Forged by War: Australians in Combat and Back Home: Australian Veterans in Combat and Back Home - Softcover

Lennox, Gina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0522851711 ISBN 13: 9780522851717

Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

In Forged By War, Australian veterans and their families reveal the experience of combat and how it has changed their lives. These stark first-hand accounts describe the reality of military action and its personal consequences in every major conflict and peacemaking mission since World War II, including the invasion of Iraq. Sometimes the reader is in lockstep with a soldier on patrol, watching as a land mine explodes, or a local militiaman points an AKandndash;47 at Australian peacemakers. Other times, the reader is inside a returned veteran's head, feeling their superfluous adrenalin, their need to control their environment, even at home. With accounts from Peter and Lynne Cosgrove, Graham Edwards, Frank Hunt (I Was Only Nineteen), other veterans of Vietnam, Glenda Humes (daughter of Capt Reginald Saunders), peacemakers and an SAS trooper, this compelling investigation by Gina Lennox in underpinned by the question: where does family fit in a soldier's life?

About this title

Synopsis:

In "Forged by War", Australian veterans and their families talk about the experience of war and how it has changed their lives. These unvarnished first-hand accounts go to the concrete detail of military action and its personal consequences. Sometimes the reader is in lockstep with a soldier on patrol, watching as a land mine explodes, spraying shrapnel and killing troops, or a local militiaman points a missile launcher at Australian peacekeepers. At other times, the reader is inside a returned veteran's head, feeling their edgy tension, their superfluous adrenalin, their need to control their environment, even at home. Underpinning it all is the question: where does family fit in a soldier's life? This superb book is for anyone interested in the role Australia should play in international conflicts and humanitarian crises and how these impact on Australian society. It highlights the highly personal costs of political decisions to resolve conflict through war or UN peacekeeping missions.

About the Author:

Gina Lennox is a Sydney writer, filmmaker and radio producer who has travelled and lived in the Middle East and Africa. She is author of four books- Fire, Snow & Honey-Voices from Kurdistan (short-listed for the NSW Premier General History Award 2002); In Search of Heroes- Stories of Seven Remarkable Men (1998); Struck By Lightning- the Life of Garry Lynch, Father of Anita Cobby, (1996), and People of the Cross, People who live and work in Kings Cross (1993).

About this edition

• Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0522851711
• ISBN 13: 9780522851717
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336