Dennis W. Shepherd

Returning Son: from Bagdad, Kentucky to Baghdad, Iraq (And Back) Dennis W. Shepherd

The march to Baghdad, Iraq in 2003 was a military operation like no other. High tech weapons and old fashioned Marine infantry combined to lead coalition forces to victory in twenty-one days. Returning Son is the story of Private Sean Cassedy, a cyberspace generation warrior, coming from a tiny Kentucky town with the unlikely name of Bagdad. Son is war from the eyes of a grunt as well as the emotional war for loved ones back home. Sean left for Marine boot camp one week to the day after the tragedy of September 11th. He survived boot camp's ultimate test-the Crucible-only to be tested in the crucible of his own court-martial. During Operation Iraqi Freedom both of Sean's legs were crushed in a fog of war accident within a hundred miles of Baghdad. As one of Kentucky's first injured veterans, Sean's homecoming was as inspirational as his father's homecoming from Vietnam was depressing.