Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families

by Andrew Carroll, David Birney, Joe Barrett

Book Overview

Operation Homecoming is the result of a major initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to bring distinguished writers to military bases to inspire U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400065623
• ISBN13: 9781400065622
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Poor food, long hours, lousy working conditions, the off chance of violent death - all for minimal p

With the demise of the draft, and the decline in the size of the military, we now have about 1.5 million people in uniform and a population of 300 million. Military service has become something that someone else does. This is a book about those people - and how their service affects their wives, husbands, mothers and fathers. This is not a political book. In it you can find something that supports your view of the war in Iraq - no matter what it is. And you can find something that rebukes that view. It also is not a war book. Although some of the contributor's stories deal with combat, most deal with the ever-present danger of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although 99% of the people might be nonhostile, they look exactly like that other 1% who would be absolutely delighted to kill you. The stories also deal with the troops experience in helping to rebuild the destruction from a starting place of overwhelming poverty. These stories tell of the culture shock - on both the Iraqi side and the American side. There also is plenty on the ironies of having both men and women in the military. A Marine and helicopter pilot wrote about how difficult it was to say goodbye to his wife - when she deployed to Iraq and he stayed home. To help the military contributors, teams of professional writers went to military bases and conducted classes on writing. They weren't trying to slant the contributors' content, but to show them how to write and to encourage them to contribute their journals, letters and e-mails. The result was a flood of over 12,000 pages of source material. The book really is a tribute to Andy being able to persuade the military hierarchy to allow him to have access to the troops. Since the end of the heavy fighting, the media has gone out of its way to portray the military as a bunch of idiots who, when they aren't torturing prisoners, delight in killing civilians. Such coverage doesn't persuade military commanders that you are an exception to this rule. Andy's track record - two other books on this subject - opened doors that would have been welded shut had Andy been employed by, say, The New York Times. Andy also had to persuade the troops to write about what they had done and seen. The military culture is one of "soldier on and shut up." Troops are not encouraged to talk about their feelings - or their experience. When Andrew asked one military group why they were participating, one person said that no one else had asked them to write about what was going on. I was glad to see that the troops have retained a warped sense of humor that is uniquely American. While in Iraq, one staff sergeant wrote in his journal, "I'm going to kill my travel agent!" Another soldier commented about a friend, "I don't think Jeff could say a good word about [President] Bush with a gun to his head - and some of us have, trust me, entertained the thought." Several stories were contributed by wives who described their suffering and ang

Amazing descriptions of raw emotion - unbelievable prose

This book knocked my socks off. I tried to read it on a plane, and I could not, because it kept sneaking up on me and devastating me with the simple raw emotion so simply told that you never question its authenticity - it just made the tears start flowing. Then the next story made me laugh out loud. These are real people who have had experiences that few would believe - and it seems so intimate - so personal - yet there it is - like they were writing to me. I recommend reading it with tissues nearby. In the end, the feeling I got was of being greatly uplifted - it made me soar - maybe with pride, because these Americans - not of any party affiliation - Just American, were telling great stories. This is a remarkable collection of stories that I highly recommend. Oh, and if I were you, and this becomes a bestseller, buy kleenex stock. - Buck

A must-have collection of war writings

Last year I had the privilege of serving on a distinguished editorial panel to select the entries in this unprecedented anthology. (I have no financial ties to this book.) Sifting through the submissions then deciding on the final slate was no easy task. Andy Carroll, Mr. "War Letters," did a fabulous job of sewing together the book, a much more difficult assignment. The entries were moving and instantly gave me complete snapshots of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through 2004, sans the Iraqi perspective. Short stories, poems, letters, emails encapsulate the mindset of the soldiers and the families they left behind. No journalist can capture the feelings of the men and women serving in harm's way the way they can themselves. Politics aside, these writings deserve to be widely read based on their own literary merits. This is a must-have collection for Americans to better understand the wars of our time.

Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their F

There were moments when reading this book that I had to actually stop reading and collect myself. This is the real deal. There is no spin, no hidden agenda, no dressed up prose or censoring of subject. This is just the truth written by those who have, and are, living it. The writers are ordinary people living through extraordinary circumstances. Their stories and descriptions are compelling, the prose is often exquisite, and the emotions and experiences run the gamut from laugh out loud funny to knock the wind out of you affecting. This is not a political book. It's not pro-war or anti-war. It's just the truth. And the truth is often a scarce commondity. I promise you, after you've started reading it, you will not be able to stop. And after you've finished it, you'll have a whole new perspective on our times.