Hello there
Meet Chad Garland.
Writer. War correspondent. Marine Corps veteran.
I write to inform, inspire, and entertain. Writing is where I find my purpose. I’m obsessed with good words, brilliant images, and compelling storytelling wherever I find them. As a (dormant) war correspondent and Marine veteran, I read, think, and write mostly about the military, culture, and military culture, as well as the media, free speech, and information freedom.
I crave humor, honesty, integrity, courage, faith, creativity, leadership, innovation, and dedication. I also care deeply about transparency, which is why I am 🥊 fighting 🥊 for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) rights. When I get them, I share public records here.
“Chad is frigging hilarious, insanely generous… and incredibly organized…”
— Adam Weinstein, Task & Purpose
I’m so vain I (totally) think this site is about me.
A few words about me:
🇺🇸 Midwesterner. (Nice.)
⛪️ Catholic.
🌎 World traveler.
📸 Photographer.
🎞️ Movie buff.
🧐 Literate in over about 1.85 languages.
🕺 Single. (Take note, ladies.)
I have worked as a print and online journalist for over a decade. From 2016 to 2022, I reported on military operations from Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Ukraine, Syria, and wherever else my editors asked me to go.
In 2021, I founded chadgarland.com as a place to share public records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), while fighting for access rights that were being denied to me because of my identity and employment history. My lawsuit to compel the military to release records to me is ongoing after over two years, as of February 2024.
Before all that, I joined the Marines and learned Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. The Marine Corps assigned me to duty as an intelligence analyst at the National Security Agency. I continued to work in the intelligence community for several years after my enlistment ended, including as a technology project manager, before returning to my home state to complete my bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
At the U of I, I double-majored in Russian literature and rhetoric (creative writing) while helping found and lead the Illini Veterans student organization. Realizing that I enjoyed nonfiction writing a heckuva lot, I went on to complete my master’s degree in mass communication from Arizona State University’s Cronkite School. While at Cronkite, I worked on award-winning stories about questionable veterans charities for the Carnegie-Knight News21 national investigative news project.
Sign up
You may eventually get a newsletter.
The Chad Garland Writes For You newsletter doesn’t exist yet, but one day it will. Possibly.
The free weekly newsletter will take no time to read, because it’ll probably just pile up in your inbox.
“Chad Garland is based. We spent last Christmas rolling around Iraq and he’s really good with connecting with folks.”
— [account deleted], r/Army on Reddit
