Playing Soldier

by F. Scott Service

Overview

As an only child isolated within a troubled family, F. Scott Service found solace in fantasy and imagination, until a fateful day led to the discovery of his father's Korean War field jacket hidden in a closet. What began as innocent emulation and approval, eventually spiraled into the calamitous loss of everything he had built as an adult. Faced with a grievous divorce, post-traumatic stress, homelessness, substance abuse, and the failure of everything he had willed himself to believe was truth, one night communing with a loaded pistol became the mechanism for self-clarity. From that darkest time, only elemental deconstruction and reconstruction of identity would allow him to forge a reclamation with his true, original self.

Visceral, with breathtaking candor, Playing Soldier powerfully captures the unlearning of expectation, the celebration of individuality, and the nourishing of self-acceptance once buried by cultural stamps of approval and societal convention. Braided with humor, courage, fear, despair, and hope, his unflinching, evocative story of passage into adulthood, the Iraq War, and beyond, speaks to anyone who has confronted adversity from without and grappled for their dreams from within.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781735818634
Publisher:	Mindstir Media
Publication date:	11/05/2020
Pages:	450
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.91(d)

Editorial Reviews

02/22/2021

Iraq War veteran Service (Lines in the Sand) delivers a blistering rebuke to the military with this extraordinary war (and peace) memoir. “A lot of war stories begin with heroes,” Service writes, explaining that discovering his father’s old field jacket from the Korean War as a child sparked an interest in the military and a fervent wish to become a hero himself. After marrying his college sweetheart, Rita, and settling in Montana, Service committed to the Army National Guard, expecting to be a weekend warrior after his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. But the military had other plans for him: Service promptly shipped off to Iraq (after flirting with the idea of being a conscientious objector). What Service eventually came back to on the homefront was an overturned life — a divorce, brief homelessness, and a near run-in with suicide.

Service dishes up brutal honesty about how, during his active duty in Iraq, his disillusionment with the military and its mission festered. His luminous, illustrative prose (“A lush garden of fear. An empty desert of courage”) paints vivid word-pictures: readers will feel the grit of the Iraqi sand, the unrelenting heat of the sun, and the constant fear of imminent death. They’ll taste the contraband booze and relive the devastating moment when Service’s wife lambasts him with divorce papers.

The most terrifying content — when Service ends up with his gun in his mouth, intent on pulling the trigger— will be triggering for some readers. However, Service’s account stands as a crystal-clear example of the mindset many returning soldiers experience. Playing Soldier offers a stark reminder of the urgency of mental health awareness and treatment— particularly for veterans with PTSD. Any returning veteran will glimpse themselves on every page, and Service’s insights will minister to those who have loved ones facing similar struggles.

Takeaway: This candid and moving memoir cuts through often-romanticized ideas of military life with its consideration of the true meaning of service.

Great for fans of: Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July, James Webb’s Fields of Fire, John “Chick” Donohue and J.T. Molloy’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever.

Production grades Cover: A Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A+ Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews