BOOK REVIEW: The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose
By Martha Raddatz | Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster
Reviewed by Heidi Vierow, PhD
The Reviewer: Heidi Vierow, PhD, a retired CIA Clandestine Service officer, currently is an Intelligence Strategy and Policy Advisor at MITRE.
REVIEW: With the two-decade-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over and our military personnel largely having returned to the US living or deceased, our country is just now erecting monuments on the National Mall to recognize and remember their service and sacrifice. As with the Vietnam War, our country has in some ways valued the dedication of our warfighters and in other ways neglected to memorialize the dead and honor and assist the living. Martha Raddatz, ABC’s chief global affairs correspondent who has covered war zones and global affairs for more than three decades, has written an anthology to remember and respect the servicemen and women who served our country in these wars as well as their families. The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose is a compelling anthology of some of these warfighters’ stories. With it, she wants to memorialize their dedication to mission and country and to highlight a common understanding that can unite this country. It is an admirable and challenging undertaking, and Raddatz succeeds in being neither preachy nor hagiographic in her undertaking.
This anthology is a moving, compelling, and accessible read. What sets this book apart from others in the genre is Raddatz’s decades-long relationships with the men and women whom she profiles. In the forefront of her narrative always are those who serve and their families who support them. In the background Raddatz shepherds along their stories. As she relates their narratives, she reveals that she met some as they were wheeled into the war-zone operating theaters or as they took off in jets from ships at sea. She stays connected with them through ten and twenty-year veteran reunions and memorial services. At the funeral of her lifelong friend, the trailblazing Captain Rosemary Mariner, one of the Navy’s first female tactical jet pilots, Raddatz witnesses the first all-women flyover to honor Mariner’s legacy. Gold Star family members call Raddatz in moments of crisis because they know she will listen and help in any way that she can. She deploys her vast network in the military and journalism to assist some of them and their families. Nevertheless, Raddatz stays in the background of these stories, while she leverages her journalistic skills to bring their stories alive so that we the readers never forget them.
Raddatz paces the collection adroitly; she intersperses tales of enduring drive to survive and succeed with those of struggle and loss. Derek Raider, a Marine Raider, becomes an entrepreneur despite being paralyzed; a junior Army officer, Mark Little, returns home without his legs but helps veterans in crisis, and a group of comrades support one another through struggles with depression and PTSD. Despite the warfighters’ and their families’ hardships, many of these stories highlight the value of endurance and perseverance, the enduring ties of families—both the traditional ones and ones that the warfighters form—and the need for society to sustain its veterans. Raddatz addresses all these issues with frankness. She does not shy from the hard truths of the reality with which these people live. She writes with an honest voice that is accessible and trustworthy.
Remembering and honoring warriors while dealing with the memories of war and its tragedies—these are recurrent challenges for societies as they readjust to peacetime. Homer’s Achilles and Virgil’s Aeneas suffered from PTSD and struggled with wounds to their souls and their bodies. Warfighters throughout time have struggled with the transition from intense conflict zones to reintegration into civilian society. The military provides structure in chaos, creates units through training and common experience, and gives purpose to lives. These qualities can be harder to find or missing in civilian life. In her collection, Raddatz illustrates how the former warfighters deal with these changes and survive them. Never preachy, the book should find a wide readership. To inculcate these lessons in younger people, this book should be integrated in high school and college curricula alongside Phil Klay’s Redeployment, a short-story collection written by a veteran on the violence, despair, accomplishment, and pride that military service in general and in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters in particular can bring. Raddatz’s theme of respect and remembrance is timely and timeless, and we need to learn from our warfighters’ experiences and apply their lessons to foster common understanding in our country. This would be a true showing of gratitude for their service.
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