No Separate Peace ...

Dr. Johnathan Shay pens a tomb that attempts to frame the soldier in society.

What is the way back home? Can't sleep? Feel detached, even from loved ones? Flashbacks. No desire to talk about "it". Alone in a crowd. Hopelessly alienated from a hum-drum work-a-day world?

All these and much more about the combat adaptations that can cause temporary injury or that can fester and get worse, as with any wound.

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From Houghton Mifflin, a step-by-step experiential survey from the flipside, from those for whom "deployment" is a household term.

A journalist wife of an army chaplain, Kristen Henderson tells it simple and straight (Hemmingwayesque). She includes a Resources and Actions list, that includes "10 Ways to Really Support the Troops" and link to TAPS (support network for survivors).

Excerpt:

I was visiting Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of the Army's Fort Bragg, when a friend said he knew a woman who needed to talk to me. He introduced me to Beth.

"This is our first deployment," she said.

Her eyes were wide and blue green and shadowed by her straight, dark hair. She gave me a level look before withdrawing her gaze and adding, "They say it's supposed to get easier but it's been four months and so far it's just been hard. When does it get easier?"

"Oh," I said, and the oh dragged itself into a sigh while I tried to decide whether or not to lie. I wanted to fix it for her; I wanted to make it all right. But I knew the only thing that would make everything right would be for her husband to walk through that door right now, safe and whole in body and mind, the same man he was when he left. So in the end, I couldn't. I couldn't lie to her. When does it get easier?

"It doesn't," I said. "Wartime deployments are always hard."

"Don't tell me that," she said.

But they are, they're just so hard. Eventually you figure out ways to cope -- or not. But they never get easy. A wartime deployment is always a mountain, no matter how you climb it.

Forever a Soldier - Stories from the Veterans History Project

Drawn from the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, Forever a Solider is a compendium of stories from on generation of soldiers on down the long gray line and more.

The editors have brilliantly organized the book into general topics with first-hand stories that include a few veterans of today's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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An earlier sister volume, Voices of War, chronicles over sixty veterans stories and has a similar, brilliant organization.

On homecoming:

“Strangely, my sympathy was quickly going to our former enemy, the German civilians.” –William Whiting

At Dawn's Early Light - Can you See the Flag Clearly?

A "WAR" WE COULDN'T LOSE BACK THEN

Two years ago I wrote what I thought was an succinct and eloquent piece about the power of the tools that terrorists and insurgents and jihadis use. The context, at that time, was an Iraqi who had walked up to a marine and shot him at point blank range, very nearly. This type of thing sows mistrust between the populace and those trying to protect it. It highlights the information asymmetries of an army policing a population without a local knowledge or system of identifying who is who among them.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Now a new book comes out with an outline of all of that and more, called "What Was Asked of Us", complied by journalist Trish Wood.

By turns inspiring and heartbreaking, What Was Asked of Us is a landmark book, the first time our troops in Iraq have been able to speak at length about their experiences. From the thrilling highs (a spectacular rush by the 3rd Infantry Division into Baghdad) to the devastating lows (an account of what it was like to be a soldier at Abu Ghraib, witnessing the abuse of prisoners), this book lets the troops speak for themselves. As a result, it offers the most emotionally powerful and revealing account of the war and is necessary reading for anyone who cares about our soldiers and our country.

OUR SONS TO WALK THROUGH FIRE

This book is a putative effort to keep faith with the troops.

Many (most?) feel their cause to be right and just, but many of them question that and have felt the brunt of fighting for an Iraqi populace that is frightened, confused, indifferent, and hostile, in certain cases.

There are huge non-financial costs to waging war, costs to the soul. These are exacerbated if veterans feel separated from their warring public or imperfect government.

WITNESSETH

So, support the troops by looking here, see what they did and honor them by learning enough about the conflict to make good a citizen's duty, an informed opinion.