This piece made me chuckle in the first few moments. "Tell me the whole story in one minute," the producer says. So the protagonist, he says, "Got expelled from school. Failed out of JC. Got my ass whupped at a party. Went to Mapp's. Chilled with my girlfriend. Girlfriend cried. Now I'm here." This cool, loping beginning is reason enough to license this piece. It's real. It's not a story trying to be real. The interview continues of the protagonist, a young man, some kid in his late teens and he's telling this story in a lazy, out-of-body way while he's eating a taco or sandwich or something. After a few minutes (and by the title, of course) we figure out that this is a piece about why this boy/man joined the U.S. Army to become a soldier. "Do you think you afraid of dying?" asks the producer. "No. That part I don't mind." And then this tale takes an unexpected turn. It's no longer about war or signing up for the army, it's about something related, but completely different. I'm not satisfied with the ending, but maybe that's the point.

This piece is smoothly produced, evocative, and elliptical: a series of recorded conversations, over a musical soundtrack, involving young Sean and a couple of friends who are trying to decipher Sean's decision to join the Army.

Sean begins by telling of a day and night in which he got kicked out of junior college, got blind drunk at a party, got banged up in a fight, then wound up at dawn running in place and shouting 'militaristic' things. Two days later he signed the papers at the recruiting office. Next, under questioning from his friends, he explains that he's joining the military not because he supports the current war in Iraq (he doesn't) but because he wants to "get my life on track."

The piece then takes a turn. Asked if he fears dying in combat, Sean says matter-of-factly that he "sometimes kind of [hopes] that happens." He describes a suicide attempt with booze and pills. It's not clear when this attempt happened, and the story does not circle back to Sean's departure for the Army -- the premise of the piece. The implication seems to be that Sean has a death wish and that's behind his decision to go military. I suspect some listeners, accustomed to clearer signposts about the significance of what they're hearing, will wind up scratching their heads. It
would help to add a simple host back-announce saying that Sean began his military training in January, '06.

A refreshing piece that feels a bit like an indie movie rather than your
standard public radio piece. It leaves some work for the listener.