Blood & Honor: Military Service, the Law, and the Cost of Institutional Failure

Blood & Honor is a nonfiction account of a decorated combat veteran and military attorney's years long effort to challenge the U.S. military's discriminatory HIV policies from within the institution itself. Drawing on firsthand experience as both a servicemember and an advocate, the book examines how bureaucratic inertia, risk aversion, and deference to procedure continue to shape outcomes long after a medical consensus has emerged.

Rather than rejecting military service, the book explores what it means to believe deeply in an institution while insisting that it live up to its stated values. It follows the author's efforts to force movement through law, policy, persistence, and public accountability, illustrating how reform is resisted, delayed, reframed, and, in some cases, quietly achieved.

At its core, Blood & Honor is a study of how change occurs inside large institutions and the personal and professional costs borne by those who continue to press for reform when loyalty, identity, and career survival are in tension.