Charlie Mike: A True Story of Heroes Who Brought Their Mission Home - Tapa dura

"An inspiring story of life--and death--after returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Joe Klein movingly describes how the struggle of veterans to rejoin a civilian world detached from their military experience and its life-changing impact often requires as much, if not more, courage and heroism as the battlefield. I could not put down this book which is, in the end, not just about finding new purpose but about brotherhood and love."--Robert M. Gates, US Secretary of Defense, 2006-2011, and author of Duty

"Joe Klein has done us a national service, telling the inspirational stories of vets from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who returned home and as civilians continued their dedication to country and people in need. This is the can-do generation and this book honors their non-stop citizenship."--Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation

"A master storyteller, Joe Klein brings the reader into the lives of a captivating group of soldiers who found ways, after they returned home, to sustain the camaraderie and sense of mission their military service provided. What a powerful, uplifting and important tale this is!"--Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of The Bully Pulpit and the Pulitzer Prize-winning No Ordinary Time

"A great look at two of the best veteran organizations going and the incredible humans who make the effort work."--Jon Stewart

""Charlie Mike" is an extraordinary book about extraordinary individuals young Americans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and returned home, only to discover a powerful need to 'Charlie Mike' to continue the mission by performing tasks larger than themselves with fellow veterans who sought to do the same. Joe Klein captures the experiences of these individuals clearly, vividly, and eloquently, and gives us an exceedingly moving and truly inspiring tribute to the members of what deserves to be recognized as America s "New" Greatest Generation."--General David Petraeus"

Klein's young men and women were heroes in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in a way they're even more heroic back home on their interior battlefields and in their deep commitments of friendship. "Charlie Mike" is beautifully written, compellingly vivid, rich with humanity and soul. --Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes correspondent"

A great look at two of the best veteran organizations going and the incredible humans who make the effort work. --Jon Stewart"

"Charlie Mike is an extraordinary book about extraordinary individuals--young Americans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and returned home, only to discover a powerful need to 'Charlie Mike'--to continue the mission by performing tasks larger than themselves with fellow veterans who sought to do the same. Joe Klein captures the experiences of these individuals clearly, vividly, and eloquently, and gives us an exceedingly moving and truly inspiring tribute to the members of what deserves to be recognized as America's New Greatest Generation."--General David Petraeus

"Klein's young men and women were heroes in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in a way they're even more heroic back home on their interior battlefields and in their deep commitments of friendship. Charlie Mike is beautifully written, compellingly vivid, rich with humanity and soul."--Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes correspondent

This is the true story of two decorated combat veterans linked by tragedy, who come home from the Middle East and find a new way to save their comrades and heal their country.

In Charlie Mike, Joe Klein tells the dramatic story of Eric Greitens and Jake Wood, larger-than-life war heroes who come home and use their military discipline and values to help others. This is a story that hasn’t been told before, one of the most hopeful to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan—a saga of lives saved, not wasted.

Greitens, a Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar, spends years working in refugee camps before he joins the military. He enlists because he believes the innocent of the world need heavily armed, moral protection. Wounded in Iraq, Greitens returns home and finds that his fellow veterans at Bethesda Naval Hospital all want the same thing: they want to continue to serve their country in some way, no matter the extent of their injuries. He founds The Mission Continues to provide paid public service fellowships for wounded veterans.

One of the first Mission Continues fellows is charismatic former Marine sergeant Jake Wood, a natural leader who began Team Rubicon, organizing 9/11 veterans for dangerous disaster relief projects around the world. “We do chaos,” he says.

The chaos they face isn’t only in the streets of Haiti after the 2011 earthquake or in New York City after Hurricane Sandy—it’s also in the lives of their fellow veterans, who’ve come home from the wars traumatized and looking for a sense of purpose. Greitens and Wood believe that the military virtues of discipline and selflessness, of sacrifice for the greater good, can save lives—and not just the lives of their fellow veterans. They believe that invigorated veterans can lead, by personal example, to stronger communities—and they prove it in Charlie Mike. Their personal saga is compelling and inspirational: Greitens and Wood demonstrate how the skills of war can also provide a path to peace, personal satisfaction, and a more vigorous nation.