Baghdaddy: How Saddam Hussein Taught Me to Be a Better Father - Hardcover

Bill Riley

4.86

28 ratings by Goodreads

9781612542928: Baghdaddy: How Saddam Hussein Taught Me to Be a Better Father

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1612542921 ISBN 13: 9781612542928

Publisher: Brown Books Pub Group, 2019

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Military Writers Society of America Multiple Award-Winner:

Founder’s Award for Standout Book of 2019

Gold Medal Award for Memoir category

For readers of Educated and The Glass Castle, a moving new memoir about survival, family, and a humanizing insight into the individuals who fight the nation’s wars.

As a child, he was raised in an unstable and violent home by a mother struggling with mental illness. An absent father with a firm belief in tough love left him with only his sister to understand or comfort him as they faced a home full of harshness, resentment, and physical abuse.
As a man, he braved the war-torn landscapes of Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Having learned early from his father that only the strong survive, he enlisted in the Air Force after high school and began an impressive military career in intelligence analysis, communications, and supporting special operations, meeting incredible individuals along the way. In his time overseas he faced harsh realities of the politics of war, the consequences of military actions, and the challenge of attempting to rebuild a country while its own people are trying to kill you.
Baghdaddy is Bill Riley’s memoir: an honest and colorful depiction of his journey through a turbulent youth and into a challenging adulthood. This very human account of living in some of the least humane environments delivers the message that no matter how different we seem, we are all trying to make the best of life and learn how to be the best versions of ourselves.

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About the Author:

Bill Riley is a writer and retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel with interests in space exploration, coffee roasting, global communication, intelligence activities, and ancient ruins. Bill was an intelligence analyst during the Cold War. Later, he specialized in strategy and communications. During his career, hes worked with intelligence and special operations professionals from every service, virtually every intelligence agency, and several friendly foreign governments. Bills deployments took him through combat zones across the Middle East where he played significant roles in Kuwait and Iraq, supported joint coalition operations, and helped nations rebuild after wars. He was the first US electronic warfare officer in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom, he led the Air Force's largest network operations and security center, and he was the first cyberspace operations officer to receive the Air Force Combat Action Medal.He holds degrees in literature, public administration, and strategic leadership, and he is a graduate of Air Command and Staff College and the Air Force Space Command VIGILANT LOOK program. Bill lives in Idaho, just outside Boise, with his wife and two sons.

Review:

“Riley’s prose is exact and features moments of unexpected beauty . . . As much an account of America’s involvement in Kuwait and Iraq as it is a personal narrative, the book provides a humanizing insight into the individuals who fight the nation’s wars, and the deeper motivations that explain why they do so. A compelling and well-crafted combination of history and autobiography.”
—Kirkus Review

“Baghdaddy by Bill Riley is an insightful look at a time in history and into the life of a real warrior. It is an emotional journey that is so well told it feels like a classic novel. The narrative truly fixes images into the mind and heart of the reader—a well written human experience, not just a war memoir.”
—Military Writers Society of America

“Riley’s memoir, by turns grueling and entertaining, spans his difficult childhood and early Air Force career in the Middle East. The most brutal sections cover his early life: Riley grew up in Farmingville, N.Y., on Long Island, and suffered abuse from his mother and harsh strictness from his often-absent father while trying to protect his sister, Isabel. After high school, Riley joined the Air Force in the early 1980s and became an intelligence analyst. The book focuses on his time in Kuwait before and during Operation Desert Fox as he built a coalition command center and learned about Middle Eastern cultures, and later in Baghdad six months after the first Iraq War ended. He relates his military experiences with wit, a slightly twisted sense of humor (wringing laughs from an unexpected duel with a hissing camel spider), and evocative imagery... it’s an amusing, often exciting war memoir that readers of the genre will enjoy.”
- Publishers Weekly

"In the air force, it's often said that 'every airman has a story.' Bill Riley's story is extraordinary: raw, candid, searing, insightful, and inspirational. Flashing from a tough childhood to challenging service in our nation's defense, Bill's narrative demands close attention but rewards it with nuggets of great value. Riley has painted a compelling picture of what it means to lead-in combat and in fatherhood-and to love."
-Lt. Gen. Chris Miller (ret.), USAF, Former Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategic Plans & Programs

"Lt. Col. Bill Riley's nightmarish childhood would have destroyed most people. It is said that sometimes the finest steel is forged in the hottest fire. This memoir of Riley's military career is interwoven with thirty years of the most violent clashes our world has ever seen. From firsthand involvement with the brutality of cultures that use their own children as weapons, his writing moves effortlessly to descriptions of overwhelming tenderness and the nobility of the human spirit. Riley gives us a glimpse of the brilliant intelligence warriors who orchestrate our military. I didn't know they existed, but I am glad to know they are on our side."
-Jim Nicholson, MD, USMC (ret., Korean War), Silver Star and Purple Heart Recipient, Author of George 3-7th Marines

"Baghdaddy is raw, insightful, and a powerful read.The book is vivid in its storytelling-I could almost feel the shrapnel, rocks, stones, and bricks hit my skin as the author detailed accounts of multiple attacks by enemy forces. Baghdaddy is a story about love, loss, friendship, invisible enemies, and, at its core, a man who found solace through sharing his story."
-Hope Manna, Writer/Producer

"This was more than a read; it was an experience. Although I did not serve with Lt. Col. Riley, ironically, I did deploy to the places he takes us in this book. Not only are his descriptions of the areas dead on, but I also appreciated his explanations of the cultural challenges, his interpretations of Middle Eastern attitudes, and the 'rest of the story'-often untold-regarding the history of the goings-on as well as the US military's involvement."
-Tammy Seley Elliott, Command Chief Master Sergeant, US Air Force (ret.)