Always a Marine First

This novel is the true story of US Marine Robert Bowen. It begins shortly after he graduates from high school There is a terrorist bombing of the Twin Towers in New York and like many other people, the event inspires some searching on his part and he joins the Marines at least partly out of feelings to achieve vengeance for the atrocity and fight to prevent any more occurrences of anything like that. He is sent to Iraq and in fighting in Fallujah he suffers shock and concussion and ends up in Bethesda with a bad case of PTSD. He eventually recovers and is sent to Afghanistan to protect a television media crew. During his time there, he is inspired to begin writing poetry about the war and he also meets a young woman who introduces him to injecting opioids. He turns himself in and is sent for recovery to Hines Veterans hospital and goes through the therapy and recovers. His next tours of duty include Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Yemen, Libya, back to Iraq, and then Zamboanga in the Philippines. There he meets the love of his life on the internet. They court and get married and she comes to the United States as his bride. He also writes poems about Iraq and about terrorism in general. He spends his remaining days as a Marine involved in recruiting new Marines.