Discharge

DISCHARGE: A Veteran's Lessons on Outrunning the Pentagon, Moving Stolen Military Art, and Guzzling Civilian Freedom

A soldier becomes a civilian again in this knockout inversion of the popular military memoir.

"As editor of the Army Times, I refused to print any part of DISCHARGE because it was not for a general audience. DISCHARGE is outrageous, bawdy, laugh-out-loud funny and so ridiculous It Can't Be True... But It Is. Hands down, some of the best writing I've read in a LONG time. Inspiration for troops and civilians, and dangerous as hell. I thoroughly enjoyed it."
-Phillip Thompson, author "Into the Storm" and "Deep Blood"

1. After serving his full tour, the son of six generations of career battlefield heroes realizes he does not share their destiny and decides to do something none of his ancestors ever tried - become a civilian.

2. The Pentagon sets off a suspenseful game of cat and mouse when it recalls the wrong soldier... eleven years after he got out of the military.

3. Two former Army buddies make a vow to return a priceless military painting that has come into their possession, but when a hard-charging detective cracks the case before they've actually returned it, they find themselves branded as art thieves and on the run to get the painting back to its historical home before the authorities can catch them.

Any of the above stories alone could make a compelling read - DISCHARGE is all three of those stories at once. Paced with a breathless immediacy that keeps the pages turning, DISCHARGE is a take-no-prisoners dispatch of underdog spirit in the face of overwhelming odds. And it all really happened.

The classic military memoir formula goes like this: civilian child joins the force and becomes an adult, the innocent transformed into the veteran by either the fire of combat, the devastating grind of the military machine itself, or a combination of both. DISCHARGE turns that formula on its head, transmitting instead from the perspective of the grown-up veteran who sheds his uniform to join civilian life. And this first-seen-here approach, as delivered by Holbrook, hits with uncommon power.

Despite the fact that he finished his Army service a decade earlier, Ames Holbrook is activated for deployment. ("Huh? I was discharged eleven years ago; I think my skills are a little rusty.") Pressed by the Pentagon to prove he really was discharged, Holbrook recalls his first release from the Army in an anything-can-happen-and-does road trip with a former trench buddy, The Band-Aid Man. The Catch-22 absurdity of Holbrook's battles with the Army brass (who are never wrong) threaten to do him in even before he and his buddy find themselves caught up in the police manhunt for the famously disappeared "Reveille" painting that captured recent headlines.

With more troops transitioning out of the military now than at any time in the past 40 years, the timing of DISCHARGE is ideal. All members of the armed forces, lifers included, fantasize about getting out. Holbrook did it, two times, in highly instructional and irrepressible style. In addition to its being a vehicle for service members to discover the free world that awaits, DISCHARGE is an unmatched opportunity for civilians to peer into soldiers' minds as the uniform peels off.