Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years—A Memoir

Capps served as an army officer for nine years then became a Foreign Service officer documenting war crimes in Kosovo, Central Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur. This searing memoir recounts the horrors Capps encountered and their devastating effects on his psyche and soul. “This book tells the story of how I got to the point in my life when I was sitting alone in a pickup truck in the middle of the African continent ready to end it all, and how I came back from there.” Capps does an admirable job of painting a picture of war for those who know little about life in the military or the Foreign Service. In 2002, Capps received a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, though obtaining any help for his condition became another battle: “The government that sent me to war, that encouraged me to return again and again, dropped me as soon as I stumbled,” Capps writes. After returning home, Capps attended a graduate writing program at Johns Hopkins University. He founded the Veterans Writing Project, which provides tools for veterans to communalize their experiences through the telling of their stories. Capps’s telling of his story of war and bearing witness is vitally important for “the 99% of Americans who sat out the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.” (May)