Red, White, and True

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Red, White, and True

Stories from Veterans and Families, World War II to Present

Edited and with an introduction by Tracy Crow

296 pages

Paperback

August 2014

978-1-61234-701-1

$21.95 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

August 2014

978-1-61234-707-3

$21.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

Even as we celebrate the return of our military from wars in the Middle East, we are becoming increasingly aware of the struggles that await veterans on the home front. Red, White, and True offers readers a collection of voices that reflect the experiences of those touched by war—from the children of veterans who encounter them in their fathers’ recollections of past wars to the young men and women who fought in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
The diversity of perspectives collected in this volume validates the experiences of our veterans and their families, describing their shared struggles and triumphs while honoring the fact that each person’s military experience is different.
 
Leila Levinson’s powerful essay recounts her father’s experience freeing a POW camp during World War II. Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Kidder provides a chilling account of being a new second lieutenant in Vietnam. Army combat veteran Brooke King recounts the anguish of raising her young children by day while trying to distinguish between her horrific memories of IED explosions in Baghdad and terrifying dreams by night.
 
These individual stories of pain and struggle, along with twenty-nine others, illustrate the inescapable damage that war rends in the fabric of society and celebrate our dauntless attempts to repair these holes with compassion and courage.

Author Bio

TRACY CROW is a former Marine Corps officer and an award-winning military journalist whose essays and short stories have been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes. She is the author of Eyes Right: Confessions from a Woman Marine (Nebraska, 2012). Under the pen name Carver Greene, Crow published the conspiracy thriller An Unlawful Order, the first in a new series featuring a military heroine.

Praise

“I have not read a more awe-inspiring collection of ground truth of the human experience than the stories I found in Red, White, and True. Deeply moving, compelling, and at times emotionally wrenching to the point of tears, Red, White, and True is an unforgettable and thoroughly rewarding reading experience.”—Dwight Jon Zimmerman, New York Times best-selling coauthor of Lincoln’s Last Days and coauthor of Uncommon Valor


“If you are or have been a member of the military, read this book. If you love or have loved someone in the military, read this book. If you don’t know anyone in the military, read this book. It’s a revelation.”—Pinckney Benedict, author of Miracle Boy and Other Stories and Town Smokes


"I know of nothing else like this: thirty-two writers—veterans, military spouses, and now grown children of veterans—all sharing how their lives have been affected by military service."—David Abrams, The Quivering Pen

"With the U.S. military yet again stepping into new roles around the globe, Red, White, & True is a timely collection."—Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times


Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Editor’s Introduction
1. Welcome to Afghanistan
Matt Farwell
2. Above and Beyond
Leah Hampton
3. Remembering Forgotten Fliers, Their Survivors
Kathleen M. Rodgers
4. A Psychology of Rumor, a Psychology of War
Caleb S. Cage
5. Panel 30W, Row 15
Lorrie Lykins
6. Past Perfect Tense
Kevin C. Jones
7. Tom
Alan Jones
8. Middle Passage, Morning Watch
Anne Visser Ney
9. The Thirty-Day Project
Christal Presley
10. The Lack of Weight
Gerardo Mena
11. War Happens
Linda Adams
12. The Wing Shed
Beverly A. Jackson
13. Triage
Jon Kerstetter
14. Lead Weight
Max “Joe” Dalton
15. War Games
Stephen Wilson
16. False Positive
Alejandro Mujica
17. Prisoners of War
Leila Levinson
18. Memory Sky
Amber Jensen
19. Breathe through Your Mouth
Brooke King
20. To Kill, or Not to Kill
Dario DiBattista
21. How the Military Turned My Father a Genius
Kim Wright
22. War Stories
Tracy Kidder
23. Hulls in the Water
Jeffery Hess
24. Proud to Claim the Title
Thomas Vincent Nowaczyk
25. Passages
Carol Everett Adams
26. Letter to a Drowning Soldier
Ronald Jackson
27. The Intimate
Donald Morrill
28. Dependent
Rebecca McClanahan
29. Pictures Don’t Lie
Cheryl Lapp
30. Tenuous Tethers
David Abrams
31. Sea Mommy
Elizabeth “Libby” Oberg
32. Growing a Soldier
Tonia Stacey-Gütting
Contributors
Source Acknowledgments

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