Imagine going through basic training for the US Army as you approach the age of 40. It’s a pretty hard thing to do at 18, but at 40 – come on it takes a special kind of person to raise his or her hand and say, “Bring it on,” but that is just what Captain James P. Carlon of the US Army Reserve did just a few years ago.

If that last name sounds familiar, it should – because it’s my last name as well. Jim is my twin brother.  You might be wondering, why interview your twin? Don’t you know everything about him? Well, I’ll tell you why I wanted to talk to Jim and why you should listen – he’s got a great story.

Ever since he was in law school, Jim wanted to join the Jag Corps and become a lawyer for the Army but because he was born with asthma, he could never pass the medical exam. But did he give up on his dream? No, he kept at it and finally got in right before the cutoff age of 40.  

There’s another reason I wanted to talk to Jim, though. We were pretty inseparable growing up. I mean, we are twins – kind of built in best friends. In fact, I crafted a character in the Farrah graham book series after Jim (for those of you who have read either Uncorking a Murder or The Last Homily – Jimmy Doubts is my brother Jim Carlon).

Over the past decade or so we haven’t seen much of each other and I thought it would be a good idea to connect on a Wednesday afternoon on my back porch, roll tape, and see where the conversation takes us. So here it is, my talk with Captain James P. Carlon of the US Army Reserve.

This interview is brought to you by my new novel The Last Homily. A Catholic priest is murdered on the altar at a church in Chatham, MA and it is up to Farrah Graham, the host of the uncorking a murder podcast, to find out who did it and why, before the killer strikes again. You can find it at Amazon.com or wherever books are sold online. 

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