How does the US Army mold a video-game generation with its thumbs on the joystick into a proud fighting force with its fingers on the trigger—and lives on the line—in America’s War on Terror? Michael J. MacLeod, already an accomplished professional photographer and journalist, decided to find out the hard way: by enlisting in the armed forces at age forty-one. What he observed and experienced as an embedded reporter and a serving soldier makes for an unflinching and inspiring portrait of endurance, sacrifice, discipline, and courage.

From the trials of basic training on the home front to the ranks of the legendary 82nd Airborne Division to taking fire in the hot zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, MacLeod chronicles the soldier’s evolution as only one who’s been in those boots can. Candid, wise, and powerful, his memoir takes readers on an unforgettable journey through war and allows them to witness bravery firsthand.

Michael J. MacLeod is one of the most published military photographers of the last decade, a recipient of both a Bronze Star and a Meritorious Service Medal from the US Army, and an active supporter of war veterans’ groups. His work has earned dozens of military journalism awards, including Military Journalist of the Year in 2012, and has been published online at Time.com, the Huffington Post, Mother Jones, Fox News, CNN, Corbis Images, Army Times, Business Insider, the Atlantic, and the Long War Journal. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in wildlife biology. In addition to being a combat correspondent with the 82nd Airborne Division, he has worked as a photographer, magazine editor, carpenter, and college professor. MacLeod also spent three years living in a wilderness cabin in Montana studying elk, wolves, and mountain lions. Married for twenty-four years to his college sweetheart, he has two children and resides in a small town near Bozeman, Montana.