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The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country
Collins
May 2006
256 pages
ISBN: 0060888598
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political | Non-Fiction
Military service was once taken for granted as a natural
part of good citizenship, and Americans of all classes
served during wartime. Not anymore. As Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer assert in this
groundbreaking work, there is a glaring disconnect between
the "all volunteer military" and the rest of us. And as that
gap between the cultural "elite" and military rank-and-file
widens, our country faces a dangerous lack of understanding
between those in power and those who defend our way of life. In America, it is increasingly the case that the people who
make, support, or protest military policy have no military
experience. As a result, the privileged miss the benefits of
military service -- leadership, experience helpful to their
future roles in public life, and exposure to a broader cross
section of citizens -- while the military feels
under-supported and morally distanced from the rest of the
country. And when only a handful of members of Congress have
military experience or a personal link to someone in
uniform, perhaps it becomes too easy (or too hard) to send
the military into combat. Based on research and including the voices of many young
military members who understand firsthand the value of
service, AWOL is also a very personal book. Frank Schaeffer,
father of a former enlisted Marine, knows the anguish and
pride that millions of American parents feel every day as
their children are off fighting a war in a foreign land.
Kathy Roth-Douquet, wife of a career officer, has
experienced the struggle of trying to keep the family
together with a husband at war as well as the often untold
satisfaction of raising children in an ethic of service. To
the authors and numerous other families who are intimately
acquainted with the glory and the sacrifice of military
service, America needs a wake-up call before it's too late.
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