Great Opportunity
Last week I was afforded a great opportunity to meet many awesome people and true examples of the great young men and women we have in our military today. Last week I was invited to fly to DC, with all expenses paid, by AMU publishing company who is the publisher of the new book called The Sandbox. The Sandbox is a book of the same name as the website which Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame started last year. Garry, along with David Stanford (who is titled as the Duty Officer of the Sandbox) started the website as a place to collect and aggregate milblogs from forward deployed milbloggers in any theatre that is part of the Global War on Terror. The Sandbox website has over 300 blog entries today from Afghanistan, Iraq, Walter Reed, and other locations.
Earlier this year Garry, David, and AMU decided to create a book made up of the best blog entries ever posted to the Sandbox website. The book turned into reality on October 15th, 2007 when it went on sale. There are about 93 stories in the book written by over 40 authors. One of the great things about this book is that all the proceeds from the sale of the book are going to my favorite Charity, The Fisher House. The Fisher House provides low to no cost lodging for families of wounded warriors while they are recuperating at a military hospital or VA hospital. Garry has already put out two books that are collections of the Doonesbury cartoon strips which have had the proceeds also benefit the Fisher House. Those two books are specifically portraying his character, B.D. as he went to war in Iraq and was then wounded and became an amputee. B.D. then goes through therapy, prosthetic fitting and training, and then moves on as a amputee in normal life. When those books were released Garry performed book signings at the Pentagon and visits to Walter Reed and the Fisher House.
So it only made sense that when The Sandbox was released it would also benefit the Fisher House and book signings would again happen in the Washington D.C. area. Since this books was essentially written by the bloggers themselves and not by Garry, he wanted some of the contributing authors there. Garry and David asked SGT Owen Powell who is on Active Duty, stationed in Germany and whom just returned from Iraq to participate and they asked me, which I am in the National Guard and have just returned from Afghanistan. This gave them some representation from both war fronts and they also had representation from both active duty and national guard forces.
Needless to say I was thrilled and flattered to be asked to attend and be part of this event. I also just happened to be at my Annual Training at the time of the book signing training up my Brigade Combat Team from NY whom are about to go into Afghanistan themselves next year as almost an entire Brigade. My higher command let me leave for a couple of days in order to be part of this event. So I flew out of Syracuse, NY and right into DC Reagan airport. AMU covered all the expenses and took very good care of us. The itinerary was very packed and busy down to the minute. It started with the first night as a “get to know each other” event with Garry, David, Owen, his wife Barbara, Shelly from AMU, and myself. The next full day started with book signings at a popular DC area bookstore, a visit to the National VA HQ where we had lunch and performed book signings for about two hours. During this time we were also interviewed by the Washington Post. From the VA we moved over to Walter Reed where we toured the new Military Advanced Training Center, which is where many of the wounded warriors recuperate and rehabilitate. From there we walked over to one of the Fisher Houses on the Walter Reed campus, where we had dinner with a group of outstanding young men and their families. We signed a lot more books there and spent quite a bit of time talking to these guys and their families. The second day we went to the Pentagon where we conducted interviews with DOD News, The Pentagon Channel, NPR, and Stars & Stripes. After the interviews, we conducted a short, private tour of the 9/11 memorial chapel (which is where the plane impacted) and then we went to one of the main concourses just beyond the mini-mall inside the Pentagon. There we conducted book signings for over three and a half hours.
We easily signed over 1000 books, but I have no idea what the total number was. Several times I was asked if I was getting writer’s cramp, and almost every time I responded that writer’s cramp is the least of my concerns considering where I was just a few months ago. The book has done very well, apparently selling out of the first 15,000 copies that were part of the first printing. The publisher has ordered a re-print in order to fill all of the requests and restock the shelves of many bookstores.
Overall it was an awesome and surreal experience. To be sitting in a combat zone only a few months ago and now to be hanging out with Garry Trudeau in Washington D.C. and having two-star generals and many other senior officers and NCOs standing in line to get my autograph was quite sobering. However the highlight was truly hanging out at the Fisher House and getting to know these young men who are learning to live through what most American men and women fear the most….being disfigured and disabled for life. Today’s service-members are truly made up of the new Greatest Generation.
This blog entry is just a summary of my trip to Washington D.C. If you would like to read more in greater detail and see the links to all the news stories, check out my Afghan&Military Blog at www.bouhammer.com.
**NOTE, Troy is a 1SG in the New York Army National Guard and writes several blogs on his website at http://www.bouhammer.com**
CJ
October 31st, 2007 at 5:49 pmGreat to hear, Troy. Glad you got to be there. It’s an awesome experience, isn’t it? I linked to you over at A Soldier’s Perspective to help spread the word. Congratulations!!
Chip
November 1st, 2007 at 3:32 pmToo bad Garry Trudeau is a communist…