Last Journey: A Father and Son in Wartime - Hardcover

Darrell Griffin Sr.; Darrell "Skip" Griffin Jr.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 193463316X ISBN 13: 9781934633168

Publisher: Atlas, 2009

Synopsis

"A remarkable and very moving account of the loss of his son, a father’s need to understand how and why it happened, and the relationship between a parent and child changed and deepened by war. Whatever your views about the purpose and conduct of the war in Iraq, this book deserves your attention and the acclaim it will surely receive for its heartrending testament to the awful wages of war and the invincible devotion of love."—Senator John McCain

A tribute to the “great conversation” between a father and his son, an Iraq staff sergeant who died in combat.

Staff Sergeant Darrell “Skip” Griffin, Jr. was killed in action on March 21, 2007, during his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with Valor for dragging a comrade to safety through enemy gunfire. He was also in the middle of writing a book. Tentatively titled The Great Conversation, it was an attempt to describe and make sense of the destruction he had seen in Iraq. His father, Darrell Griffin, Sr., was going to help him finish writing it when he returned home in July.

In the face of Skip’s death, Darrell, Sr. vowed to finish the book himself. He traveled to Iraq, witnessing the war close up and meeting his son’s comrades. Driven by a conviction that Americans do not know enough about the war they have been fighting for the past six years, Last Journey is a first-hand account of everyday life for soldiers in Iraq; it’s also an intimate portrait of a lost son, a meditation on faith, and finally a tribute to the lively philosophical debates the Griffins used to share. Included is email correspondence with Skip during the weeks before he died as well as original photographs from the frontlines. Passionate and inspiring, Last Journey serves as a tragic reminder of the human cost of war. 24 black-and-white illustrations

About this title

About the Author

Darrell Griffin, Sr., a C.P.A. (ret.), divides his time as a consultant to small businesses and as a writer. He lives with his wife and two children in Southern California. He has four grown children.

Reviews

The conflicted, ultimately tragic experience of an American soldier in Iraq is explored in this moving homage. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Skip Griffin saw heavy fighting during several tours in Iraq before he was killed by a sniper in Baghdad in 2007. His father's memoir portrays Skip as a thoughtful man (he read Plato at age 13) imbued with a skeptical patriotism; despite his deep misgivings about the war, he volunteered to cut short a yearlong break to return to Iraq. Skip's own perceptions emerge through extensive excerpts from his e-mails, blog and other writings. In these he criticized the Bush administration's reasons for the war, deplored the failings of American counterinsurgency strategy and the woeful performance of the Iraqi armed forces, and evinced a growing weariness, edging toward despondency, at the carnage around him. Darrell Sr. overquotes his son's grandiose and not always cogent ideas about religion, philosophy and politics. But when the book sticks to Skip's everyday impressions of the conflict, it presents a harrowing, unsanitized vision of the war and the toll it takes on our soldiers. Photos. (June 29)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Atlas
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 193463316X
• ISBN 13: 9781934633168
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304