Property of the U.S. Army

Property of the U.S. Army Book Description

They had stamped it on his T-shirt, his footlocker, and the plastic stock of his M-16. Decades later, he'd find they'd stamped it on his soul.Ed was just 20 years old when a Vietcong landmine ripped off both his legs below the knee. After only four months and four days in combat, Ed found himself in a Guam hospital bed fighting for his life - a life he would barely recognize when he returned to his small-town Ohio home. A life that was no longer his.The U.S. Army paid for Ed's two legs with a Purple Heart. The failed marriages, alcoholism, and drug abuse were an added bonus. After 50 years of trying to find his place in the world, Ed found the Army had taken that too.In Property of the U.S. Army, Ed shares his story for the first time, processing the lifelong impact of combat ? of coming home to a nation that didn't want him ? of physical and mental wounds that never fully healed.Ed writes that our wars are not pages in a history book or stories on the nightly news. They continue to damage lives and communities decades after the bullets stop.As Ed reveals these truths to readers, he discovers something for himself: that war is hell ? and there's no coming back from either.