My Last War
A Vietnam Veteran’s Tour in Iraq
by
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As I stepped into the courtyard, either a mortar or a small rocket flew directly over my head, landed within a hundred meters, and exploded loudly...Then another round landed on the other side of the wall, and the resulting explosion sent pieces of steel shrapnel flying over my head. I could hear chunks of metal landing on the roof of our house.
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About the Book
Charles M. Grist is one of the few Vietnam veterans to have served as an enlisted soldier in the Iraq war. In 2004, he volunteered to be the sergeant-in-charge of the Protective Service Detail for an Army Reserve general in Baghdad.
Grist and his unit, the C.O.B.R.A. Team, were based inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, but their travels with the general led them along the deadly roads of Baghdad, to the throne of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, and through the picturesque hills of Kurdistan. It was a fast-paced life of high adventure, filled with convoys, mortar or rocket attacks, and the constant threats of ambushes or improvised explosive devices.
As a Vietnam veteran, Grist knew that Operation Iraqi Freedom would be his last war. He used his daily journal to record his team's wartime experiences, to document the events that shaped Iraq in 2004, and to preserve the heroic deeds of some of the Army Reserve and National Guard warrior-citizens with whom he served. That journal became the basis for this book.
About the Author
Charles M. (Chuck) Grist is an Army veteran of both Vietnam and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He retired from the Army Reserve in 2009 and as a police officer in 2010. He earned his BA in Communication from the University of Central Florida. He and his wife, Debbie, live in Central Florida where they are the parents of four and the grandparents of five.