Kayla Williams brought the war home with her.
The 1997 Bowling Green State University graduate served as a translator during the Iraq War. That’s where
she met her husband Brian McGough, a fellow soldier.
That’s where McGough suffered a traumatic head injury in 2003.
Earlier this year, Williams brought the fallout of war home to readers in her second memoir "Plenty
of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War."
Williams will receive one of the inaugural Lincoln Awards, bestowed by the Friars Foundation, for her
writing.
Her first book, "I Love My Rifle More Than You," was about her tour in Iraq and being a
military woman.
Williams will receive the Friars’ Artistic Award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. The
foundation’s citation states: "Through her writing, Williams raises public awareness for the
betterment of her fellow veterans and civilians alike, as she works to bridge the civil-military
divide."
"It’s a tremendous honor," Williams said in a recent telephone interview. "I hope it draws
increased attention to the messages I’m trying to get out there both in the military and the civilian
world."
Though they met in Iraq, a story chronicled in the opening chapter of her new  book, Williams’ and
McGough’s courtship didn’t begin until after they were back in the United States, and Brian was starting
his recovery.
The book covers the "very, very difficult years of recovery," Williams said.
In marrying McGough, Williams admitted, "I really did not know what I was getting into. I thought I
knew but I had no idea."
A decade ago far less was known about traumatic brain injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder "and
how they intersect," she said.
The attraction had dimensions beyond the romantic. She was also responding to her sense of loyalty to a
fellow soldier and the belief in "leaving no fellow serviceman behind."
She had faith he would get better.
It took six years for McGough to be able to read a book. Now he’s returning to college and working
part-time.
"PTSD is not an inherent life sentence," Williams said. "For most people PTSD is a
manageable condition."
The couple now has two children.
"We’ve developed, not in spite of but because of the trauma we’ve survived, a deeper appreciation of
how lucky we are to live in America and a deeper sense of obligation to our fellowman and a deeper
commitment to serving our communities in any way we can."
The image of returning veterans bothers her. While people are in uniform they are treated with
"adulation." But once the uniform comes off a far more negative image emerges of the veteran
struggling to reintegrate into society.
"There is a minority that struggles enormously," Williams said. They are disproportionately
represented in the homeless population, and suffer from a spectrum of mental illnesses. And they need
help.
On the other hand, she said: "What’s not understood is across the board veterans as a whole are more
highly educated, more highly paid, more highly employed than their counterparts who haven’t
served."
Williams believes that joining the Army was the right thing to do.
For several years after graduating BGSU with a BA in English she worked in public television, continuing
from time at WBGU-TV. Williams wanted to go to graduate school and the Army would offer the financial
means to do that, and they would pay her to learn a language, Arabic.
"I gained so much from my military service," she said. "I only hope I was able to give as
much to the military."
She was studying Arabic when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
She had her doubts about the Iraq War, but that’s where she was sent working.
She worked with the Yazidis. The tribe in northern Iraq was viciously attacked by the so-called Islamic
State earlier this year.
Reading those news stories "and seeing how bad things have gotten again" was difficult for
Williams, who now has a master’s in international relations. She remembered conversations she had with
tribal leaders "warning us that if we left that they would be slaughtered."
"Seeing that come to fruition is devastating," she said.