The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell
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 one semester short of graduating and newly married, he was called to active duty and sent to 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 nonfiction stories about what he and his fellow soldiers witnessed and experienced. In a voice at once raw and immediate, Crawford's stories chronicle the daily life of a young soldier in Iraq--the excitement, the horror, the anger, the tedium, the fear, the camaraderie. But all together, the stories gradually uncover something more: the transformation of a group of young men, innocents, into something entirely different. --From publisher description.