Part memoir, part history lesson, part absurdist situational comedy, A LIFE AWAY follows the course of one young officer's deployment as part of the now 13 year-long War on Terror. Trained as an architect, he had been recruited into the US Navy's Civil Engineer Corps while still a student, a half year before the attacks of September 11th. Fresh off the completion of his first tour in New Orleans and only months into his second posting, the still quite green Lieutenant was abruptly called up for emergency deployment to Afghanistan, as one of the Navy's first "Individual Augmentees" sent to support the Army overseas. These missives were sent back to the States on a weekly basis to a continually growing list of readers - some eagerly awaiting peeks inside the opaque military apparatus, others searching to find out "just what the hell we're doing over there," and still others (probably the majority) merely trying to keep tabs on the young man's whereabouts. The original letters have been lightly edited for clarity, and annotated sparingly. An extended epilogue, entitled "Requiem," is a collection of newly written essays, reflecting on the entirety of the experience, including its aftermath, from a safe distance. // "From the Foreword: " A LIFE AWAY is the story of a young architect and a hybrid unit of sailors and soldiers who struggle with the tension between building hard and soft infrastructure within the context of an unforgiving environmental landscape and infinitely foreign cultural divide. It is also a story about the common human elements which bridge these divides through the language of the built environment under the conditions of mere survival. In a world with endless amounts of cash and very little to spend it on, it is a story about innovation and making do with what you have. While the economics seem to make little sense in a conventional setting, the true product of these efforts is chronicled to be the building of a domestic capacity built upon technical skills and personal relationships which will bear fruit well beyond the last deployment. The equal demonstration of these successes and failures come at a tremendous personal cost and sacrifice by men and women who are often working within the confines of an indeterminate larger policy which at times vacillates between being rhetorical and practical. Working in a country which has resisted change for many thousands of years, this book highlights the tone deaf nature of a higher command who is entirely reliant of sailors and soldiers who must find meaning in their work in order to succeed. Yet, this reality check is deferential to a long military tradition which honors the independent intellectual and moral drive of leadership within the ranks of junior officers and enlisted men and woman. History has taught us that wars are won by generals, but this book teaches us that nations are built by carpenters, doctors, masons, teachers and maybe even a junior grade Lieutenant or two. While only time will tell as to the nature and definition of success of building a nation in Afghanistan, this journey leaves little doubt that one camp, one unit and one person can actually make a difference in bridging two peoples caught up in the course of a circumstantial history which will redefine the values of the U.S. as much as it will those of the Afghan people. -- "Dr. Jesse Keenan"