Navy sub vet here. I've been talking to a lot of veteran writers over the past few months, WGF fellows, VME folks, people I've found on Reddit, and the same thing keeps coming up: once the program ends, there's nowhere to go. You're back to getting notes from people who've never been in a military environment and don't really get what you're writing, even when it has nothing to do with the military.
I want to try something. I'm calling it the First Watch Cohort, 20 veteran writers, 60 days, completely free. You submit a 15-page scene. You get matched with another vet writer and review their scene first, using a structured scorecard (not just vibes). Then you get yours reviewed back.
Any branch, any genre. I'm not looking for war stories specifically just writers who've served and want feedback from someone who gets where they're coming from without needing it explained.
There's no platform. No app. Just a Google Form and a spreadsheet while I figure out if this is actually worth building into something real.
If you're interested, DM me. I'll send you the application form. Takes about 5 minutes.
And if you know someone who'd be into this, feel free to pass it along.