Winneconne Public Library

As you were, to war and back with the Black Hawk battalion of the Virginia National Guard, Christian Davenport

eng

collective biography

index present

non fiction

As you were

270129803

Christian Davenport

to war and back with the Black Hawk battalion of the Virginia National Guard

A Washington Post reporter follows five courageous National Guard soldiers as they deploy to Iraq, survive combat, and come home to pick up the pieces. The Iraq War radically transformed the typical commitment of many National Guard soldiers around the country into lengthy, grueling tours of duty. Reporter Christian Davenport was embedded with an aviation regiment and witnessed the hardship and heroism of its members firsthand, from their sudden call-up, through their return from overseas, to new battles faced on the home front as they struggle to rebuild their lives. By continuing to follow these soldiers, and their families, for more than a year after their tour, Davenport chronicles the difficulties they face returning home: lost jobs, financial woes, and the inability to relate to a society that has never been so divorced from the war its country was fighting. Depicting these soldiers as heroes, not victims, he reveals a hidden dimension of the war.--From publisher description

MOBILIZATION. Miranda: No one likes a sulky soldier -- Ray & Diane: Hurry up and wait -- Kate: Be all you can be -- Mark: Sir, I'm a citizen-soldier -- IRAQ. Miranda: The terrorists are my homework -- Ray & Diane: keeping up appearances -- Kate: Jody's got your Cadillac -- Miranda: graduation day -- Craig: welcome to game time, Lieutenant Lewis -- The National Guard: the nation's best defense bargain -- HOME. The 2-224th: don't take the war home with you -- Miranda: learning to talk about war -- Kate: practicing normalcy -- Mark: keep your boots on -- Ray & Diane: seeing suffering -- Craig: the two o'clock lull -- Miranda: the pedicured, door-gunning ivy league veteran -- Citizen-soldiers: the conscience of a nation