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Army Veteran

Army Veteran

Iraq War Stories: A Veteran's Catharsis

Andrew Goldsmith was one year into community college when he was hit with a revelation:

 

"Join the army, go to war," were the words that popped into his head as he sat bored in Economics class. "It never left me," he recalls, recounting the initial epiphany. Four months later, Goldsmith enlisted in the United States Armed Forces. He was 19.

 

Goldsmith served in the army from 2004 to 2009, deploying to Iraq twice for year-long tours. He was a machine gunner for an Infantry fire team during the first tour; the second time around, he was a team leader and squad leader, steadily climbing the ranks from "Private" to "Sergeant" over the course of those five years.

 

"I thought the Infantry was going to be more hardcore, harder somehow then it was," he admits. "Iraq was similar: I thought somehow that there would be more combat, and that it would be more glorious."

 

Still, his time in the army left a deep imprint on Goldsmith's psyche. Upon leaving the military, he moved to Hawaii and began attending school on the G.I. Bill, studying philosophy. He also began to write…and write some more. War stories poured from his mind and onto paper, compiling into hundreds of pages worth of firsthand tales. The result is Zarqawi's Ice Cream, a personal account of Goldsmith's time in Iraq.

 

"It's not as if I wanted to write this book," Goldsmith says. "I had to write this book."

 

Writing Zarqawi's Ice Cream was Goldsmith's means to a catharsis, a way to make sense of what he experienced as a soldier. The book is broken down into five parts, sequentially written from the time leading up to his enlistment to military training to combat in Iraq to Ranger School to combat again and finally, to his journey home.

 

"Making stories out of traumatic, stressful, and extremely influential events in our lives helps us to process them, learn from them, and live with them," he says.

 

Since leaving the army and attempting to reintegrate back into civilian life, Goldsmith has been faced with a number of challenges, and in many ways, feels as though he hasn't really left at all.

 

"Getting used to the mundane, steady pace of normal life is hard, and so is finding people willing to listen," he confides. "Sometimes it seems as if I have very little in common with the people around me, especially on the college campus."

 

The approximate release date of Zarqawi's Ice Cream is May of 2011. Goldsmith will then embark on a 10,000 mile cross-country road trip for two months, promoting his book on military bases as well as in book stores.

 

"I'm looking forward to exchanging outrageous stories [with other soldiers and veterans], meeting people and hearing their stories, life on the road, finishing this damn [book], and seeing how people react."

 

Aside from writing and philosophy, Goldsmith practices Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, a passion he began cultivating nearly ten years ago while growing up in Redondo Beach, CA.

 

"I also like to ride my skateboard, read a lot, and take any opportunity I can to travel," he enthuses. His impending book tour should satisfy the latter quite sufficiently!

 

To learn more about Zarqawi's Ice Cream and Andrew Goldsmith's cross-country book tour, visit www.iraqwarstories.wordpress.com.

 

 

About the Author

B.L. Turek is a writer based in Los Angeles, CA.

Where do I find what grants I am eligible for as a Veteran, army spouse of deployed soldier ?

Internet sites, books, lectures anything

You can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov - these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support your purposes. Once you find a grant where you can qualify, apply for it at Grants.gov

Even if you buy books on "how to get grants" or list that supposedly has information on grants -- all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently.

Note though that these grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments. Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT - Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program. Individuals especially for personal purposes are not eligible for federal grants.

Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women's Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women's business center that will train women entrepreneurs

Retired Military Veteran Receives 911 Visa Gas Card