Trunk Monkeys: The Life of a Contract Soldier in Iraq

Trunk Monkeys: The Life of a Contract Soldier in Iraq tells the true story of operators from a private military company working in Iraq shortly after the first Gulf War. Lewis Steiner left one of the finest regiments in the British Army to join the gold rush into what was to become the living hell of war-torn Iraq. Steiner grew disillusioned about the joint UK and US invasion and realized that the hype surrounding the reasons we went to war were unjustified. He quickly understood that the true motivations were about greed and profit regardless of the human cost. This fascinating and extremely violent account encompasses the highs and lows of operating throughout Iraq. Steiner remembers his friends and comrades, many of whom died needlessly through incompetence and suicide attacks. Pointless duties to scrounge supplies for Thanksgiving dinners to suicide missions, operating in areas placed out of bounds by coalition forces, resulted in Steiner's sense of duty and loyalty to his team costing them the ultimate price ending in a fatal ambush in which he barely survived.

LEWIS STEINER was born and educated in London. Coming from a military family, he joined the Army as soon as he was old enough. After a varied and interesting career serving in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, Steiner left the disciplined world of the military and became a contract soldier in an industry that was massively expanding thanks to the instability in Iraq. Leaving after three years, he worked as a media security specialist/medic and regularly deploys with news crews to hostile environments around the world.