River City - Preston Judd;Rhonda Sharp

This book is a work of non-fiction and explores my life growing up and my Marine service, as I remember it. Many of the names have been changed in order to protect the privacy of others, including my own family. However, Sergeant Bradley Atwell and Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Chris Raible lost their lives on September 14, 2012, during the attack on Camp Bastion. This has been widely reported in the news. Thus, I refer to them by rank and name.

My intent in writing this book is to support the Marine Corps in all of its endeavors, even as I may criticize some aspects of Corps' life, regulations, or methodologies and that failures resulted in the attack on Camp Bastion.

Regarding Language Usage: What may seem like language idiosyncrasies or writing rule violations are, most often, my language choices. For instance, rather than the more formal, and correct use of the word "I," my choice is to frequently use me, as in: Me and Mom for the caption of the photo beginning Chapter 1. If you see a "mistake," let me know. I'll either correct it, or respond that this is the writing style I've chosen.

One other important point. Although there have been several military assessments and reports, notably from U.S. CENTCOM and the UK Parliament's Defense Committee, information regarding the attack remains a conglomeration of puzzle pieces that never flush into a whole. Marines, responding on the ground and in the air, create difficulty in assessing exactness to the response to the attack. This book sites the above-named military assessments and other sources. However, a complete recounting of the attack may never be available. This is commonly called: the fog of war.

While reading River City, you will frequently come across the words: Marine, Marines, and Marine Corps. These terms should always be capitalized according to The Chicago Manual of Style, although too often, writers fail to do so. Hence, you'll find them properly capitalized herein.

As well, while correct usage indicates that US, without periods is the contemporary preferred method of presentation in writing, because it is still common to use U.S. with periods, we have ceded in the book to the "still common" usage.

Once you are a Marine, you are always and forever a Marine.