Drowning in the Desert: A JAG's Search for Justice in Iraq - Hardcover

Gembara, Vivian H.; Gembara, Deborah A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076033448X ISBN 13: 9780760334485

Publisher: Zenith Pr, 2008

Synopsis

Several people are waiting to greet Captain Vivian Gembara when she returns home after a year-long tour of duty in Iraq--her grateful fiancŠ and two officers dispatched from headquarters to retrieve "the file." Certainly not the homecoming she expected, but such is life when you are in the business of soldiers behaving badly.

As a lawyer for the U.S. Army, Vivian counsels them, investigates them, and when necessary, prosecutes them. When an Iraqi teenagers body is found floating in the Tigris River and U.S. soldiers are believed to have been involved, she knows she has a case on her hands. What she doesn't realize is just how much that case will reveal about the Armys conduct at war.

Drowning in the Desert: A JAG's Search for Justice in Iraq is both a legal thriller and a searing account of the savagery that occurs when commanders place "the fight" above all else. 

About this title

Book Description:

As a lawyer for the U.S. Army, Vivian counsels them, investigates them, and when necessary, prosecutes them.  When an Iraqi teenager's body is found floating in the Tigris River and U.S. soldiers are believed to have been involved, she knows she has a case on her hands.  What she doesn't realize is just how much that case will reveal about the Army's conduct at war.  Drowning in the Desert: A JAG's Search for Justice in Iraq is both a legal thriller and a searing account of the savagery that occurs when commanders place "the fight" above all else.

From the Inside Flap:

A number of people are waiting to greet Captain Vivian Gembara when the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division returns home to Fort Carson after a year-long tour of duty in Iraq—her grateful fiancé, Vivian’s parents and sister, and two senior judge advocate general (JAG) officers from post and division legal office. Captain Gembara is pleased that Majors John Rawcliffe and Kerry Cuneo have made time to welcome her home. Prior to Vivian deploying as 3rd Brigade to Iraq, Major Cuneo had been Vivian’s boss in the criminal law section of the JAG office.

“Still riding the wave of euphoria, I hugged Cuneo and gave a handshake and half-hug to Rawcliffe, truly touched that they’d come out. . . . Cuneo and Rawcliffe smiled uneasily, their arms hanging at their sides, long and awkward.”

Her happiness with this professional courtesy is short-lived, however, when she is asked to retrieve “the file.”  Certainly not the homecoming she expected, but such is life when your “business” is dealing with soldiers who have behaved badly.

As a lawyer for the U.S. Army, a JAG, Vivian Gembara’s professional life is all about soldiers: she counsels them, investigates them, and when necessary, prosecutes them.  When an Iraqi’s body is found floating in the Tigris River and American soldiers from 3rd Brigade are believed to have been involved, she knows she has a case on her hands. What she doesn’t realize is just how much that case will reveal about the army’s conduct at war. Drowning in the Desert is both a legal thriller and a searing account of the savagery that can occur when commanders place “the fight” above all else. 

About this edition

• Publisher: Zenith Pr
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 076033448X
• ISBN 13: 9780760334485
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 310