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Date of interview: 23 October 2019
Chad Rickard was born and raised in Central Pennsylvania. While attending college in 1991 he was inspired to join the military at the onset of the first Gulf War, opting to follow a family history of veterans from both World Wars and Vietnam. He spent the majority of the first 27 years of his adult life in service to his Nation dispensing freedom at a rate of 3,260 feet per second in 55 grain doses. As with many Americans his life was profoundly changed following the attacks on 9/11 and he opted to continue to devote his life to the military in lieu of other careers that would have kept him closer to home. Chad proudly served as an infantryman throughout his time in the Army and has been decorated several times for actions in combat including several awards for Valor and a few Purple Hearts for wounds received in combat. Chad is a Life Member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Veteran's of Foreign Wars and the National Infantry Association. He is currently retired and spending time with his family on the central coast of California.
MWSA: How long have you been associated with MWSA?
Chad Rickard: I am a brand new member of MWSA! I found the organization as I was looking for ways to market my new release, a Memoir about my time in Afghanistan as a combat advisor.
MWSA: What did you learn while writing your book?
Chad Rickard: My book was a Memoir about my time embedded into the Afghan Army as a senior infantry advisor. It was my 3rd combat tour and I saw a lot of heavy fighting. What I learned writing the book was I had a lot of healing to do and writing became the absolute best therapy for me. I learned that no amount of doctor visits or medication could come close to the healing that writing provided.
MWSA: How long did it take you to write your book?
Chad Rickard: It took me nearly a year to complete my book, "Mayhem 337: Memoir of a Combat Advisor in Afghanistan." I wrote the book completely on my own, then I scrapped most of it and rewrote it again. After a few Beta readers I made several more changes and decided to remove nearly all of the acronyms and military jargon to make it easy to read for anyone. What I liked most about the final product was it's ease of reading and the fact that you do not need to have spent a single day in the military to understand and follow the story.
MWSA: What writing quirks do you have?
Chad Rickard: After years in the military I found that I was a perfectionist and I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect and error free on the first try. This slowed my progress considerably and it took me quite some time to be able to write a "rough draft" and not a perfect copy. Once I was able to free myself from the expectation of perfection on the first try the story flowed a lot easier and I made progress. I would say it took about two months of struggling and writing before I let go and just wrote a very rough draft.
MWSA: Where do you do most of your writing?
Chad Rickard: I do all of my writing in my office within my own home. I recently retired after 27 years in the US Army. I have surrounded myself with 27 years of memorabilia, pictures and reminders of my service. It provided the best inspiration for my first book.
MWSA: Will you write another book?
Chad Rickard: My initial answer is yes. I am working on the framework of another non-fiction book about my second tour in Iraq with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. It was quite a tour with heavy combat and lots of loss. I think the book would focus on the men who made the ultimate sacrifice in an effort to ensure they are never forgotten. I did something similar in "Mayhem 337..." because they are the true heroes and we need to remember them.