Veteran’s Day i-view -- A Vets Story –

For Jerad W. Alexander, military life was ingrained in the very psyche of his family. He grew up on military bases, from the east coast of the United States to Japan and was raised on masculine fantasies of heroism and patriotism. As soon as he was old enough, he enlisted in the Marines - from 1998 to 2006, he served as a U.S. Marine, deploying to the Mediterranean, East Africa, and Iraq. Once there, though, he learned that much of what he had spent his childhood dreaming about was a mirage.

Alexander’s searing memoir, VOLUNTEERS: Growing Up in the Forever War (Algonquin Books: Nov 9, 2021), is a trenchant account of his childhood dreams and subsequent military service, which dissects the mythology of war and American patriotism. Alexander earned his MFA in Literary Reportage from New York University Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism and in his new book -- courageously holds a multi-faceted mirror up to the face of war, recounting what he witnessed on an unwinnable warfront as he weighs the moral complexity that motivated him and others to serve.

Jerad Alexander is available for interviews starting Monday, November 8, 2021. I would love to get you a copy of the book and to schedule an interview with Alexander. If there is interest, please respond with a preferred date & time and an address to mail the book.

What sets VOLUNTEERS apart from many war memoirs is Alexander’s discussion of the motivations that drive young men and women to enlist in the military. While much attention has been paid to military dramas about the upper ranks of highly specialized fields, Alexander witnessed a hole in the story of the average American soldier.

In interviews Alexander can address:

Much of this book describes the author’s experiences as a child growing up on military bases. What are some of the things that he loved about this experience?
How was Jerad Alexander’s desire to join the military influenced by representations of war in American culture?
When the author’s stepdad leaves the base to serve in the Persian Gulf War, young Jerad recounts watching the war unfold on television. Reflect on his observations and reenactments of these images. What effect do you think televised representation of war has on children?
How does the United States demonstrate how much it values the efforts of the members currently serving in the armed forces?
VOLUNTEERS is not only an insider’s account of war. It takes you inside the increasingly closed culture that creates our warriors.