The Things They Wrote
Posted : Monday Oct 5, 2009 21:11:27 EDT
Among the latest batch of memoirs to come from Iraq and Afghanistan are a few that may become classics:
Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership and Brotherhood
By Donovan Campbell.
This “sweat-soaked, blood-soaked” tale of Iraq by an Ivy League graduate is about managing warriors — and yourself — in war.
The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier’s Account of the War in Iraq
By John Crawford
One of the best Iraq memoirs, this spare but powerful story of a National Guard soldier called to active duty while on his honeymoon makes you hope Crawford will relent and tell more.
Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq
By Jason Christopher Hartley
Soldiering and shooting in a nonchalant voice that recognizes humor and humanity.
Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital
By Heidi Squier Kraft
The Navy clinical psychologist, wife of a Marine and mother of twins, deploys to Iraq with a Marine surgical company and offers a look at her patients who were “ashamed to feel afraid.”
The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education
By Craig Mullaney
Mullaney’s tours, from the U.S. Military Academy, Oxford University (as a Rhodes Scholar), Ranger School and Afghanistan, are emotional, educational and enlightening.
Soft Spots: A Marine’s Memoir of Combat and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
By Clint Van Winkle
Evidently painful to write and sometimes painful to read but recommended for its portrayal of the effects of PTSD on a former Marine sergeant, who tells all about insanity and inanity.
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