Shadow of the Sword: A Marine's Journey of War, Heroism, and

Shadow of the Sword: A Marine's Journey of War, Heroism, and Redemption

Awarded the Navy Cross for gallantry under fire, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Workman is one of the Marine Corpsâ€™ best-known contemporary combat veterans. In this searing and inspiring memoir, he tells an unforgettable story of his service overseasâ€“and of the emotional wars that continue to rage long after our fighting men come home.

Raised in a tiny blue-collar town in Ohio, Jeremiah Workman was a handsome and athletic high achiever. Having excelled on the sporting field, he believed that the Marine Corps would be the perfect way to harness his physical and professional drives.

In the Iraqi city of Fallujah in December 2004, Workman faced the challenge that would change his life. He and his platoon were searching for hidden caches of weapons and mopping up die-hard insurgent cells when they came upon a building in which a team of fanatical insurgents had their fellow Marines trapped. Leading repeated assaults on that building, Workman killed more than twenty of the enemy in a ferocious firefight that left three of his own men dead.

But Workmanâ€™s most difficult fight lay ahead of himâ€“in the battlefield of his mind. Burying his guilt about the deaths of his men, he returned stateside, where he was decorated for valor and then found himself assigned to the Marine base at Parris Island as a â€œKill Hatâ€: a drill instructor with the least seniority and the most brutal responsibilities. He was instructed, only half in jest, to push his untested recruits to the brink of suicide. Haunted by the thought that he had failed his men overseas, Workman cracked, suffering a psychological breakdown in front of the men he was charged with leading and preparing for war.

In Shadow of the Sword, a memoir that brilliantly captures both wartime courage and its lifelong consequences, Workman candidly reveals the ordeal of post-traumatic stress disorder: the therapy and drug treatments that deadened his mind even as they eased his pain, the overwhelming stress that pushed his marriage to the brink, and the confrontations with anger and self-blame that he had internalized for years.

Having fought through the worst of his trialsâ€“and now the father of a young sonâ€“Workman has found not perfection or a panacea but a way to accommodate his traumas and to move forward toward hope, love, and reconciliation.
Country USA
Brand Presidio Press
Manufacturer Presidio Press
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2009-09-15
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780345512123

Country	USA
Brand	Presidio Press
Manufacturer	Presidio Press
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2009-09-15
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780345512123

Shadow of the Sword: A Marine's Journey of War, Heroism, and Redemption

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