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“Harrowing and exquisite.”—Time
John Crawford joined the Florida National
Guard to pay for his college tuition, willingly exchanging
one weekend a month and two weeks a year for a free education.
But in Autumn 2002, one semester short of graduating and newly
married—in fact, on his honeymoon—he was called
to active duty and sent to the front lines in Iraq.
Crawford and his unit spent months upon
months patrolling the streets of Baghdad, occupying a hostile
city. During the breaks between patrols, Crawford began writing
the true stories of what he and his fellow soldiers witnessed
and experienced. Those stories became this book—a haunting
and powerful, compellingly honest book that imparts the on-the-ground
reality of waging the war in Iraq, and marks as the introduction
of a mighty literary voice forged in the most intense of circumstances.
John Crawford was newly married
and two credits away from completing a B.A. in anthropology
at Florida State University when he was sent to Iraq. He thought
he was finished with his soldiering days after completing
a stint with the Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division, and
his National Guard service was little more than an afterthought.
Crawford and his National Guard unit crossed into Iraq on
the first day of the invasion. Baghdad fell more quickly than
anyone had planned, and while most of the soldiers involved
with the invasion were sent home, Crawford’s National Guard
unit stayed to patrol the city for more than a year. Crawford
now lives in Florida, where he is completing his degree and
writing. He no longer has any affiliation with the Army.
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