 Northern Disclosure This book is a personal account of an Infantry Squad leader in training and in combat. The human interest story that faces many young men in a military and combat scenario. The author recounts the creation and placement of soldiers underneath him and the development of the relationships that will follow him into Iraq as a member of a new army unit and strategy. The army started the Stryker Brigade Combat Teams with this unit and they were the first to train and fight with this vehicle and unit of action strategy. The author SSG Toby Nunn is the direct leader of most of the soldiers mentioned in the book and recounts their exploits. This is also a coming of age story as the soldiers mature in the wiles of combat and learn about their inner humanity versus the aggressive nature programmed by years of training. The Book takes place with the unit train-up in the U.S. at Fort Lewis Washington. It then follows them to various other training places around the country, to the desert sands of Kuwait, and eventually to Mosul, Iraq. Due to the setting of the book it will appeal to a broad spectrum of demographics looking to learn more about the face behind the military uniform and to get a ground level perspective of the middle stages of the war as the reestablishment of the Iraqi nation and the standing up of the first internal security forces. SSG Nunn was one of the first leaders to take on the tough task of training and establishing local security forces in Iraq while dealing with the cultural differences between the soldiers and those they trained and fought with. About the Author SFC Toby J. Nunn is a Canadian Citizen earning his citizenship for the United States of America. Born and raised in the mountains of northern British Columbia by a single father, he moved to the United States to gain an education and obtain opportunities not available to him in Canada. Faced with several adversities in life he turned to the United States military to validate himself as a man and citizen of the nation he is proud to be a part of, without taking away from the pride he holds dear about where he is from and where his family still resides. As a soldier in the US Army he has excelled, gaining rank as fast as legally possible but attaining responsibilities far beyond his pay grade from the start of his career. He has also been blessed with great leadership and wonderful duties. He is a charismatic leader known for his ethically based decisions. SFC Toby Nunn is a well-decorated veteran of the War on Terror being deployed several times and places. He is also one of the fastest inducted members of the very elite Sergeant Audie Murphy Club being recognized as being in the top percentile of all Non Commissioned Officers in the Army. He has received a spectrum of awards ranging from an Army Commendation for Valor to the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. SFC Toby Nunn is married to the lovely Reagan Hutter Nunn together having two boys, Tristan and Jeffrey and one girl Scarlet Taylor.
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Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and AfghanistanLaunched as a military blog (or "milblog") by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau in October 2006, The Sandbox is an online forum through which service members in Afghanistan and Iraq share their stories with readers here at home. In hundreds of fascinating and compelling posts, soldiers write passionately, eloquently, and movingly of their day-to-day lives, of their mission, and of the drama that unfolds daily around them. A dog adopts a unit on patrol in Baghdad and guards its flank; a soldier chronicles an epic day of close-call encounters with IEDs; an Afghan translator talks earnestly with his American friend about love and theology; a dad far from home meditates on time and history in the desert night under ancient stars; a Chuck Norris action figure witnesses surreal moments of humor in the cramped cab of a Humvee --Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan presents a rich outpouring of stories, from the hilarious to the thrilling to the heartbreaking, and helps us understand what so many of our countrymen are going through and the sacrifices they are making on our behalf. - "I really feel like most people look at this war as little more than a television event. How many have ever taken the time to stop and think about what we go through every day over here? The bullets, rockets, and IEDs are not the hard part. The hard part is knowing that life goes on back at home." --FC1 (SW) Anthony McCloskey
- "The man looks at me, his jaw working in anger. For a brief second, I get the impression that he is going to attack, and then suddenly, as if the energy has gone out of him, his shoulders slump slightly and he looks down at his brother's body." --1LT Adam Tiffen
- "Out here in the desert, Time is King; the minutes are his minions and the months his sabers by which you are knighted. The King controls all that you do, when you come and go, and how long until you see your children." --Capt. Lee Kelley
- "It's easy to say "We have to go to war" if you're not we, and it's easy to say "Bring home the troops" if they are not your brothers getting left behind on the return trip." --Spc. Michael O'Mahoney
About the Author
For many readers, Doonesbury has long been something of a Rorschach test--they see in it what they are predisposed to see. Case in point, those who detect an antimilitary bias in the strip. It may interest--if not confuse--these critics to learn that if GBT has such a bias, the military itself has failed to notice. During the first Gulf War, the Pentagon organized a touring exhibition of the Doonesbury war strips, and during Trudeau's visit to Kuwait, where he met hundreds of soldiers, he was awarded certificates of achievement by the Ready First Brigade and the 4th Battalion 67th Armor, which made him an "honorary Bandit for life." More recently, the DOD, USO, and VA have all worked closely with Trudeau on the strips depicting B.D.'s wounding in Iraq, and Walter Reed Army Medical Center presented him with the Commander's Award for Public Service, the third-highest civilian award given by the Army.
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