From a Land Far, Far Away

It has been a difficult week in many ways for me. Things just didn't go smoothly on different operational fronts. Still, compared to the students, our lives are a breeze. Last week, one of our students was in his wedding procession when a gunman opened fire and killed his cousin standing nearby. Upon his arrival in Baghdad, Wes Trueblood was faced with the unenviable task of finding a 'daily routine' in the heart of a war zone. As an English instructor for the Department of Defense, Trueblood was charged with teaching Iraqi pilots the English language so they could receive further peacekeeping training. In this unique position, Trueblood found himself intertwined with the lives of American servicemen, NATO allies, and Iraqi soldiers. Over a nine-month deployment in Iraq and a six-month deployment in Afghanistan, Trueblood gathered insights into the dedication and personal sacrifices of American military personal. He observed the lives and culture of the Islamic people, finding truths about how ordinary Muslims view the United States. He found reasons to laugh and reasons to cry; he recorded them and returned these messages of success, tribulation, and hope home, in the form of weekly correspondences to his wife, family, and friends. A Land Far, Far Away is the story of Trueblood's time at the front, told through the letters he wrote home. From his time sleeping in tents, to his struggle to stay cool in the summer sun, to the ever-changing demands of a fluid mission at the front, Trueblood's story sheds light on the lives of people living in chaos.