My gratitude to:
Parents Deborah and Dennis, brother Luke, and the Gallagher, Boisselle, Scott, and Steinle families;
Friends and colleagues Ted Janis and Phil Klay;
Friends and readers Elliot Ackerman, Nick Allen, Lea Carpenter, Eric Fair, Will Gehlen, Brian Hagen, Fahad Khan, Sanaë Lemoine, and Nick McDonell;
Friends and chiefs Brandon Willitts and Words After War and Paul Rieckhoff and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America;
Educators Loni Byloff and Mary Chrystal at Brookfield; Shelly Brewster and Hardy McNew at Bishop Manogue; Simone Caron and John McNally at Wake Forest; and David Ebershoff, Richard Ford, Lauren Grodstein, and Victor LaValle at Columbia;
The soldiers and interpreters of 2-14 Cavalry and 1-27 Infantry who served in Iraq from 2007–9;
Agent extraordinaire Amelia “Molly” Atlas and ICM Partners;
Atria editors Daniella Wexler and Peter Borland and Atria publisher Judith Curr, who believed in this book;
And, of course, fierce and lovely Anne.
To those I mentioned, and to the many others I didn’t—Sláinte.