John W. Harper

I spent 21 years and 18 days on active duty, including a final assignment following 9/11 at the Dover Port Mortuary on Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. It was this experience "Among The Dead" that changed everything that I thought I understood about the world. Such an up-close experience with thousands of traumatic deaths re-prioritizes a life. It was during this time that I shared duties with an incredible group of military young men and women. These were spectacular human beings, exhibiting service to the core, and together we shared the duty of returning America's fallen war heroes back to their families all over this great nation. Though I am not a writer, I attempted to document my perception of our team's mortuary experience during those years in this book.