What's It Like?

About the Book

The book is a Journal of daily activities of United States Army life within the confines of a secure military installation, within a volitile and hostile environment. The Journal portrays a soldier of low rank, living out his days in sway to the activities of the larger mission and unit environment. Mainly, the manuscript is in it's raw form remains intact within the finished product, portraying in exactness, the attitudes and compellations of the author and those around him, unpolished except for corrections in spelling and grammar.

About the Author

Rodney Burke is now a student of Anthropology at Indiana University, Purdue University, Fort Wayne, in Ft Wayne, Indiana, where he was awarded a bachelor of General Studies degree in 2007. In the style of writing used by the author, the daily activities of an American soldier are portrayed in raw and realistic form, displaying many of the emotions, thoughts, and perceptions of the junior soldier's low stature. While the writing does not give an overall picture of American military and political involvement, it draws on the raw courage and character of the American soldier. When starting writing, on the first day in Somalia, the author had no idea, no plan, except that an empty spiral binder beckoned to be filled with the details of life around him.