Shadow of the Sword

by Workman, Jeremiah; Bruning, John R. (CON); Kent, Carlton W.

• ISBN13: 9780803240964
• ISBN10: 0803240961
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Workman is one of the Marine Corps's best-known contemporary combat veterans. In this searing and inspiring memoir, he tells an unforgettable story of his service overseas-and of the emotional wars that continue long after fighting soldiers come home. In the Iraqi city of Fallujah in December 2004, Workman faced the challenge that would change his life. He and his platoon came upon a building in which insurgents had trapped their fellow Marines. Leading repeated assaults on that building, Workman killed more than twenty of the enemy in a firefight that left three of his own men dead. But Workman's most difficult fight lay ahead, in the battlefield of his mind. He returned stateside, was awarded the Navy Cross for gallantry under fire, and was then assigned to the Marine base at Parris Island as a drill instructor. Haunted by the thought that he had failed his men overseas, Workman suffered a psychological breakdown in front of the soldiers he was charged with 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.

Author Biography

Jeremiah Workman is a military service coordinator with the Department of Veteran Affairs. John R. Bruning is the author or coauthor of ten books, including How to Break a Terrorist and Bombs Away!: The World War II Bombing Campaigns over Europe. Carlton W. Kent served as the sixteenth Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. V
Prologue: Stairwell to Nowhere	p. xi
Reflection of the Damned	p. 3
The Man Without a Face	p. 8
Mop-Up Grew	p. 20
Diagnosis	p. 34
A Mind at War	p. 44
Beaufort	p. 50
Drug Trip	p. 57
The Last Medal	p. 61
Ten-Step Kill Zone	p. 67
Break Contact	p. 78
Link By Link	p. 87
Disconnect	p. 99
Eight-thousand-Mile Sniper Shot	p. 101
The Ghost of Ira Hayes	p. 109
A Moment in the Trough	p. 119
Lost Moment	p. 125
Return to the Island	p. 133
Brothers	p. 142
Bleeding Love	p. 152
The Dark Side of the Brotherhood	p. 162
The Wrong Fight	p. 169
Bootstraps	p. 176
Scorched Earth	p. 183
Human Bomb	p. 190
Field-Grade Hero	p. 194
Obliteration	p. 199
Craterscape	p. 202
Battlefield Requiem	p. 207
October Dawn	p. 212
Reconstruction	p. 216
Generations	p. 220
Setbacks	p. 224
No Higher Honor	p. 228
February 21, 2007	p. 231
Epilogue: The Shadow War	p. 236
Final Notes: Fall 2008	p. 247
Acknowledgments	p. 249
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.