Soft Spots: A Marine's Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Van Winkle, Clint, PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Press, "A powerful, haunting, provocative memoir of a Marine in Iraq--and his struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a system trying to hide ong>theong> damage done "Marine Sergeant Clint Van Winkle flew to war on Valentine's Day . His battalion was among ong>theong> first wave of troops that crossed into Iraq, and his first combat experience was ong>theong> battle of Nasiriyah, followed by patrols throughout ong>theong> country, house to house searches, and operations in ong>theong> dangerous Baghdad slums. But after two tours of duty, certain images would not leave his memory--a fragmented mental movie of shooting a little girl; of scavenging parts from a destroyed, blood-spattered tank; of obliterating several Iraqi men hidden behind an ancient wall; and of mistakenly stepping on a "soft spot," ong>theong> remains of a Marine killed in combat. After his return home, Van Winkle sought help at a Veterans Administration facility, and so began a maddening journey through an indifferent system that promises to care for veterans, but in fact abandons many of ong>theong>m. From riveting scenes of combat violence, to ong>theong> gallows humor of soldiers fighting a war that seems to make no sense, to moments of tenderness in a civilian life ravaged by flashbacks, rage, and doubt, "Soft Spots "reveals ong>theong> mind of a soldier like no oong>theong>r recent memoir of ong>theong> war that has consumed America.