Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 144

RED, WHITE, AND TRUE: Stories from
Veterans and Families, World War II
to Present
Edited by Tracy Crow, Potomac Books, Dulles,
Virginia, 2014, 288 pages

A

s military members return from war, the
images and emotions from their experiences
follow them home, influencing their lives and
the lives of those around them forever. The book Red,
White, and True is an anthology of thirty-two selected
writings from various authors about the lasting impacts of military service; it offers diverse perspectives
from veterans, military spouses, and grown children of
veterans about the struggles and triumphs of war and
how it affected their lives. Tracy Crow is well qualified
as the editor. She personally served ten years as an officer in the Marine Corps and received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in creative writing. Several of
the individual authors, who are not military veterans
themselves, are college writing faculty and students in
creative writing programs. While each author’s experience is different, the theme throughout this book is the
human heart in conflict with itself.
The book starts with an introduction explaining
the editor’s inspiration for developing this anthology.
When she realized everyone has a heart that at some
point has wrestled with conflict, she set out to collect
true stories that accurately portray American military war experiences. Each story recounts a unique
experience within the timeframe from World War II
through present day Iraq and Afghanistan. The individual stories of pain and struggle illustrate the damage
that war rends and describes its impact throughout
society. It is not a warmongering, flag-waving, mission-accomplished collection. These stories illuminate
the emotional experience of war. The reader notices
that the emotional experience is irrelevant to the war
in which the experience occurred. Whether it is World
War II, Vietnam, the Cold War, Korea, or present-day
Iraq and Afghanistan, the unexpected, sudden death
that occurs in war creates images and emotions that
leave the mind of the veteran scarred for life.
Crow organized the book such that one could read
any story independently or start at the beginning and
read story after story to the end. The 7G&V