Former Marine Jess Goodell never intended to talk publicly about her time with the first official Mortuary Affairs unit in Iraq and her hard transition back to civilian life. In fact, the story of how she came to collaborate on her memoir, Shade It Black: Death and After in Iraq (Casemate, May), with John Hearn is not so much a journey toward publication as one of healing.
After entering the Marine Corps fresh out of high school in 2001, Goodell volunteered in 2004 to serve as one of two women in the Mortuary Affairs unit—assigned to recover and process the remains of dead soldiers and Iraqi civilians.
Being the odd woman out in a masculine culture was compounded by the lack of support for the emotional needs of Marines tasked with such grueling work. The entire unit quickly became outcasts on the base as more and more bodies came in. "It was difficult to connect with the others," Goodell says.
Once she came home, there was also little support for transitioning to life as a civilian. While post-traumatic stress disorder was discussed, no one seemed to want to deal with it. Only after Goodell entered the Veterans Administration system did she receive the counseling she needed to begin coping.
Goodell also started community college, where Hearn was a professor. Eventually, they began to talk about her time in Iraq. "He asked me to tell him everything that I remembered, and he'd write it down for me," says Goodell. "He said, ‘Then you'll have a journal.' The intention was never to publish the result, but eventually we decided to try."
The composition was extremely difficult, with Goodell often sobbing while she related events. Only recently has she been able to look at the whole narrative and begin to process it. "I thought I had no story. Other Marines told me I had nothing to complain about. It's been very validating to have people read it and say, ‘That was tough.' "
Goodell signs copies of Shade It Black at 12:30 p.m. today at the Casemate booth (4860). Other promotional plans include appearances on Sirius XM's The Bob Edwards Show and at the Women Veterans Summit in Las Vegas, Nev.
