Purple Heart (14 page)

Authors: Patricia McCormick

Tags: #Brain Damage, #Hospitals, #Iraq War; 2003-, #Fiction, #Juvenile Fiction, #Iraq War; 2003, #Medical Fiction, #Memory, #Soldiers, #Street Children, #Action & Adventure, #General, #Health & Daily Living, #Diseases; Illnesses & Injuries, #Historical, #Military & Wars, #People & Places, #Middle East, #Social Issues

BOOK: Purple Heart

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Acknowledgments

My deepest thanks go to the families of Army Sergeant Sherwood Baker, Army Specialist Joshua Justice Henry, Marine Lance Corporal Patrick B. Kenny, Army First Lieutenant Neil Anthony Santoriello, and Marine Lance Corporal William Brett Wightman. These families were generous, kind, and brave in sharing the stories of their sons and brothers with me. The shape of this story changed many times since we sat in their living rooms, looking at scrapbooks and revisiting cherished and sometimes painful memories, but it was in their honor that this book was written.

I would also like to thank Gunnery Sergeant Armando Felciano, Headquarters and Support Company, First Battalion, 25th Marines, for the diligence and attention to detail he brought to this book. He checked and challenged the facts in the story so that the book would be a faithful rendering of life in Iraq.

I would also like to thank Gene McMahon and the volunteers at Vets Journey Home, for allowing me to staff a remarkable workshop that helps returning vets vanquish the ghosts of combat; the American Friends Service Committee, whose exhibit “Eyes Wide Open”
moved me to investigate the civilian casualties in the war in Iraq; Veterans Against the War, a group of brave and dedicated soldiers who let me camp out with them on their march to New Orleans; and the staff at the McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, for their patience in educating me about posttraumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.

My editor, Alessandra Balzer, once again guided me through tough terrain with intelligence, care, and poise, and my writers group, Mark Millhone and Andrea Chapin, supported and inspired me every step of the way.

Lastly, thanks to my family, who makes it possible for me to do the work I love.

About the Author

PATRICIA M
C
CORMICK
is a former journalist who has won much acclaim for her compassionate approach to hard-hitting subjects. To research
PURPLE HEART
, she traveled all around the country to interview soldiers as well as the families of soldiers who went to Iraq and never returned. She also took part in a peace demonstration with veterans from the war in Iraq. There was a pair of boots for every soldier who’d died and a pile of shoes to represent the civilian lives that had been lost. “I remember the sight of a pair of little boy’s sneakers in the pile,” she said. “And I instantly had an image of a child being struck by a machine gun bullet. It was an image that has haunted me ever since.”

Patricia is also the author of the National Book Award Finalist
SOLD
and the bestseller
CUT
. She lives in New York City. You can visit her online at www.pattymccormick.com.

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Credits

Jacket design by Number Seventeen, NYC

Copyright

PURPLE HEART
. Copyright © 2009 by Patricia McCormick. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition August 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-194876-3

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