The Heart of a Soldier: A True Story of Love, War, and Sacrifice

Blaise, a support operations transportation officer for the 101st Airborne Division, and her husband, Mike, a helicopter pilot, were both sent to the front lines of Iraq in March 2003. Blaise tells the poignant tale of the young Missouri couple whose dual army career ended shatteringly in January 2004, when Mike's plane crashed in a windstorm and he died. She retraces her and Mike's early romance as high school sweethearts and her ROTC training, while Mike endured Ranger School, then flight school; they were first stationed in Korea, though separately. Alternating with professional accomplishments are personal tragedies, such as the car accident that left Blaise's mother brain damaged, and the discovery that Blaise is afflicted with premature ovarian failure, effectively prohibiting her from having children. The couple's seven-year marriage was continually strained by their long absences from each other, though they managed to share quarters erratically at Q-West in Iraq as the Americans moved aggressively to take Saddam Hussein and his minions. Blaise offers elucidating close-up details of army life, especially for the rare woman officer (she was promoted to captain but has since left the military); despite her own professionalism, she acknowledges that "men saw me as a woman first, and nothing could change that." Agent, Mark Reiter. (Jan.)