Johnny's War

"Johnny's War" tells the story of Johnny Cutter, a 20-year-old Oregon man who joins the military in 2004. As an Army private with the amazing salary of $18,000 a year fueling his dreams, Johnny foresees a bright future that includes a new car and marriage to his girlfriend, Halley. But the Iraq war changes Johnny's plans. He survives harrowing missions in Fallujah and Baghdad, then loses his basic training battle buddy to an explosion. Relentlessly, Johnny's former life recedes amid escalating chaos and random death. The terror is not always on the battlefield; sometimes it's in the battlefield operating rooms, where surgeons do whatever it takes to save wounded soldiers, succeeding in nine out of ten cases. For many of the survivors, however, life changes in agonizing ways. Johnny's tour of duty ends when he is maimed by a roadside bomb. As a double amputee in Ward 57 at Walter Reed hospital, he asks himself a horrible question: Is it better to live or die? In rehab, Johnny builds a bond with a lesbian nurse, Rochelle Rochambeau. She doesn't ask and doesn't tell, and allows him to go AWOL from Ward 57. Johnny embarks on a mysterious road trip, heading home, finding solace in the Northwest's natural grandeur. Ultimately, the trip answers his question. Journalism failed to uncover the full story of the Iraq war because the hearts and minds of American politicians were never on the record, and because the lives of the military men and women who were injured or killed were overlooked. Now it is left to the novelist to pursue the story, to find a different and deeper truth.