This Man's Army
Chapter One
I grew up in East Tennessee, just outside the medium-sized city of Chattanooga. If ever
there was a Southern city rooted in the past and struggling to find its path in modern
America, Chattanooga was it. I was born half a mile from Missionary Ridge, site of one
of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Cannons stand on all the high points of the city,
guarding historical markers, standing sentinel for an era that died at the Appomattox
Courthouse over a century before I was born. At least postbellum Chattanooga was more
forward thinking than some of the cities even farther south. It had a thriving urban
renewal program and could boast that most of its inhabitants heartily enjoyed living there.
I certainly did. I spent my adolescence playing football, running track, and doing all the
normal things boys my age did. I was always small, until I hit puberty, late, in my junior
year of high school, but I loved the outdoors and felt comfortable there in a way I never
did on the athletic fields. I loved the mountains and sandstone cliffs that surrounded my
home, and hiking and running along the dirt paths that led through the woods. In addition
to being an agile rock climber, I was an avid reader. So when the sun was shining, I
climbed. When it rained, I ... read full excerpt from This Man's Army: A Soldier's Story from the Frontlines of the War on Terrorism ebook
