REVIEW:
Posted by Anna Patterson. Writer, Journalist, Book Reviewer,
January of 2017.
I am a blogger and reviewer. I was privileged to read this
book as a professional reviewer on NetGalley.
I would give this book Five Stars because this is a story of
war and life after serving in a war. Many soldiers suffer for some time after
their stint in battle. This is a book of one man’s journey on this difficult
road. It deals with his memories and the horror of warfare, and also dealing
with an illness called PTSD. This book is timely and I would suggest it as a
must read because of its explanation of those who fight and overcome it all.
I am posting a book review on my own blog site, which is
linked to my Goodreads site and linked to a few other blog sites of mine.
I have told friends of how interesting I found this book and
suggested they might want to read it.
* * *
This is a Book Review of the book BLACK KNIGHTS, DARK DAYS:
The True Story of Sadr City’s Black Sunday. It was written by J. Matthew Fisk, and
published by Warriors Publishing Group. This is a nonfiction book of 245 pages.
This is a War story by a combat veteran of this war.
In the beginning of this tale, the soldier/turned writer
says simply: “Someone had to get it
right. Someone who had actually pulled a trigger should tell this tale. Why not
me?”
So, this is the story. It’s a story about the Task Force
Lancer, Operation Iraq: Freedom II. Dig deeper into this true combat story and
you have what really happened April 4, 2004 when a First Cavalry Platoon
suffered an ambush in Sadr City. Matt Fisk, left with PTSD, remembers what was
later dubbed the Black Sunday Ambush of Sadr City.
He told of one soldier, who would have been celebrating a
wedding anniversary. Now he was in the middle of an ambush and trying to
protect everyone he could from the attack on their group. In that heavy fight
the author explains the reality of the soldier who although in grave danger,
ran in a somewhat reckless foot race to recover a machine gun he had left back
in their stalled vehicle.
Later as the fight continued in the packed city area, he
described how one soldier saw his situation at that point. He remembered it in
this way: “They had lost two vehicles, probably one Soldier, and were cut off
from escape by a force that outnumbered them about five hundred to one in that
heavily populated city.”
This is the story of a man who
transformed from teacher in a small school to soldier fighting in combat duty
in two war torn countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also the story of how
very hard it was to come back from the violence of this situation. This was a
real and total part of his life for some time. Leaving it physically and
returning to the life of a civilian was one thing, but the brutal challenge of
recovering from those scenes and those painful moments and memories, well that
is something again.
This soldier and writer has been diagnosed with a PTSD
disorder. This is a Post-traumatic stress disorder and can derive from living
through a traumatic event including that occurring in war.
* * *
Matt Fisk of Arkansas, began his
service in the Army in 1997. For eight years, he was in infantry and then for
eight more years he served as an officer. He also has a degree in Criminal
Justice.
The writer now enjoys life on a
self-sufficient homestead.
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