Writing at Seventy

Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams is about being a young female in the US Army and her deployment to Iraq for a year with the 101st Airborne. Kayla Williams was an Arabic linguist. Thirty years ago, I came off active duty as a US Army officer. Ms. Williams’s book made me reflect back to all the women soldiers I worked with, lead, and knew. This is a good military memoir. While grit and rough language are on almost every page, what shines through is an intelligent young woman serving her country and putting up with all a woman experiences in the military. It appears little has change since back in my day. We learn of her role as an Arabic linguist. She tells us how she feels her skills could have been used better with direct contact with the population as oppose to routine intelligence gathering. Particularly interesting are her experiences with leadership while in Iraq as well as her questioning the war in Iraq’s day to day conduct without looking at the logic and underlying rationale. Her tale of the birth control glasses is funny, but true. Put those black framed Drew Carey or Woody Allen glasses on any man or woman and instantly they are effective birth control. Why? They make people unattractive thus scaring off members of the opposite sex. It is worth reading. Read in April 2006 by Jimmie A. Kepler.