Mark Wilding

The Citizen Soldier Mark Wilding

Publisher Marketing: The Citizen Soldier is a war story with a difference. Following a street fight, which results in his combatant's death, Portsmouth born and bred Davey Dwyer is given an ultimatum. Either enlist in the American 101st Airborne, or go to prison. He chose the latter. After only a few days military training at Greenham Common, his plane is shot down over the Normandy Coast on D-Day and he ends up landing thirty miles from his intended drop zone, two miles south of Omaha Beach. On landing, he his reunited with the now injured Major that recruited him, for his very own chilling reasons, and the only friend he had made whilst based at Greenham common. With every effort being made not to compromise the surprise of the invasion, Dwyer is left not only carrying the Major to safety, but also finds himself fighting an enemy within the US Army and his own voice of reason. The story then follows the exact timeline of the events that took place on Easy Red Sector with Dwyer and the Major hiding amongst the German positions witnessing the horrors below on the beach. Dwyer throughout makes a 'nuisance' of himself as far as the Germans are concerned and has further enemy contacts. Dwyer's initial euphoria of gaining retribution on the German enemy following the killing of his family in an earlier bombing raid, starts to turn into despair as a result of taking human lives and the horror he finds himself in the middle of. It makes him start to question his own actions and very sanity throughout his emotional roller-coaster. The question of why he was recruited by the Major in the first place, to get him into the mess, is also at the forefront of his mind. Contributor Bio:  Wilding, Mark Mark Wilding, MA, is the coexecutive director of PassageWorks Institute, a nonprofit organization that offers publications, curricula, and professional development for K 12 educators. Mark is also a member of the core faculty of PassageWorks and teaches courses and workshops, facilitates conferences and dialogues, and presents keynotes and lectures. Mark works closely with institute staff and faculty to create and deliver programs that support educators in developing their personal and professional capacities. Mark has been teaching and facilitating professional development programs and graduate courses for over seventeen years. Before joining PassageWorks in 2008, Mark was a staff and faculty member of Naropa University, where he continues to teach graduate courses in leadership and systems thinking. Mark joined Naropa in 1994 and served as director of environmental studies and helped launch a new graduate degree program. Mark also served as director of advancement for the university and established and directed the human resources department. In 2001, Mark founded Naropa's professional development center for leadership and business, and served as its director until he left to become an executive director of PassageWorks. Before his tenure at Naropa, Mark helped found a public computer software company and served on its board and in several other roles until he left as president and CEO. Mark also served as vice president of the board of CORE, Colorado's Education Fund for Corporate Social Responsibility. He is currently a member of the national Leadership Council for Contemplative Teaching and Learning at the Garrison Institute. Mark earned a BS from Syracuse University and State University of New York (SUNY) and an MA in environmental leadership from Naropa University. You can follow Mark on Twitter @mwilding and Google+ at gplus.to/Engag