War I Always Wanted A Screaming Eagle in Afghanistan and Iraq

"An insight into to the chaos of combat . . . puts readers onto the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq and straight into the action." -Colonel R. Alan King, author, Twice Armed: An American Soldier's Battle for Hearts and Minds in Iraq The "war he always wanted" took him to the front lines of Afghanistan and Iraq as a young infantry officer in the elite 101st Airborne Division. For Lieutenant Brandon Friedman, however, the reality of his war fell far short of his youthful fantasies of combat heroism: he never stormed a beach, he never ducked tracer fire while parachuting onto an enemy-held airfield, and his best buddy didn't die in Brandon's arms talking about his mom and the girl back home. There was nothing Hollywood about it. In a literary style reminiscent of the late Kurt Vonnegut, Friedman helps readers understand the apparent contradiction of soldiers who can reflect upon the worst period in their lives as "a pretty good time." From the book:"When the bomb hit, the sound was deafening. It made the air vibrate. For the split second in which the mountainside was alight from the explosion, I could see trees swaying from the shockwave. I could see embers blowing off branches and into the snow. Kneeling, I watched as two more bombs struck the mountain in quick succession, causing the same set of effects. It was then that I noticed Sergeant Collins had moved forward from the back of the column. He was kneeling next to me. When he saw me looking at him through my night vision, he pointed to the mountain. Then he whispered, measuring out each word carefully, 'A man's got to know his limitations.' "Friedman, Brandon is the author of 'War I Always Wanted A Screaming Eagle in Afghanistan and Iraq', published 2007 under ISBN 9780760331507 and ISBN 0760331502.