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MWSA Review
In his memoir, 20-Year Letter, Ben Warner bares his soul as a young, patriotic reserve officer eager to serve his country. He jumps at the chance for an assignment at Fort Lewis hoping to be deployed to fight in the War on Terror. Slapped in the face with government bureaucracy, Ben’s exuberant spirit is almost entirely crushed by superiors and peers treating Ben and his reservists as if they were second class soldiers with no strategic skills. When a year later, they have the opportunity to deploy to Afghanistan, they beg for the chance to get out of a bad state-side station and finally prove they’re worth every bit as much as regular army soldiers.
Mr. Warner delivers a compelling memoir of his no-nonsense, 2002 Army deployment in 20-Year Letter: An Afghanistan Chronicle. Beginning with peering out of the rear cargo door of the plane into the pitch-black night, young Ben realizes his first challenge in Afghanistan is to lead his team off the airplane across an airfield riddled with land mines.
Warner’s description of people and events, feelings and consequences endured while in Afghanistan illustrate how a soldier matures over a deployment with each terrifying, stressful event. Relationships are forged during military service on a different plane than in civilian life that can only be explained by what happens in a war zone and on a battlefield.
Despite grammatical and punctuation errors, this story is told in a conversational manner that makes you feel as if the author is telling his story directly to you. He gives us all a glimpse into America’s longest war, the absurdity of governmental red-tape, and the life of a citizen soldier.
Review by Nancy Panko (May 2021)
Author's Synopsis
A few short months removed from the events of 9/11, LT Warner is a young reserve officer with a burning desire to serve. Presented with the opportunity to do so in the new Global War on Terror, he jumps into his new assignment full blast, oozing with patriotism, a lot of cockiness, and not much of a plan. But soon enough he finds that his new normal will be clouded with uncertainty. New soldiers, new leadership, and a new geographic location are just the tip of the iceberg.
As the rear cargo door of the plane lowers to reveal a pitch-black Afghanistan night, the young leader encounters his first real challenge: simply leading the team off the airplane—over an airfield riddled with landmines. From there, 20-Year Letter follows LT Warner throughout the entire undertaking, chronicling the bad, the terrifying, the stressful, and even a little bit of the good. His tale is a comprehensive perspective of everything that isn’t glamorous about war.
ISBN/ASIN: 978-1646633180, 978-1646633203
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 186