In Iraq They Say It's Safe inside the Wire That's a Lie!

Go to Amazon and buy your copy today!!

http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-they-safe-Inside-Wire/dp/1609119738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305085012&sr=1-1

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Eloquent Books (August 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781609119737
• ISBN-13: 978-1609119737
• ASIN: 1609119738
•  

  6 Reviews 5 star:  (4) 4 star:  (0) 3 star:  (0) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (1) › See all 6 customer reviews...

• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #83,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > History > Military > United States > Veterans

In Response to kego520-------

Lived the life of the book, April 12, 2011
 

By 

Me "kego520" (At home, in California) -  

This review is from: In Iraq they say it's safe Inside the Wire: That's a lie. (Paperback)

COMMENT: 

So, yeah. I pretty much lived the story in this book. I knew Sara Minks, and while I wasn't a huge fan of her, I don't necessarily dislike her. We had no issues whenever we had to deal with each other and so everything in this book is about Soldiers other than myself. That's probably why I'm not a character in the book. And that's a good thing.

By reading the publisher's review, you can get an accurate description of what the book is about. However, and I'm sorry to be a bit against you SFC Minks, but I feel like many things were a bit exagerrated. Now, this isn't to say that what she talks about didn't happen. Was there fraternization? Yes. Were there efforts to cover it up? Yes. Were orders from higher ranking Soldiers undermined by even higher ranking individuals? Yes. Its true. But what Sara Minks fails to talk about is the individuals in the unit who did speak up, females and males alike. I know of some of my sergeants who spoke to the commander to advise him of the issues and were shunned. The commander made many mistakes, and he knew it. Our commander was a good guy, but not the best commander. Our first sergeant was a bad guy, and a bad leader. That's that. Unfortunately, Sara Minks makes almost the entire unit look like scumbags. As a Soldier in this National Guard unit for over 10 years, and as a lower level leader myself, I have seen this unit live its ups and downs.

I say good job to Sara Minks for speaking up about her experiences, but next time give credit to the good Soldiers in the unit. And the good Soldiers make up the majority.

RESPONSE

That's a good point. I do appreciate the review, and just to help clarify. This book is about one experience and one experience only. Yes there were good soldiers - good people in or out of uniform. The entire point of this book is to talk about my experience. You know the old adage - there is always more than one side to a story. I have knowledge of only what I experienced. I can not write about the events that occurred that I was not a part of.
I am writing another book - this one chronicles another experience which sheds light on the good soldiers that are in the National Guard. I am not sure if you have ever used facebook, but there is a former member of the same unit who has shared her first hand knowledge of the 1SG's inner circle. It is worth reading. However I must warn you it goes back quite a ways in her postings. I found it best to scroll through about 12 pages of postings and read it forward.
Clearly this woman was affected by the experience in a very hurtful way. She will never be the same, young woman. Her experience has made her wiser, this is a good thing. (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=553408729)
Each person's experience is unique. I personally can only write from my perspective, which is what I did. My intent was to address a problem that has long been ignored. My experience speaks only for me. I acknowledge there were several stellar men and women. What they did or did not do in terms of putting a stop to the event in my book, I will never know. But if it is true that other soldiers' had made the commander aware of the existing situation, and he did nothing, then he lied under oath through his claim that he never knew about the fraternization, pregnancies or affairs. This is the breakdown that I'm talking about. Where does the responsibility lie? Whose job is it to go beyond the chain of command to put a stop to the degradation of human beings? Do we just address it, then ignore it? If a report is made and no action is taken the next step is to get someone involved from outside the chain of command to investigate the claims.

I wrote as book - So What?

This is the best way to sort out all the excess verbage (not a word I know). Just ask this one simple question - So What?
 For me the so what is  this: Lessons learned come at a heavy price. If my story will shed some light on issues surrounding men and women in combat then that's all I can hope for.

It's not about taking sides. It's not about the who that did it. It's about the bottom line. If you see the warning signs take heede. Don't just brush it off as a one time complaint. Take action. The fact of the matter is you are responsible for your brother or sister in arms.

Red flags are:

Multuple complaints regarding misconduct.
Females and males who are married acting like they are single when deployed.
Argueing during down time over "home" issues.
Unaccounted time away from group.
Soldiers being verbally counseled time and time again for the same issue.
Jealousy between team mates.
Gossip.

Take action. Nip it all in the bud. Put it in writing and set the tone for your team. Don't accept less than the highest moral standards for yourself and your team.

So What? Counter remarks such as -

What happens down range stays down range.
I'm just having fun - I don't mean any harm.
Stay out of my affairs.

Remind yourself, your soldiers and your team of the importance of maintaining the Army values - especially when down range. Keep families in the loop. Protect the sanctity of marriage by upholding your vows. Educate your soldiers, single or married about being a solid citizen, a responsible citizen. Support the hard right choice over the easy wrong.

Stand for the integrity, morals, values of an educated leader. Don't take the easy way out and bury your head in the sand and pretend nothing is happening.

So what? you decide.

MEDEVAC

There was a distinction between battle related injuries and non-battle related injury. The distinction lay with the soldiers themselves: an injury related to combat was heroic; an injury related to a non-battle injury was pathetic.

 I had been unable to walk for two weeks, and I was not getting better. The decision was made to medevac me to Germany for further care. I left on March 17, 2009. After I left FOB Sykes, I was transferred to Tikrit for a quick helicopter change. The medical personnel took great care of me. It was so cold in the helicopter that I was shivering even under two wool blankets. I had been heavily medicated so I would sleep through the transport, but I was still in that half-asleep, half-awake state. They wrapped me up in these hot blankets and then wrapped me in a large metallic blanket—they called it a burrito wrap! It was the warmest I’d been all night. It was wonderful. They took my vitals and were so caring and warm that I didn’t want to leave!

Sometime the next day, my next helo arrived and in what seemed like a split second, the crew moved me quickly without any effort. Their entire team was awesome. I arrived in Ballad to be greeted by yet another medical team. They were ready for me and had me in-processed in about two seconds! I have never seen such efficiency.

After my assessment, they gave me quite a heavy dose of meds. I had a reaction to one of them and was nauseated, so they gave me the standard medication: Phenegran.

Who knew I was severely allergic to it? Oh my God. I spent the next eight hours trying to crawl out of my skin, interlaced with hallucinations. I lost my ability to talk, and I froze intermittently like a statue. The last thing I remember was the entire medical team surrounding me and telling me not to worry, they were with me, and I was going to be okay. I woke up the next day around 1400 with no further side effects. That was so scary. But it gave all of us a way to joke about it; it was pretty awful, but afterwards, when they were telling me I was asking for oatmeal and talking to people who were not there, it was humorous.

As I came out of the allergic reaction I was able to use a wheelchair to scoot around the medical area. Because of the allergic reaction, I missed the next flight to Germany, and I went instead on the following day.

They bundled me up and placed me in the huge medevac plane on a litter. This plane was so amazing—there were soldiers there with serious issues, freshly amputated limbs, head wounds, chest wounds—and everyone had personal medical teams. It was the most amazing staff I have ever seen. The medical folks were comforting; they kept talking, plumping pillows, giving meds, providing a hand to hold, and they never stopped—there was so much love and care in the air that you couldn’t help but smile and thank God that you were under their care.

I have been in the army since 1980. From the time of my enlistment and up until now, I have traveled around the world. I have served with some amazing men and women. I love the army. There are many soldiers, men and women, who serve with honor and integrity. These are the folks who are given a bad name by soldiers conducting themselves as vigilantes with no regard for the army’s values.

Two of my sons have served in the army. One is currently serving in Baghdad. One has elected to end his affiliation with the army due to his bad experience with poor leadership.

There are those soldiers who misuse their positions. I have seen everything from mockery to downright physical abuse. Now, I am not talking about a good old-fashioned ribbing; I am talking about someone knowingly trying to humiliate and destroy another human being. These people prey on the weak and thrive on the fear they produce. It is important for me to bring light to the seriousness of the misuse of power, trust, and confidence by unethical leaders.

These are the people who I want you to know about.

I came into my deployment to Iraq with fourteen years of experience. I was a high school teacher for eighteen years. I had taught in some of the roughest inner city schools in the nation. I was educated. I had been highly trained and I was proficient in my Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), including soldiering skills, and I was a respected teacher. I felt that this would be enough to make it through any situation. I found out that my current level of training would not be enough, and my personal courage and moral integrity would be challenged. I was humiliated, degraded, and ostracized by my leadership because I didn’t go along with the status quo. On a personal level, I was outraged at the general lack of resolve and crass mentality presented by my chain of command. Professionally, I lost respect and trust in my chain of command. Not only did this affect me, it affected every soldier I deployed with.

Soldiers rely on their leaders as role models. When leaders abuse this connection, and knowingly manipulate inexperienced soldiers it is reprehensible. The ability for any one person to demoralize an entire company is unconscionable. This abuse is not talked about openly because of fear of retribution. But when junior troops get together behind closed doors, they open up to the horrors they are subjected to by less than proficient leaders. It is up to every soldier to raise their voice and be heard. If we [soldiers] allow this good-old-boy system to go unchecked, then we have failed the soldiers we are training to become the next leaders in this great army of ours.

I have written this book to the best of my recollection. I have elected not to include the names of those involved. This story is more about the types of actions that occur in the day-to-day operations of a corrupt system than about the people themselves.

The TRUE story of a HERO!

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Lone-Survivor/Marcus-Luttrell/e/9780316067591?r=1&cm_mmc=PriceGrabber-_-Category-_-Title-_-9780316067591&mr:referralid=567013ce-74c7-11e0-9770-001b2166becc

Synopsis

Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July, 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive.

This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history. His teammates fought valiantly beside him until he was the only one left alive, blasted by an RPG into a place where his pursuers could not find him. Over the next four days, terribly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell crawled for miles through the mountains and was taken in by sympathetic villagers who risked their lives to keep him safe from surrounding Taliban warriors.

A born and raised Texan, Marcus Luttrell takes us from the rigors of SEAL training, where he and his fellow SEALs discovered what it took to join the most elite of the American special forces, to a fight in the desolate hills of Afghanistan for which they never could have been prepared. His account of his squadmates' heroism and mutual support renders an experience for which two of his squadmates were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for combat heroism that is both heartrending and life-affirming. In this rich chronicle of courage and sacrifice, honor and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers a powerful narrative of modern war. 

Success

I think behind every successful man is a woman who knows who she is. She loves her partner unconditionally and does not have a hidden agenda. She lifts her man up enabling him to reach his fullest potential because she is not threatened by his success. She measures her passion by his devotion to her. Her open honesty keeps him trusting her. She focuses her energy into making life as a couple complete. She is forging a life for them even through the hardest of days. She is steadfast and true. He can depend on her for unconditional love.

In this way they both have what they want. Someone who they can shower with love. So in love with each other that the honeymoon never ends. Planning surprises for each other that required personal time to make it happen.

Being enveloped in each others arms, aching to hear the words of endearment.  Bringing strength, dedication and commitment into the relationship so that it stands the test of time. Being able to call anytime, night or day to say I love you.

Anything less is tragic. That is why I feel for those who are deployed, lonely and have extramarital affairs. It is shallow. It is without merit. It is a filler for intimacy. It cannot give you depth of relationship. It is a now not later agenda that is self serving and pathetic.

Buy your copy today!

http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-they-safe-Inside-Wire/dp/1609119738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296870223&sr=1-1

Barnes and Noble

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/In-Iraq-They-Say-Its-Safe-Inside-the-Wire/Sara-J-Minks/e/9781609119737/?itm=1&USRI=sara+minks

If you haven't bought a copy - check it out now!

yuou have got to read it to understand it!
"This is the kind of book that makes you skip lunch, and loose sleep because you can't put the darn thing down! LOL.. I love this book because the author had the guts to write about the things that happened to her during a hellish deployment to the grueling sandbox. Most women will continue to live their lives keeping this kind of crap stored, but Sara stepped up to the plate and is willing to let everyone know what kind of scumbags there are out there. this book is full of emotion and unforgettable an unforgettable reading experience. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone! "
-Marky Mark

"Excellent read. I couldn't put it down. Before reading this book, I was only aware of these types of problems through rumor and hearsay. As an Infantry Soldier (who has been deployed to Iraq), interaction with other female Soliders is limited, fleeting, and under a microscope. That a Military Police unit, charged with enforcing our regulations, could create an environment like the one described in the book, is disgusting at best. For Soldiers to allow this to happen is a travesty and I commend the author for having the courage to bring it to light. If you are a female Soldier or an NCO/Officer in charge of female Soldiers, you need to read this book. This should never be allowed to happen again"

"This book is powerful and emotional. Having many female friends that have served this great country of ours, and hearing their personal stories I can completely relate to this book as it's written. At times I have doubted the authenticity of their personal experience. Horror stories about corruption, favoritism, sexual abuse, and out of control leadership just can't be true when speaking about our armed forces. It just can't be. However, as frightening and sad as it may be, this book matches experience shared many of our female service members. I am now sold on the fact that these things do happen, there is abuse, corruption, and something needs to be done to correct the system. It's almost as if having stripes on your shoulder is a get out of jail free card to be a predator, to be unaccountable, and to be a disgusting human being. All I can hope is that these stories will start to surface after being buried for so long. If this had happened to my daughter, I would only hope to find the cowards one day in a dark alley."


http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-they-safe-Inside-Wire/dp/1609119738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295929033&sr=1-1

is it ever really over...

The effects of being deployed never go away. Sure they can fade into distant memories or they are relived with each retelling, but you never forget.
 There are soldiers who sleep on the ground in freezing rain. They walk for miles with 80 pounds of gear, They fight in the dark, they push on. There is little time for stupidity. For these soldiers and for the ones who fell, they are the real heroes. They average in age from 19 -27. They lead the young men who follow them through the toughest experiences of their lives. These are the soldiers' who shake their head at the non sense that goes on while deployed.
Those who fight with each other, sleep with each other, miss wake up for a mission because they are asleep from too much to drink, those who go on a mission only to go into villages to eat, they laugh at those who shoot donkeys for fun. They are angered by the women who go home pregnant.
There is honor to having served in war time, but their is also embarrassment. The stupid games that happen are needlessly wasting soldiers' time. Is it ever really over? No. When those same soldiers' return home they will create the same drama back at home.