Undaunted

December 17, 2012
In her latest, Biank (Army Wives: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage) sheds light on women who serve in the armed forces. She closely follows the careers of four servicewomen between 2006 and 2011: Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, the first Hispanic female general in the Marines; 2nd Lt. Bergan Flannigan, a platoon leader married to a man in the same military police company; Sgt. Amy Stokley, a drill instructor for the Marine Corps; and Maj. Candice O’Brien, an officer whose deployment to Afghanistan strains her marriage to a military husband with PTSD. Biank is a skilled biographer, providing contextual snapshots of America’s military with each passing year. Her immersion in each woman’s state of mind makes these stories read almost like a novel, and the clarity of detail, from cadet slang to the social politics on base, reveals the thoroughness of her research. Biank doesn’t offer any groundbreaking conclusions—women are ever more prevalent in the military, but still face challenges in a hypermasculine environment—but these engaging glimpses into the life of military women are more than worth reading for their own sake. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn, Sagalyn Literary Agency.

January 1, 2013
Biank (Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives, 2006) analyzes the increasingly important role played by women in the military. The author, whose first book was developed into the popular TV series Army Wives, follows the military career of four women currently playing a vital role in today's integrated armed forces: Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, the Marine's first Hispanic female general; 2nd Lt. Bergan Flannigan, a military policewoman in Afghanistan; Sgt. Amy Stokley, who drives recruits at Parris Island; and Maj. Candice O'Brien, who struggles through deployment to Afghanistan with a strained marriage and two children back at home. Biank shows forcefully how this commitment to service still runs up against sexism and prejudice. Three of the four served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet nonsensically, by law, women are still prevented from deployment in combat. Women in the armed forces train to the same standards of excellence as their male colleagues who qualify for combat, and they must maintain the same levels of physical fitness and endurance. In Iraq, when Stokley was a driver, her truck came under attack, and one of her passengers died. Flannigan lost her leg to a roadside booby trap when working to train the Afghan National Police. Biank follows the careers of the four individuals over time, as they advance in their chosen spheres. Salinas chose to continue to serve when she was told by a corporate headhunter that she "would not find what you have in the Marines here....You're not going to find loyalty or camaraderie here like you're used to." An eye-opening account of a military in transition.

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