Who?
Justin C. Cliburn is an author and attorney in Oklahoma City. His stories of love and loss in Iraq have been published by Warrior Writers and The Good Men Project Magazine and featured by NPR, PBS, and StoryCorps, culminating in an interview by Stephen Colbert. But his favorite work was compiling an oral history of his Army National Guard company’s year in Iraq, which StoryCorps founder Dave Isay proclaimed on NPR’s Weekend Edition to be perhaps the most complete history of one unit’s post-9/11 deployment.
Justin views life as a series of reminders that he still has plenty to learn, and—having experienced life’s highest highs and lowest lows—his writing combines a journalism and legal background with compassion, curiosity, and hard-earned humility.
A first-generation Oklahoman, Justin was raised in the shadow of Southwest Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains, surrounded by the soothing sounds of Fort Sill's artillery. As a child, he developed lifelong affinities for unsolved mysteries—rest in peace, Robert Stack—and football, which he played for nine years. He was under no illusion, however, that his slight frame, slow speed, and general lack of athleticism would allow his football career to continue into college.
After being part of a team for half his life, Justin missed the camaraderie he lost after his final football game. Chasing that brotherhood, he enlisted in the Army National Guard while still in high school. When a friend questioned the decision to possibly go to war, Justin replied, “Yeah, but what are the odds of that happening?” Five months later, 9/11 happened, and his life, like millions of others’, changed forever.
In 2005, he began a one-year tour of Iraq, the first month in Balad and the remainder in Baghdad. Although he deployed with a field artillery unit, he mostly spent the year pointing guns at people from the cupola of a humvee, training Iraqi Highway Patrol officers, bracing himself for IEDs, and wondering if the insurgents trying to kill him also prayed before each mission. When not "outside the wire," he played hacky sack, got hassled by the chow hall police, read books, and wrote about life as a bystander in the Iraqi civil war. It was the best or worst year of his life, depending on the day.
Upon his return to the United States, Justin re-enrolled at Cameron University—widely considered the Harvard of Lawton, Okla.—where he was convinced by valuable mentors to pursue his lifelong goal of becoming an attorney. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and spent a year on the crime beat for his hometown newspaper before applying to law school. Three years and six semesters later, he obtained a J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Justin considers himself incredibly fortunate to now represent public school districts and their employees in state and federal courts throughout Oklahoma.
As privileged as his life has been, however, Justin has experienced personal and professional heartbreak like anyone else. In high school, a friend and teammate was murdered. In Iraq, a child he befriended was killed by a suicide bomber. A brother-in-arms died by suicide in 2013. The following year, he was one point shy—out of 400—of passing the bar exam.* Then, in 2019, he abruptly lost his brother, de facto sister-in-law, niece, and nephew to mental illness and gun violence.
Once again, Justin is writing to make sense of the world. Perhaps one day he will find the courage to write about the loss of his brother and others, but for now he is content telling others' stories. During the pandemic of 2020, he tumbled down a rabbit hole he could not escape: the story of the Babbs Switch fire that killed 36 people—including Santa Claus—and led to a missing toddler, global sympathy, nationwide fire safety reform, a decades-long mystery resolved by a tearful reunion on national television, and a twist 40 years later that reignited the mystery. His book detailing the story, What Good Would Come, is tentatively scheduled for release in 2024—a hundred years after the fatal fire.
Justin lives with his wife and dogs in Oklahoma City, where he drinks IPAs, reads narrative nonfiction, and was once reported as a "shady character" on Nextdoor. You can him on the Unresolved Mysteries and FF Commish subreddits as u/bootscallahan, as @bootscallahan and @whatgoodbook on Twitter, @whatgoodbook on Facebook, and @whatgoodwouldcome on Instagram. He prefers his beers local and his mysteries unsolved.
Justin's favorite books are narrative nonfiction accounts of doomed expeditions to the poles, the Amazon, and central Africa, historical crime narratives, and stories of lost or uncontacted civilizations. His favorite authors are Kate Winkler Dawson, David Grann, Erik Larson, Buddy Levy, Jon Krakauer, Candice Millard, and Douglas Preston. View his current reading list here.
Justin views life as a series of reminders that he still has plenty to learn, and—having experienced life’s highest highs and lowest lows—his writing combines a journalism and legal background with compassion, curiosity, and hard-earned humility.
A first-generation Oklahoman, Justin was raised in the shadow of Southwest Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains, surrounded by the soothing sounds of Fort Sill's artillery. As a child, he developed lifelong affinities for unsolved mysteries—rest in peace, Robert Stack—and football, which he played for nine years. He was under no illusion, however, that his slight frame, slow speed, and general lack of athleticism would allow his football career to continue into college.
After being part of a team for half his life, Justin missed the camaraderie he lost after his final football game. Chasing that brotherhood, he enlisted in the Army National Guard while still in high school. When a friend questioned the decision to possibly go to war, Justin replied, “Yeah, but what are the odds of that happening?” Five months later, 9/11 happened, and his life, like millions of others’, changed forever.
In 2005, he began a one-year tour of Iraq, the first month in Balad and the remainder in Baghdad. Although he deployed with a field artillery unit, he mostly spent the year pointing guns at people from the cupola of a humvee, training Iraqi Highway Patrol officers, bracing himself for IEDs, and wondering if the insurgents trying to kill him also prayed before each mission. When not "outside the wire," he played hacky sack, got hassled by the chow hall police, read books, and wrote about life as a bystander in the Iraqi civil war. It was the best or worst year of his life, depending on the day.
Upon his return to the United States, Justin re-enrolled at Cameron University—widely considered the Harvard of Lawton, Okla.—where he was convinced by valuable mentors to pursue his lifelong goal of becoming an attorney. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and spent a year on the crime beat for his hometown newspaper before applying to law school. Three years and six semesters later, he obtained a J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Justin considers himself incredibly fortunate to now represent public school districts and their employees in state and federal courts throughout Oklahoma.
As privileged as his life has been, however, Justin has experienced personal and professional heartbreak like anyone else. In high school, a friend and teammate was murdered. In Iraq, a child he befriended was killed by a suicide bomber. A brother-in-arms died by suicide in 2013. The following year, he was one point shy—out of 400—of passing the bar exam.* Then, in 2019, he abruptly lost his brother, de facto sister-in-law, niece, and nephew to mental illness and gun violence.
Once again, Justin is writing to make sense of the world. Perhaps one day he will find the courage to write about the loss of his brother and others, but for now he is content telling others' stories. During the pandemic of 2020, he tumbled down a rabbit hole he could not escape: the story of the Babbs Switch fire that killed 36 people—including Santa Claus—and led to a missing toddler, global sympathy, nationwide fire safety reform, a decades-long mystery resolved by a tearful reunion on national television, and a twist 40 years later that reignited the mystery. His book detailing the story, What Good Would Come, is tentatively scheduled for release in 2024—a hundred years after the fatal fire.
Justin lives with his wife and dogs in Oklahoma City, where he drinks IPAs, reads narrative nonfiction, and was once reported as a "shady character" on Nextdoor. You can him on the Unresolved Mysteries and FF Commish subreddits as u/bootscallahan, as @bootscallahan and @whatgoodbook on Twitter, @whatgoodbook on Facebook, and @whatgoodwouldcome on Instagram. He prefers his beers local and his mysteries unsolved.
Justin's favorite books are narrative nonfiction accounts of doomed expeditions to the poles, the Amazon, and central Africa, historical crime narratives, and stories of lost or uncontacted civilizations. His favorite authors are Kate Winkler Dawson, David Grann, Erik Larson, Buddy Levy, Jon Krakauer, Candice Millard, and Douglas Preston. View his current reading list here.
*Free advice for future lawyers: Justin would not recommend attending an out-of-state wedding the weekend before the bar exam.