This book could never have happened if I hadn’t seen the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan firsthand, embedded with U.S. troops who performed magnificent service under impossible circumstances. I’d especially like to thank Major Jeremiah Ellis and First Sergeant Jack Robison of Dog Company, 1st battalion/12th regiment of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, who first demonstrated the leadership skills in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province that led me to the theory of the case: that the post-9/11 military would produce civilian leaders with a genius for public service.
My greatest thanks, obviously, go to Eric Greitens, whose vision and honor provided the backbone and spirit of this book. But Jake Wood and William McNulty were absolutely essential as well, generous with their time, insights, and mockery. Also, of course, Mike Pereira, Natasha Young, Kaj Larsen, Spencer Kympton, and all the others who let me into their lives, trusted me, spent patient hours with me, and became my friends. Thanks to the Greitens and Wood and Pereira families—and of course, to Clay’s parents, Stacy Hunt and Susan Selke, who opened their hearts to me; to Sheena Greitens and Indra Petersons, who supported their guys and tried to protect them from my prying, and gave me great perspective in the process; to all the staff and fellows at The Mission Continues and Team Rubicon, who spent hours, days, weeks sharing their lives with me.
Thanks to the dozens of veterans who spent time with me, but whose remarkable stories didn’t find their way into this book. I’d also thank those Team Rubicon and Mission Continues members I served with on service deployments; your devotion and cheer should be a lesson to this country. And to Barbara Van Dahlen, whose big, smart heart and her organization—Give an Hour—has provided great service to the veterans’ community. I hope I’ve honored all of your work with this book.
Thanks, too, to General David Petraeus and his brilliant COINistas, who schooled me in counterinsurgency warfare, both at Fort Leavenworth and downrange. I’d especially like to thank Lt. Col. John Nagl (Ret) and Col. Derek Harvey (Ret) for their affectionate impatience with my blockheaded civilian cast of mind. (“Klein, you’re too lazy to tie your shoes in the morning,” Nagl once said, eyeing my loafers.) I’d like to thank Paul Reickhoff of Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America, David Gergen (who told me about Eric Greitens), Rachel Kleinfeld and Michael Breen of the Truman Project, and Paula Broadwell, all of whom introduced me to dozens of returning soldiers and Marines, spectacular young people whose stories were told in my August 2011 Time magazine cover story, “The New Greatest Generation.” These include people who will surely help lead our democracy in the years to come—Congressman Seth Moulton, former VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers, Elizabeth McNally, John Gallina and Dale Beatty of Purple Heart Homes, Nate Fick, Wes Moore, Rye Barcott, and Dr. David Callaway. Special thanks also to Admiral Mike Mullen, who has been a voice of sanity and intelligence throughout this process. And also to my Time magazine war buddies, Franco Pagetti and Bobby Ghosh.
I’d like to thank my editors at Time magazine—Jim Kelly, Rick Stengel, Nancy Gibbs, and Michael Duffy—who allowed this old political reporter to become a war correspondent; especially Gibbs and Duffy, who gave me the time to write this book. I’d like to thank my wonderfully sharp and persistent editor at Simon & Schuster, Priscilla Painton, who simply would not let this book be any less than all it could be. And Jonathan Karp, Sophia Jimenez, and the rest of the team at S&S as well. Captain Nate Rawlings (Ret), Trish Stirling, and Alexandra Raphel were a trio of exemplary researchers, all of whom came to love the characters and premise of this work.
Thanks and cheers to my friend, Baroness and Bomb-Thrower Helena Kennedy, the principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, who made me a visiting fellow and gave me the time and space and alcohol necessary to write this book. (And her husband, Ian Hutchinson, for the medical care and laughs, when needed.) Ditto for Alex Jones of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, an old friend, who allowed me to work on this book rather than write a research paper during my semester as a visiting fellow there.
My longtime friend and agent, and doppelgänger, Kathy Robbins deserves a paragraph all her own for her lifetime of . . . well, just about everything. I could not have written the books I’ve written without her advice and support, brilliant editing, birthday parties, and all-around cheer.
Okay, finally: my family. Apologies. I know I get sort of obsessive when writing a book, especially one that sends me off to exotic places like Kandahar and St. Louis. These things take years to exorcise and you’ve lived through them more than once. Now I have not only children—Christopher, Terry, Sophie, and Teddy—to thank for their patience, but grandchildren—Zoe, Bibi, and Lucy—as well. And Lindsay Sobel, Ann Mah, and Silvia Santos, too.
Which leaves only Victoria, my love, and there is just not enough to say: You taught me how to live with joy, not just purpose. You are hilarious and beautiful, insanely creative and wicked smart. Boy, am I a lucky guy!
New Rochelle, February 2015