Sangin Valley

About the Book

Sangin Valley is a day-to-day journal written by a US marine deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan, in 2011. It shows the reader the mental roller coaster our troops experience while being deployed overseas, away from their families and everything they have ever known, being forced to grow up quickly and see and do things they never have before. This helps the reader understand how they can support the troops and our veterans already home.

About the Author

Mitchell Holmes was born in Longview, Washington, on July 5, 1991. Growing up, he was close to his family and loved the outdoors, hunting, fishing, working, and saving money. He developed at a young age a dream to follow his father’s footsteps in many ways. His father, Michael Holmes, of Clatskanie, Oregon, is a Vietnam veteran. Being a war fighter was all he ever wanted to be for Halloween; he played in the woods and pretended to be in a war and often talked about it and the day he was going to do it. From his second-grade veterans’ day assembly to the day he left for Afghanistan in 2011, that was his dream. Mitchell now lives in Rainier, Oregon. He is married to Sara Holmes and has two young daughters, Diamond and Peyton. Mitchell decided to follow his father’s footsteps after returning home and now works for RD Reeves Construction Inc., the logging company his dad retired from.