Patrolling Baghdad: A Military Police Company and the War in Iraq
Author: Mark R Depu
For the 160 national guardsmen from America's heartland, Baghdad was more than just a long way from home. It also confronted the 233rd Military Police Company with America's most difficult challenge in Iraq: establishing security in a nation rife with religious, tribal, and sectarian conflict and violence. The first MP company assigned to patrol the heart of Baghdad, the 233rd (from Springfield, Illinois) was a key part of the American occupation forces from April 2003 to April 2004. Charged with helping rebuild the city's police force—not just reopening stations but training a new force to replace its corrupt and hated predecessors—these men and women waged a "military police war" while witnessing all of the larger conflict's central themes, from the shortcoming of prewar planning to ongoing security problems, from media coverage to humanitarian efforts. DePue recounts the 233rd's actions in the streets and alleyways of Baghdad and the inevitable clash of cultures, along with lootings, shootings, roadside and police station bombings, and the inevitable bureaucratic bumbling. Here are the horrors of firefights and summary executions and the drama of the UN bombing. Here too is the untold side of the war, as these volunteers on their own initiative reopened Baghdad schools and took under their wing a Catholic orphanage for handicapped children located in the heart of the city. Based on extensive interviews with the unit's members and others associated with their mission, DePue's eye-opening account also covers what it was like for the 26 women of the unit, how a romance blossomed between two MPs, and how support groups back home—with the help of theInternet—helped families cope with worry over loved ones.
Interesting book: Edible Ideologies or Gardeners Table
Andrew Jackson: Young Patriot (Childhood of Famous Americans Series)
Author: George E Stanley
Dear Reader:
The Childhood of Famous Americans series, seventy years old in 2002, chronicles the early years of famous American men and women in an accessible manner. Each book is faithful in spirit to the values and experiences that influenced the person's development. History is fleshed out with fictionalized details, and conversations have been added to make the stories come alive to today's reader, but every reasonable effort has been made to make the stories consistent with the events, ethics, and character of their subjects.
These books reaffirm the importance of our American heritage. We hope you learn to love the heroes and heroines who helped shape this great country. And by doing so, we hope you also develop a lasting love for the nation that gave them the opportunity to make their dreams come true. It will do the same for you.
Happy Reading!
The Editors
Marya Jansen-Gruber - Children's Literature
Andrew Jackson was the kind of boy who knew just he wanted to do. He knew that he did not want to have to continue going to the little local school, for one thing. After all, he knew more than the teacher did didn't he? What Andrew, or Andy, as he was called by those who knew him, wanted to do was to help his uncle drive the cattle to Charles Town. Later he wanted to help his fellow Patriots fight against the British. Andy felt very strongly that the British had no right telling his people, the Americans, how they should live their lives. Andy's widowed mother, however, was not in favor of him going off to war, and Andy did his best to do as his mother asked. But, there came a time when Andy had to defend his home and family. Still quite young, Andy found himself fighting against redcoat soldiers. The story of Andrew Jackson's youthful adventures is wonderfully told in this excellent addition to the "Childhood of Famous Americans" series. The author manages to capture Jackson's innocence at the beginning of the book, which, as the war takes its toll on the young boy, is lost by its close. We are able to understand the forces that shaped the boy and thus, what it was that made Andrew Jackson the kind of man he was. 2003, Aladdin Paperbacks,
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