Hello fellow veterans!

I am proud to announce that Surviving Twilight, the book I wrote about my deployment to Baghdad as a US Army Reserve soldier, has been published. After spending months writing, compiling and editing, this labor of mine is finally complete!

I have never had such a moving experience as I did when I wrote this book. The level of passion, terror, comraderie and pride that I felt while reliving those often terrifying moments of my deployment was incredible. Here in a final incarnation is the chronicle of the most defining experience of my life.

The official website for Surviving Twilight is listed below. There you will find a link that will take you directly to the publisher's website where you can see more details about the book, read an excerpt and even order a copy.

http://www.survivingtwilight.com/

I cannot thank you enough for the high level of support you provided to me while I was deployed overseas.  Without your encouragement I would not have been able to produce this work. I know I speak for my fellow soldiers in the United States Army when I say we are proud to serve the finest citizens on Earth.

Sincerely,

Sergeant Shane Bernskoetter
United States Army Reserve


******************************************
Surviving Twilight Foreword:

In every man’s life there are moments that define him. Facing death is one of them. Coming face to face with my own mortality was a terrifying event, especially when it happened with a frequency that was only possible in a land torn by violence and conflict. No amount of training or mental rehearsal could have adequately prepared me for this. The account you hold in your hands is a collection of just such moments. As an Army Reserve soldier deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, I spent hundreds of hours writing down events as they happened in an effort to provide my family with an understanding of what life was like for me while I was there. I hope the pages of this book provide you with a better idea of what day to day life is like for a soldier deployed in unfriendly territory.

The viewpoint that I provide is only one in a sea of hundreds of thousands. Every aspect of my experience serves to make my account anywhere from slightly to radically different from that of my fellow soldiers. I was a soldier responsible for the maintenance of all types of weapons systems in my theater of operation. I lived on a small post and was not involved in daily patrols outside the wire or other more heroic efforts that many of my fellow soldiers were engaged in. In comparison to those soldiers who were on the streets of Iraq every day, the dangers I faced and the significance of my story is probably of little note. The real heroes of this conflict are those soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines that risk their lives outside the wire on a daily basis in order to accomplish the mission they have been assigned.

In late 2003, my unit, the 245th Maintenance Company, was called to active duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. During the following three months we prepared for deployment by getting our equipment ready and brushing up on our combat training. This story starts as we prepare to depart Fort Riley, Kansas and continues as we deploy deep inside Iraq at Log Base Seitz. Never in my life have I experienced such a feeling of ominous foreboding as I did when we arrived in that camp. The time I spent in Baghdad was the most terrifying period of my life and it changed me forever. It was a time when the outlook was grim, survival was uncertain, and emerging alive was the only thing that mattered. Herein lies my story of surviving twilight.

We're glad you made it back safely.  Thanks for your service to our nation.

See that you are going to be on Channel 5 here in a few minutes; I was in the 6025th GSU until recently.

Good Interview SGT!!

75463 on Amazon

Awesome! I'm looking a little chubbier since I returned home, but I attribute that to the attentions of a good cook and the upcoming winter. Whoever said hibernation wasn't for humans? Thanks for the kind words sir, I greatly appreciate them.

Thanks for your service.  Jefferson City, Missouri, I see.    I am from Mexico, Mo.  May want to sling this in the Mo. Hometown forum too!

Ouch...

Log Base Seitz in '03/'04.   They took a helluva beating.