Sometimes it’s the moments between the blasts that help Mark LaFrancis illustrate what patriotism is when Iraq and Afghanistan veterans trust him enough to let him walk in their boots for a while.

LaFrancis has spent more than 250 hours interviewing more than 100 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their loved ones in the last five years.

The local author and U.S. Air Force veteran has turned the hundreds of hours of conversations with soldiers into poem-stories.

Some of the poem-stories, like “Dump truck,” look at the everyday moments of a soldier’s life overseas to illustrate the sacrifices they make.

In order to preserve the patriotism, experiences and sacrifices of the men and women he talked to, LaFrancis said he has three rules: to leave the subjects of the poems unidentified, to pray for them and to give back through charitable organizations.

LaFrancis said 90 percent of the veterans he has interviewed live in the Miss-Lou, and the other 10 percent he has tracked down on his own travels across the country.

Remaining anonymous was important to the veterans, LaFrancis said.

“They’re humble,” he said. “(The veterans) did not want people to connect specific poems with specific people because they believe they performed a job over there. They don’t seek headlines.”

In a book self-published by LaFrancis in 2008 called “In their boots: poems inspired by soldiers and their loved ones,” LaFrancis focuses on interviews with soldiers about their time in combat.

Book two, three and four are inspired by interviews with soldier’s loved ones, soldiers at home and his own reflections from the project, LaFrancis said.

He said the idea for the project popped its head in LaFrancis’ door five years ago, while he was struggling with his own self-doubt.

“As both (Iraq and Afghanistan) wars were going on, I felt like I was not doing my job as a (military) retiree, longtime journalist and a writer because I had done almost nothing about these people who are experiencing these two wars,” LaFrancis said.

“I actually said a few prayers for guidance.”

The public information director at Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Natchez campus, LaFrancis said it was a student at Co-Lin who got his project going.

“One day, a student popped his head into my office here at Co-Lin,” LaFrancis said. “He said, ‘Mr. Mark, I heard you were a veteran.’”

LaFrancis told him he was, and the student said he was too.

“I asked him where he served, and he said, ‘Iraq,’” LaFrancis recalled.

LaFrancis said he asked the student to share his stories.

After the interview, LaFrancis had his first poem story called “The Kiss.”

“The Kiss” told the story about a day in Fallujah, Iraq, when the student and veteran slipped into a house as part of his duty, LaFrancis said.

While inside, a young girl motioned for him to come near her, and she kissed him on the cheek.

“He spent three hours telling me some of his stories, and I thought, ‘That is what I was meant to do,’ — let the soldiers guide me,” LaFrancis said.

While generations and wartimes differ, the patriotism military men and women feel derives from the same values, LaFrancis said.

“The freedoms we enjoy in America are so valuable that solders believe they need to be protected, even if it means sacrificing their lives,” LaFrancis said. “It isn’t any more than that.”

“(Soldiers and veterans) are amazingly humble but basic patriots. Almost every soldier comes to that philosophy in his or her own way.”

LaFrancis said his hope is to relay the stories with their original power, without letting the form or syntax of the poetry form get in the way too much.

“It’s really rewarding when someone says, ‘That sounds exactly like me,’” LaFrancis said.

LaFrancis said he has learned that some of the veterans and their loved ones who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan feel neglected because those wars have received less attention in recent years.

“I have leaned — more so now than when I just started — that (the project) gives a voice to the voiceless.”

Book two of the “In their Boots” series should come out in the fall, he said.

LaFrancis will read his poem-stories and help launch the Never Forget tour Thursday at the Keesler Hospital Auditorium in Biloxi.

Part of the proceeds of the tour and LaFrancis’ books are donated to a nonprofit called Fisher House, which provides housing to military families undergoing extended treatment for series illness or lengthy physical or occupational therapy sessions.

More information on LaFrancis’ works, Fisher House and the Never Forget tour can be found on his website at inspiringauthor.com

LaFrancis dedicated his first book of poetry to his late father and grandfather, George W. LaFrancis, a World War II veteran, and Maximilian W. LaFrancis, a World War I veteran.