made it through those two tours. I look forward to reading more of what you have written.
“He began a nonfiction book of his Iraq tours, titled “Go Now, You Are Forgiven.” It is raw stuff: “You don’t think about back home sipping lattes at Starbucks. You learn to feel the ambience of a lone man in a crowd that wants you dead. You learn to feel an order to the world, like understanding how to move with traffic, and quickly sense when something is amiss.” The memoir is a work in progress, maybe for another time, when publishers are not bombarded with first-person narratives about a controversial war.”
“Go Now, You Are Forgiven.”
http://www.myspace.com/forgiventhebook
I wish you nothing but the best!
April 26th, 2008 at 6:24 pmCongrats Dbo!
April 26th, 2008 at 6:43 pmDbo - Now, if you are a Mexican National, you would get a free ride in Texas for your education.
Thanks for your service, son.
Good luck and keep writing.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:47 pmthanks so much everybody! I love this site and how you all support veterans - we cant do it without you!
April 26th, 2008 at 6:52 pmPat, thanks so much for publishing this!
April 26th, 2008 at 6:53 pmI am very pleased with this article; lary bloom included some of my literature in here, which will def help me reach my dreams (I hope)!
April 26th, 2008 at 6:56 pmGood luck, Baby!
As a fellow writer I know it can be real tough, and can cut you to the heart and soul.
Write what YOU know about … how YOU want it written.
Stick with it, and Git `er Done!
April 26th, 2008 at 7:18 pmGood luck Dbo!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:55 pmThank you for your service to our great nation
Dbo
April 26th, 2008 at 9:45 pmWelcome home and thank you. Beat that sword into a pencil. Keep it sharp.
Yo Dbo!
Much respect to you from me, and of behalf of my family, I thank you for your service.
I also appreciate your support of this website, especially via good comments.
Proud to “kinf ” know you, bro.
You said this in the article:
“I am the golden child,” he told himself with a touch of guilt. And also the beneficiary of the “random geometry of chance,” as Nathaniel Fick, a former Marine captain, put it in his memoir, “One Bullet Away.”
This reminded me of what I heard a young fighter in a documentary I saw once said. The filmmaker was interviewing this kid, must’ve been 15 or 16 years old, but he had that stare…you could tell he was respected by his peers around him…
Anyway, the interviewer asked a question along the lives of living day to day literally dodging bullets.
The kid smiled and said “I dodge many bullets, but I cannot dodge the bullet that will kill me…”
That is one of my favorite all-time quotes, and I don’t even know the kid’s name, or if he is even alive today.
You obviously have more work to do here, bro.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:51 pmLong time reading this site. First post. DBO is like so many before him and many to come who are selfless for people like myself. Thank you, and for once I thank the NYT. Look forward to the book.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:18 pmLove ya DeeBow. Glad to see you get some of what’s due ya.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:49 pmAwesome article!
Want to help promote the book when you get it done. Always down to support a brother vet.
Semper Fi
April 26th, 2008 at 11:55 pmGreat work DBO!
I will look for your works in the future. I’d be proud to add you to my collection.
April 27th, 2008 at 5:27 am
dbo 
April 27th, 2008 at 6:02 amGO DBO!!
April 27th, 2008 at 6:06 amSorry Pat,
I don’t read anything from the NYT anymore. I felt unwashed and dirty every time I did.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:30 amHey DBo, good for you! And thanks for placing something worth reading in the NYT! You’ve already pulled off a minor miracle with that one.
Good luck with your studies. Any thoughts on what you want to do once you graduate? Write full-time, or what?
April 27th, 2008 at 7:10 amWow, I am blown away by everyone’s comments. Thanks so much everybody - this means so much to me.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:20 amThanks for asking.
I’m not really too sure what direction I will head after graduation. The teacher mentioned in the article, Mary Collins, is one of the most well-regarded female creative non-fiction writers in the US. She used to teach the Johns Hopkins MA program, among many various things. She likes my stuff and assures me I could get in there; I don’t know if I can afford it though. I also don’t know if the payback for a program like that will be worth it.
Right now, I’m hoping to take any momentum gained from this piece and hopefully sell my manuscript.
In addition to writing, I also play drums in a band, and take photography pretty seriously. I would really like to do all three somehow - my dream is to be a renaissance man I guess.
I still think about going back into the corps a lot too; it was an abusive relationship sometimes but I totally miss being a Marine.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:47 amI know it’s costly out-of-pocket for them, but (with your military experience/conection and writing ability) have you thought about going the Michael Yon, Pat Dollard, indy-war-correspondence route for a bit?
April 27th, 2008 at 7:54 amHey Dbo…
Congrats on coming home with both sound mind and body.
Good luck with what ever you decide to do and thank you sir for your service to this great nation…
I’d love to buy you a beer but this is the best I can do for now
Cheers
April 27th, 2008 at 10:38 amDbo, THANK YOU for your service to all of us!
And congrats on the writing, studies, etc…I see a bright future for you!
April 27th, 2008 at 1:21 pmDbo!!!!!!
Thanks Marine!!!!
And all the best to you in your future travels.
April 27th, 2008 at 1:59 pmwow this is a great article. congratulations!
April 27th, 2008 at 2:21 pmDBO,
Thanks for all you did, do and will hae done and for me, if you would thank your family as they are just as deserving.
Hard to believe the NYT actually wrote about something other than the drum beat of how evil we are.
Damn good poster too! Now I see why.
GN…
April 27th, 2008 at 2:24 pmThe new york times? what happened! they tired of all the lefty shit? DBO,
study hard and best of luck in the future.
April 27th, 2008 at 4:33 pmI’ve thought about it. Generally speaking I want everything I write to be non-political. My manuscript, Go Now, You Are Forgiven, is as much about the marine corps and the war, as much as it is a love story and coming of age spiritual journey.
Part of the reason I got out of the Marines is I didnt want my friends and family to keep worrying about me all the time. For now, I want to keep out of combat zones; although that will probably change because I miss being around the nations finest professionals.
Feel free to email me sometime, I’m curious about your writing and always looking forward to networking with other authors.
I’m hoping to get with a legitimate publisher, build a fanbase and community, and then self publish. The literary equivalent of what the band Radiohead did.
Fuck IVAW. I respect their right to speak; but a lot of them, Like Kokesh their spokesperson (who I served with) are full of shit and endanger there fellow brothers through their indignity.
April 27th, 2008 at 5:42 pmDbo Thank you for your service & best of luck in your future endeavors
April 27th, 2008 at 5:47 pm