Seriously not all right
Subtitle: five wars in ten years
By: Ron Capps
Edition: First hardcover edition.
Publisher: Schaffner Press, Inc.
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 263
ISBN-13: 9781936182589
Subjects: Modern Military history; Diplomats; War correspondents; Intelligence officers; American Authors; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Patients; World politics; Veterans Writing Project; Biography
Description: "SERIOUSLY NOT ALL RIGHT : Five Wars in Ten Years is a memoir by Ron Capps, who served both in military intelligence and in the foreign service and as an observer over the span of ten years in wars raging in three continents and over a span of a decade, from Kosovo to Darfur. He received the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Afghanistan, and the William Rivkin Award for his work in Darfur. The victim of PTSD as the result of the human rights abuses he witnessed over this period, he subsequently obtained a medical discharge, earned a double masters degree in writing at Johns Hopkins University, and founded the Veterans Writing Project. He currently teaches at Walter Reed Hospital and George Washington University, and is the editor of the literary magazine Zero Dark Thirty"--

"For more than a decade, Ron Capps, serving as both a senior military intelligence officer and as a Foreign Service officer for the U.S. Department of State, was witness to war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. From government atrocities in Kosovo, to the brutal cruelties perpetrated in several conflicts in central Africa, the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and culminating in genocide in Darfur, Ron acted as an intelligence collector and reporter but was diplomatically restrained from taking preventative action in these conflicts. The cumulative effect of these experiences, combined with the helplessness of his role as an observer, propelled him into a deep depression and a long bout with PTSD, which nearly caused him to take his own life. Seriously Not All Right is a memoir that provides a unique perspective of a professional military officer and diplomat who suffered (and continues to suffer) from PTSD. His story, and that of his recovery and his newfound role as founder and teacher of the Veterans Writing Project, is an inspiration and a sobering reminder of the cost of all wars, particularly those that appeared in the media and to the general public as merely sidelines in the unfolding drama of world events"--
Table of contents: title: Prologue; title: Part I. KOSOVO, 2000-2002; title: My New Favorite Person; title: Klaxon; title: Yellow; title: Istinic; title: Podujevo; title: Shqiptar; title: Skopje; title: The Duke of Dragobilje; title: Malisevo; title: Racak; title: Celebratory Gunfire; title: Part II. CENTRAL AFRICA, 1995-1998 / 2000-2002; title: No Deed Goes Unpunished; title: The Banyamulenge War; title: Count the Feet; title: Prostrates; title: Our Ndoki; title: Part III. AFGHANISTAN and IRAQ, 2002-2004; title: Hold the Javelinas : Bagram; title: A Danger to Myself or Others; title: Seriously Not Alright; title: Here be Monsters; title: An Unruly Garden; title: The Northern Alliance; title: Part IV. DARFUR, 2004-2007; title: A Trick of the Geographers; title: Three Mohammeds; title: An Empty Auditorium; title: Uncle Wiggily in Darfur; title: All Things Being Equal; title: The French Lieutenant's iPod; title: Part V. THE WAR AT HOME; title: Who Will Apologize?; title: Plan B; title: Walking the Halls; title: The Whole Megillah; title: Writing My Way Home; title: Epilogue: Forgive and Forget.