The Long Walk, by Brian Castner

Some soldiers come home from the war with injuries you can see.  Far too many have lost hands, feet, limbs, or their very lives to the IEDs of the current, prolonged wars in the Middle East.  Others, like Brian Castner, come home with injuries no less life changing than those that require prosthetic limbs or wheelchairs, yet that remain invisible.  In The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows, Castner writes of his experiences on the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team in Iraq.  His tours in Iraq forever changed his mind, with the images seared onto it of the bloody mess in an explosion's aftermath, of a foot in a box ("Because why not?  Where else would you put it?"), of his Brothers lost or injured in duty.  His mind was also forever changed by blast-induced traumatic brain disorder; each explosion he was near, and he was blowing things up on a daily basis sometimes, jarred his brain and disrupted its connections.

Jumping between various time frames (sometimes with little warning!), Castner tells his story.  He describes his job and his love for it, while detailing the ways his life is still affected by BITBD.  His detailed and deeply personal account is the best description I've read of what the heck U.S. soldiers are doing in Iraq.  However, it raises the question for me: What the heck are U.S. soldiers still doing in Iraq?  When Castner and his crews headed out to investigate a car bomb or IED, it was likely either targeted at U.S. troops, or it was the result of some internal conflict between Iraqi ethnic groups.  In the latter case, I see no justification for putting American lives at risk.  Why the U.S. even maintains a presence there is beyond me.

I do thank God for men like Castner who are willing to risk their lives to serve their country in the armed forces.  But I would have to question the policies that put our men and women into potentially deadly situations in dozens of countries around the world.  Is what we're accomplishing there worth the price paid by Castner and others like him?

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the complimentary electronic copy for review.
Read more about Brian at his personal blog.