Out of the Storm

by Mary Sheridan Janda

"Fasten your seatbelts, Bubba!" Thus began a four-year family adventure for the author and her family when her husbands military assignment took them to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This story gives the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1598002554
• ISBN13: 9781598002553
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Home and Under Enemy Fire

Out of the Storm. By Mary Sheridan Janda Reviewed by Edward E. Saunders This is a captivating true story of an American army family: an officer, his wife, and two coming-of-age daughters. Their home was Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm in 1990 -1991, and they all faced enemy fire. The husband/father was a career soldier and faced a wrenching decision: fight the enemy on the front lines, or return to his home in Riyadh and defend his family who were under attack from Iraqi SCUD missiles. The wife/mother faced the agonizing decision to stay at her husband's side or leave with her children for safety in America. Only three times in history have American families been in a war zone and endured enemy fire: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and Operation Desert Storm. Over forty American military families were stationed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia well before the war began: as the families' husbands/fathers were part of an existing American military advisory unit to the Saudi Arabian military. Mary Sheridan Janda is the mother of a military family and wife of Jim Janda, a career army officer assigned to that military advisory unit in Riyadh before, during, and after Operation Desert Storm. In clear, easy-to-read prose, Mary begins by writing of the military life and how accepted definitions of "home" and "family" have to be revised and redefined. Relocating is part of the military life and relocating is not without consequences and heartbreak. Military families don't move from one side of town to the other, they move from side of the planet to another. Families are not tag along baggage. "Home" is not defined by an address on any street in America; "home" in the Army is where the Army assigns you. The Jandas moved to Saudi Arabia in 1989 for what the Jandas and other American army families there thought would be an exotic and totally different experience. But life in Saudi Arabia was not without restrictions. Mary writes of smuggling family items, bibles, religious tracts, and Christmas trees, past the Saudi censors. The Saudi government restricted women's activities: no driving by women, families had to sit in certain sections of restaurants, and certainly no displays of feminism. The American army families lived on large enclosed compounds. This living arrangement was common throughout Riyadh and not unique to Americans. Mary writes in charming detail about their life with spacious living quarters, the indispensable water cooler, and the surprising almost custom-tailored-to-your-anatomy warm toilet bowls in their house. This was indeed their home, with their furniture, their two cats, and where their daughters even had separate bedrooms for once. Here is where they lived; they loved; they slept, and they cried. Invasion. A harsh and violent word changed their lives on Thursday, August 2nd. 1990. Iraq had invaded Kuwait and Mary Janda's world became a violent and deadly one, where survival was at stake. Her h