Book Review: When The War Came Home: The Inside Story Of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind by Stacy Bannerman

America is split right down the middle when it comes to the war in Iraq. What happens when a marriage is, too? Stacy Bannerman of Kent, Washington State, is a longtime peace activist. Her husband, Lorin, was a member of the Washington Army National Guard who was called up to serve in Iraq.

For Stacy, her nonviolent, anti-war beliefs collided with her wishes to support her husband as he was sent off to fight in a war she doesn’t believe in. In her book, When The War Came Home: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind, Bannerman looks back on a frantic 18 months when her marriage was turned upside-down by war – and how National Guard families throughout America have been affected by the conflict in Iraq. “I’ve spent my career trying to change the conditions that create war,” Bannerman writes. “ I never imagined my husband would be fighting one.”

Bannerman highlights a community that has been bearing the brunt of the war in Iraq - the National Guard. Guardsmen have been far more involved in this conflict than any other, “citizen soldiers” turned into full-time warriors, and Oregon and Washington have carried a heavy burden. Dozens of troops from Douglas County have served.

In When The War Came Home, Bannerman tells the story of Lorin’s deployment, from the time they first got the news in late 2003 to his eventual return home last year. Bannerman, a longtime activist well before Lorin’s deployment, becomes involved with Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war group trying to draw attention to service family issues.

Bannerman heavily researched the issues the National Guard has dealt with in Iraq, and moves back and forth between her own personal story and the bigger picture. It’s a troubling litany of issues that the war veterans have to deal with — financial problems, family discord, benefit delays, post-traumatic stress disorder and more. That’s all assuming they make it back in the first place, and Bannerman also digs up grim data about how the government is letting guardsmen down with inadequate supplies and training. Occasionally, the statistics she cites aren’t sourced as well as they could be, but generally they paint a damning picture of the government’s too-frequent neglect of those serving their country.

Article Author: Nik Dirga

An American journalist who now lives in New Zealand, Nik Dirga writes whenever the mood strikes him about books, music, movies, pop culture and more.

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