The book concludes on a somewhat optimistic note, through Adam’s story, particularly. The loneliness is constant and bruising, even as their loved ones try their best to reconnect and reframe their lives together. The camaraderie that bound them together and buoyed them is now strained and splintered at home.

Soldiers enter a maze of bureaucracy to get the services they need, only to be left feeling unattached and overmedicated in many cases. Their partners juggle bills, children, and the images of the men they love returning from war half-broken or worse. We see alcoholism, violent outbursts, unrelenting nightmares and struggles to survive financially when the men are left unable to work. With each chapter, Finkel shares another story of a soldier struggling to find the ground beneath his feet, or offers a glimpse into the life of a wife or a widow who is also floundering in this postwar period. Many of the stories are intertwined, and the chapters don’t necessarily focus on only one soldier or family member’s story. Like many of the other soldiers from his battalion written about in this book, it is a story that doesn’t proceed neatly from Point A to Point B.įinkel relies on interviews, text messages, court records and military records, as well as court reports, 911 transcripts and personal writings from emails, letters and diaries. Finkel describes him as he is about to leave the war, using excerpts from Schumann’s journal, which he kept during his deployment. The book opens with the Prologue, which focuses on Adam Schumann.

In Thank You For Your Service, Finkel follows some of these same soldiers home, as they try to move forward with their lives while confronting war wounds, both visible and invisible. Finkel’s previous book, The Good Soldiers, took him to Baghdad, Iraq in 2007-2008 as he was embedded with the 2-16 Infantry Battalion.

The Good Soldiers by David Finkel