Volunteers

October 15, 2021
A former Marine reflects on his military upbringing and the motivations for his decision to voluntarily serve in Iraq. From the outset of America's long war with Iraq, when U.S. officials dubiously led a coalition to invade in 2003, numerous writers have grappled with trying to recount the disturbingly complex experience of serving in that war. In this debut, Alexander offers a well-attuned perspective of the military world and how its expansive influence not only motivates, but also arouses a justification for war itself. The author traces his obsession with the military through his childhood and adolescence and long family history of serving in the armed forces. He recalls memories of his stepfather being deployed in the Gulf War in the early 1990s. He grew up on military bases throughout the U.S and in Japan, and as a youngster, he played war games and eagerly joined various military groups. Alexander's insights into the myth-building ethos of the military, which often inspires a love for combat, are well articulated, and he ably explores ideals of masculinity, heroism, and camaraderie within the military establishment. "The military can be thrilling to watch up close as an event," writes the author, "like a carnival ride to be experienced, but also beautiful in the presentation of its clinical precision and professionalism. The fodder for True Believers. This was the family business for all of us, and why wouldn't we be a part of this? How could we not? Look at this! Fighter jets and machine guns and heroes." In alternating chapters, Alexander vividly captures the foreboding atmosphere of a country under siege and recounts the disturbing incidents he witnessed during his seven-month deployment. The author is less successful developing fully dimensional individuals to steer the trajectory of his story. Early on, he recalls a touching memory of his stepfather, yet this and other meaningful family and intimate relationships could use more in-depth reflection. An absorbing memoir reflecting the realities of serving in the modern-day military.

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October 18, 2021
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Alexander debuts with an immersive if uneven account of life in the modern military. Raised on bases in the U.S. and Japan—his mother, father, and stepfather all served in the Air Force—Alexander knew early on that “I would have my own little sliver of the American war story.” He describes firing blanks from a Humvee turret as a boy, dressing up in “hand-me-down fatigues” and throwing tin-foil grenades at playmates, and becoming fascinated with Vietnam War stories while ignoring their warnings about “battlefield horrors that might chew me up and spit me back out again.” Over his father’s objections, Alexander joined the Marines in the late 1990s and in 2005 was sent to Iraq, where his stepfather had fought in Operation Desert Storm. Blending criticism and reverence, Alexander describes the military as “a vehicle for self-respect” that “can be its own worst enemy, its rigid attitudes, spartan traditions, and demands for conformity getting in the way of reason.” Though the descriptions of his combat experience in Iraq tend to be overwrought, and his motivations remain somewhat obscure, even to himself, Alexander incisively captures his growing disillusionment with the military. The result is an earnest yet inconclusive examination of “how war has entrenched itself into the larger American landscape.”

November 1, 2021

Alexander grew up in and among U.S. military families and always expected to join the military (like his father and stepfather, as well as his friends' parents). In this poignant debut memoir, Alexander recalls that his ambitions and the surroundings of his childhood impelled him to enlist in the Marines in 1998. Alexander movingly writes that growing up on a base was fun for him, if in retrospect limiting, and he never spared a thought for another life. The military was his world and provided an encompassing sense of familiarity, safety, and support. His memoir is a reminiscence on growing up and embracing the reality of service, and occasionally combat, as a Marine. The author writes particularly evocatively of the fantasies of heroism and patriotism that exist in American culture and the mainstream reverence for the military. VERDICT An absorbing if dreamlike apologia for the way Alexander grew up, and a firsthand look at a closed culture that some Americans never get to see. Especially recommended for libraries with a significant military clientele.--Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS

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