The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell

Crawford, formerly a soldier in the Florida Army National Guard, was a student in college when he got word, on his honeymoon, that his unit had been called up. He ended up taking part in the invasion of Iraq and stayed in the country for some time after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Crawford is candid about what he saw and experienced: the good, the horrible, the ridiculous, the honorable, and the despicable. This reminiscence is competently read by Patrick Lawlor. His voice has a youthful quality that fits well with the author's age. He has great energy and is able to capture the moods of any situation. M.T.F. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

August 1, 2005
Having joined the National Guard for the tuition benefits, Crawford, like many of his contemporaries, never expected to do any heavy lifting. Early on, he admits his is "the story of a group of college students... who wanted nothing to do with someone else's war." But when his Florida National Guard unit was activated, he was shipped to Kuwait shortly before the invasion of Iraq. Armed with shoddy equipment, led by incompetent officers and finding release in the occasional indulgence in pharmaceuticals, Crawford cared little for the mission and less for the Iraqis. "Mostly we were guarding gas stations and running patrols," he explains. As for Iraqi civilians, "I didn't give a shit what happened to any of them," he confesses after inadvertently saving an Iraqi boy from a mob beating. Crawford's disdain grows with each extension of his tour, and he leaves Iraq broke, rudderless and embittered. Unfortunately, Crawford dresses up his story in strained metaphors and tired cliches such as "truth engulfed me like a storm cloud" and "you can never go back home." Despite its pretensions, Crawford's story is not the classic foot soldier's memoir and should provide enough gristle to please military memoir fans.