As You Were: To War and Back with the Black Hawk Battalion of the Virginia National Guard

In the past few years we've seen a lot of books about our armed forces: Books about combat units ("The Good Soldiers" by David Finkel, e.g.), books about casualty assistance ("Final Salute" by Jim Sheeler), books about deployment and marriage ("The Heart of a Soldier" by Kate Blaise), and even young -adult books about traumatic brain injury ("Back Home" by Julia Keller). They're all quite different, and (having read all of the above) all quite moving.

Christian Davenport's "As You Were: To War and Back with the Blackhawk Battalion of the Virginia National Guard" is just as moving as any of the above and maybe just a tiny bit more so, since he's writing about the men and women of our National Guard who leave their settled lives and families for war zones, and then attempt to return and fit back in without the resources available to their active-duty comrades.