SOLDIER ON

An Afghanistan War Memoir of Leadership, Loss, and the Long Road Home

von David Meek

110 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

He deployed to Afghanistan believing he understood leadership. Then came October 29, 2011.David Meek was a 37-year-old educator when he entered the U.S. Army. Just a few years later, as a Transportation Officer with the California Army National Guard, he found himself in Kabul, Afghanistan-responsible for missions moving soldiers, civilians, equipment, and supplies through a city where an ordinary convoy could become anything but ordinary.Then, on October 29, 2011, a suicide bomber struck a coalition convoy near Kabul's Darul Aman Palace.Soldiers and civilians were killed. SGT Carlo Eugenio was among the fallen. SGT Ivan Garcia was the sole survivor aboard the Rhino.For the soldiers left behind, there was little time to stop.The mission still had to move.Drawing from his original deployment emails, photographs, military records, and memories revisited nearly fifteen years later, SOLDIER ON takes readers inside the Afghanistan War through the eyes of a young lieutenant learning what leadership costs when the decisions-and the consequences-are real.This is not simply a story of combat. It is the story of the people behind the mission: the NCOs who shaped a young officer, the soldiers who drove the roads of Kabul, the Battle Desk that waited for reports no one wanted to receive, the families holding life together thousands of miles away, and the military dogs who somehow brought moments of peace into a place surrounded by war.There is loss here. But there is also faith. Friendship. Cigars and guitars. Children's letters from home. Dark humor on difficult days. Soldiers caring for one another when no regulation or operations order could tell them how.And there are the questions that followed Meek home: How do you lead after losing your own?How do you know when to fight-and when to loosen your grip on the sword?What happens when the war ends, but part of the soldier remains there?Meek would eventually serve twenty years in uniform, deploy again to Afghanistan, command, and retire as a U.S. Army Major. But some of the most important lessons of his military career came while he was still a lieutenant, serving beside the men and women of the 756th Transportation Company.SOLDIER ON is an Afghanistan war memoir about leadership, loss, brotherhood, faith, and the long road home-a story for veterans, military families, leaders, and anyone who has ever discovered that surviving something and leaving it behind are not the same thing.The war ended. The mission changed. The road home continued.

• Reihe: Independently published
• ISBN: 9798174607880
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 16.09.2026
• Größe: 229 x 152 mm
• Verlag: Independently published