The
book is a memoir by Benjamin Hall, a young man who worked as a war
correspondent across the globe, a dangerous occupation. Each assignment takes a toll on you when you
are single, an even higher toll when you are married with three children. It is
one thing to routinely put your life in harm’s way, quite another to put your future
with your family on the line. But that
is what happened in February of 2022 when Russia invaded the Ukraine. Hall volunteered to report from the
frontlines where on March 14th his life would change forever when the
car he and his crew were in was struck by a Russian bomb. He was the only survivor, using “survivor” as
a term meaning he did not die.
The
story follows the extracting of Hall from the immediate battlefield to a hospital
in Kyiv which was actively being bombed at the time, electricity was sporadic,
and a 72-hour curfew was in place. He
would lose one leg, and most of the other.
He had burns over 90% of his body, and multiple major “other” problems. Doctors quickly determined they were not equipped
to provide the immediate care he needed.
In a fascinating action sequence worthy of an espionage thriller, he is
put on a train headed for Poland, stopped before the border and “smuggled”
across the line where a helicopter was sent to convey him to an airport and
then on to Landstuhl, the American military hospital in Germany. From there to a stop over at Walter Reed Hospital
in Washington DC, and then transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio,
Texas for recovery and rehab.
If one was
horrified by the battlefield chapter, the detailed description of his medical
rehab is even more harrowing. Hall survives
through sheer willpower, faith, an endless desire to see his family, and is helped by a huge
network of people across the globe, from medical staff, war correspondent colleagues,
with political and medical assistance from several places, veteran groups and
importantly with strings pulled by his employer. The cooperation (some
official, some not) is an amazing tale.
I hesitate
to mention this, but credit must be given where it is due: his employer is Fox News (the Network of
Lies). They, as friends and colleagues,
were there for him every step of the way, including extracting him from the
Ukraine, and arranging for him to be served by U.S. military hospitals. Hall heaps praise on Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott
who was/is at the center of the election lies scandals which cost Fox $787.5
million in a defamation lawsuit a couple of weeks ago.
Recommendation: Get over your justified distaste for Fox, this
is a very good book.
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