War Flower

Starred review from January 15, 2019
A devastating memoir of a woman's experiences in Iraq that ultimately reflects how "there is no real end to war, only the absence of it, a lull in the fighting, a time during which another generation is born for the kill."At the age of 19, King (It's My Country Too: Women's Military Stories from the American Revolution in Afghanistan, 2017, etc.) was deployed to Iraq as a "wheel-vehicle mechanic," which required her to recover vehicles rendered inoperable due to mechanical issues often caused by enemy fire. However, sometimes she also had to salvage the body parts of fellow soldiers who had been killed in those vehicles. "We were told every soldier gets a black bag and every piece of flesh, bone, or body part not connected to a full body was to have its own separate bag," she writes. As a sergeant explained, "there is no certainty that the leg lying near one body is actually that body's leg. It's not your job to figure that shit out. It's your job to clean it up." Throughout her deployment she saw soldiers inured to the violence and death, and she tried to be detached and courageous even when she was thrown for a loop by mortar fire that left a fragment of shrapnel in her shin. Impressively, King coolly relates the countless horrors she witnessed. Readers who don't know certain elements of war jargon--Strykers, nametape defilade, BOHICA, etc.--should consult a dictionary or the internet; this immediate narrative has little room for such explanations. As if her nightmarish experiences in the war weren't difficult enough, she relates the equally arduous challenge of returning home pregnant with twins and suffering from and denying PTSD. Throughout, King's descriptions are graphic, clear, and frightening to read.An absolutely compelling war memoir marked by the author's incredible strength of character and vulnerability.

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February 11, 2019
In a searing and moving memoir, King recounts her service in Iraq, her life after Iraq, and the war’s lasting effects on her. Deploying in 2006 as a wheeled-vehicle mechanic in the U.S. Army, the 19-year-old King’s duties included recovering vehicles hit by explosives and “bagging and tagging” the mangled corpses of those who died in them. She recounts the way the U.S. Armed Forces interacted with Iraqis: “We carried out our missions the way we saw fit... raiding houses, trashing rooms, desecrating prayer rugs and kicking over shrines of Muhammad.” The soldiers treated all Iraqis, including children, as potential terrorists, she writes. Once home and pregnant with twins, King suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, which she tried to hide from her family. Interwoven are flashbacks to her childhood, her abusive and short-lived first marriage, her wartime affair with the father of her twin boys, and the ways the war has affected her relationship with her sons (they learned early not to play with the knives she carried in her purse). As she reflects on the many ways she brought the war home with her, King reveals the unique burdens borne by female veterans as they reintegrate into a society that seems oblivious to all they’ve been through. This is a harrowing and powerful book.