Thank You For Your Service

Thank You For Your Service is a nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel. Published in 2013, it follows the story of an infantry battalion upon their return home from the war in Iraq.

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. 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.

The book opens with the Prologue, which focuses on Adam Schumann. Finkel describes him as he is about to leave the war, using excerpts from Schumann’s journal, which he kept during his deployment. 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.

Finkel 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. Many of the stories are intertwined, and the chapters don’t necessarily focus on only one soldier or family member’s story.

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.

We see alcoholism, violent outbursts, unrelenting nightmares and struggles to survive financially when the men are left unable to work. Their partners juggle bills, children, and the images of the men they love returning from war half-broken or worse. Soldiers enter a maze of bureaucracy to get the services they need, only to be left feeling unattached and overmedicated in many cases. The camaraderie that bound them together and buoyed them is now strained and splintered at home. The loneliness is constant and bruising, even as their loved ones try their best to reconnect and reframe their lives together.

The book concludes on a somewhat optimistic note, through Adam’s story, particularly. It’s not a happily-ever-after ending; that would be impossible, as Finkel reveals in such an unrelenting, close-up view of these soldiers and families lives. It points a finger at the systems that work against healthy progress, like repeated deployments and inadequate and slow responses to postwar needs. Still, the possibility of hope and healing, at least for some, remains.