Bringing Them Home: The Untold Cost of Putting Mission First

One woman’s journey through the experiences of war, love, loss, and sacrifice.

Based on true events, Bringing Them Home follows the lives of several young service members: fierce and feminine O’Neil, the narrator, who surprises everyone by enlisting; Jake, straightforward and handsome, a friend who turns into so much more; Ace, O’Neil’s on-base bestie who becomes more like a sister; and Jonas, Jake’s closest friend and teammate. Offering an inside look at war, this book allows the reader to see inside the relationships, friendships, hardships, and challenges experienced by the everyday individuals who defend our nation.

“I already know someone saw this title and said, ‘Great, another book on PTSD.’ Wrong. That’s not the perspective I’m coming at you from. There are so many factors regarding these guys, deployments, and PTSD that isn’t able to be summed up in some dictionary as a psycho-analyzed term. What constitutes as normal, I believe, is the real question. If someone sees something incredibly traumatic, life-changing, or gut-wrenching, it’s impossible not to change in some way. Unless you’re stagnant in your personal growth as an individual, we are all changing all the time, typically for the better. We are always learning, evolving, and growing. No one ever really stays the same. I know that the circumstances with Jake and I were very different than most. The fact of the matter is, war and military love is anything but romantic. You see the constant romanticization of it in movies, but no one sees what really happens to the men and women who come home.”