Hello Fellow Readers,

This recommendation is for all you Anysoldier supporters and dog lovers!  It is the story of a Marine Lt. Colonel that adopted a 5 week old puppy named Lava and what he did (and many others, including an Iraqi man) to bring Lava back to the states.  It is a very touching and easy read. 

From Baghdad With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava by Jay Kopelman & Melinda Roth

Enjoy!

Jenifer - Looks like you really started something here!!

Two books - can't remember the titles only the authors.

1.  Mattew Bogdanos (pretty sure I spelled it right) - a Marine whose rank I don't recall - only that he is both a warrior and a scholar with a passion for antique art.  After the fall of Saddam he participated in the search for the ancient missing art treasures from the Baghdad Museum and subsequentley wrote a book about the search and recovery.

2.  Aphrodite Matsakis - another name you just can't forget - a PH.D in psychology with an excellent book on trauma and PTSD whose name I also can't recall at the moment.  She has a number of books on PTSD, her specialty.  The one I'm thinking of is something like 'Can't get over it' or 'Can't get passed it'.

I guess if you do a search on either of their names on the Amazon or B&N site you'll find their books.

ann

Gran:

Ann,

Thanks for the book list.  Our children should have more education about the flag as they grow older.  We had only a very few basic rules given to us in elementary school and never any followup as we grew older.  I believe it would be great if the upper grades had an extensive lesson on flag rules maybe in a civics class if anyone still has these classes anymore.  I think around here they dropped civics classes - maybe in American History class then?

 We have found 5-6 books on Amazon (bought 3 of them) on war, stress, PTSD, etc. since our grandson has a problem with it and got out in his second hitch with a medical disability due to trauma from Iraq. He seems to have too much compassion for people to be an infantryman.

Gran

 

Dear Gran,

God Bless your Grandson...having compassion for other people is a gift he should be proud of.  He probably got that from you!  Hope he's doing well now....sounds like he would make a good teacher or medial professional where compassion for people is so important!  All the best to your family....Laura 

 

Dear Gran,

Again, we offer our prayers and good thoughts to your Grandson.  Our nephew, Patrick, was in Iraq 4 weeks before his right leg was blown off after his convoy ran over TWO IEDs.  His left leg was severely injured too.  He has a lot of nerve damage there that causes him a great deal of pain.  But mostly, I think he suffers too from PTSD.  He has been an outpatient at Brooke Army Medical Center since his initial recovery and his first prosthesis was fitted.  For the last two months he has cut himself off completely from family and friends and, unfortunately, from the woman he was going to marry in May of 2008.  He has a lot of anger about having to leave his battle buddies short handed at a desperate time.  He has anger over the deaths of two of the soldiers with him.  He has anger over the death of the last soldier that was with him that occurred several months later in a different incident.  His entire little group was finally wiped out.  How does any family member breech that deep cavernous loss?  We would love our Patrick back, but he's not with us anymore.  It's some young man who is cold and hurting in many ways. 

I feel for you.  We are at a loss knowing only he can actually help himself at this point. 

Sorry, just reading that note from Gran brought all those feelings out of me.  Why oh Why does there have to be war?

Mary 

Mary,

Mary,

Thank you for your prayers. We will just have to pray earnestly for all of them who are affected so deeply.

Similar stories abound I am sure.  Our grandson had become engaged to a nice young lady, but said that he couldn't put her through his trials, so broke it off.  He can't even talk to his buddies.  He won't answer his phone most days.  He did talk to his mother after the 4th, and said that he just wore his headphones on the 4th and listened to music so that he couldn't hear the fireworks.

He told us about 3 deaths that really upset him (all separate events, and one his best buddy), but we haven't heard the story about the friendly fire in his area yet - might never, either.  He was in the mess in Anbar Province in 2004 (Ramadi/Fallujah), helping the Marines clean up.  He just couldn't see why some things went down like they did.

His salvation will probably be if he can get into his college education that he wants to do this fall.  We only pray that he will have the strength.  He wants to go into either physical therapy or personal training.  It will have to be something physical so that he can keep moving.

We know that many of the physically wounded are working hard to make a comeback, but for the mentally wounded, it may be harder and longer about happening.

Gran

Laura,

Thank you so much for your blessings.

Gran

Mary,

I sent you a private message.  Hope you get it.

Brenda

Mary,

I sent you an email.  xo, Laura

p.s...in the words of Winston Churchill..."never, never, never give up!"

By soldiers about soldiers-

In the Company of Heroes by Will Durant

Inside Delta Force by Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney (the current TV series The Unit is based on this book look for Eric Haney's name in the credits) - I believe a lot of their training takes place somewhere in NC so those AS supporters from NC might be especially interested in this.  Sounds like really rugged country down there!

Yeager by General Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos

American History -

American History Pop Quiz by Solomon N. Skolonick  (interesting little book!)  Jay walking asks some of these questions and it's amazing how many people don't know the answers!

 Patriots, The Men Who Started the American Revolution  by A.J. Langguth

ann

This one's a bit off topic but nevertheless pertinent to the children some have talked about on the thread.

It's called - Be Expert with Map and Compass, The Orienteering Handbook by Bjorn Kjellstrom.

Not a child's book tho.  Once the adult learn's to orient themselves in the outdoors it's a great way to get the kids off the sofa and out of doors.  And teach them how to find their way home if they ever need to.  Plus it's a great way to spend time with your kids out doors.  Just be careful of those itchy scratchy plants!  The edition I have came with maps and a compass to practice with. 

ann

Above and Beyond -- Rudy Socha & Carolyn Darrow.  Marines conquer the civilian world, business, politics, (think space program) etc.

Available online from Good to go video.

ann

This one got me: 

Here, Bullet

Brian Turner

2005 Beatrice Hawley Award
2006 Maine Literary Award in Poetry
2006 Northern California Book Award in Poetry
2006 Sheila Margaret Motten Award from the New England Poetry Club
2006 PEN Center USA "Best in the West" Literary Award in Poetry
2006 Lannan Literary Fellowship
2007 Poets' Prize
A New York Times "Editor's Choice" Selection

A harrowing, beautiful first-person account of the Iraq War by a solider-poet. Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and AJB’s own Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraq war veteran Brian Turner writes powerfully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty and skill. Based upon Turner’s year-long tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully-rendered, unflinching description but, remarkably, leave the reader to draw conclusions or moral lessons. Here, Bullet is a must-read for anyone who cares about the war, regardless of political affiliation.

about the author

Brian Turner earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and lived abroad in South Korea for a year before serving for seven years in the US Army. He was an infantry team leader for a year in Iraq beginning November 2003, with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. His poetry has been published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review and other journals, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology published in conjunction with the feature-length documentary film of the same name. He received a 2007 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry.

http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/here_bullet.html

Dear Gran and Mary-

Today Lt. Harding posted that he was looking for a book called "Courage After Fire"  he wants everyone to go home with a copy.  He posted a link to amazon.  Maybe you should both look into that for help. 

You both are in my thoughts and prayers!

PA Dutch,

Thank you.  We have bought 3 books from Amazon, and since we did, they keep sending updates of new ones.  We are reading and passing around the 3 we have gotten and will probably get more.

I suspect that the ones with the worst problems do have some pre-existing problems that they haven't dealt with that just magnifies their situation.

I have read that one out of five of the military people who have been to Iraq have some problems they have to deal with.

Gran