Faraway Thunder : A Journey through Army Life & the Gulf War

"...Coming to the top of the low hill that lay at our front all that afternoon, the battle lay before us. A long low basin stretched into the distance with burning vehicles smoldering at innumerable places. In my night vision goggles streaking shafts of light slammed into their targets; white fireballs exploded at the end of their laser beam straightness. The streaks of seeming laser light happened in rapid succession, one after another after another. The tracer-like M1A1 sabot rounds piercing the atmosphere, accentuated by my infrared night vision, created a horrific scene of fire in the valley. As artillery boomed constantly somewhere very near, the steadily increasing noise of the battle seemed to reach a crescendo. The incredible succession of rapid tank fire roared up at us like waves; the chaos and mayhem threatening to overwhelm my senses.

I looked over at Sergeant T as he held a lit cigarette under his poncho. Neither of us spoke. I followed the vehicle at my front, into the valley."

"Faraway Thunder" is a common soldier's story. Intensely personal, it tells the story of modern army life and war in the Persian Gulf. From the recruiter's office to the battlefield, it is a journey into the thoughts and observations of one soldier as he sees and feels war, and the aftermath of war.