One Weekend A Month - My Ass!

About the Book

This book is written from a collection of journal entries I kept during my training in California before I went overseas to serve in Iraq, copies of letter I sent home to my two daughters and school that I taught at when activated, as well as some stories that I wrote about my experiences. There are some facts that are incorrect in this book but I kept them in because they were the truth to me at the time. The letters are mostly word for word as they were written and sent. I have included pictures that go along with my writings that help to show, as well as explain, what I experienced. I have changed or omitted the names of people to protect their privacy. I was not a hero, nor was I involved in any large fighting that took place in Iraq. I was just a fifty-three year old man, close to my twenty-year letter for retirement in the National Guard who happened to be sent to war in Iraq. I don´t pretend to be brave or have any deep meaning to my experiences. I just want to share an average story of an average soldier in Iraq. Sgt. Joseph Berlin (ret.)

About the Author

I grew up in Detroit until I was drafted into the Army in 1969. I spent two years as a medic in Germany until I returned to Michigan in 1971. As I was going to college I needed a little extra money, so I joined the National Guard. In 1990 I was activated for the Gulf War and served in Operation Desert Shield. Before I was sent overseas, my father had a stroke and died. I went home and did not deploy with my unit. I was in the last year of my time in the National Guard and was set to retire with twenty years in 2003. The Iraq War changed all that. I was activated in Feb. of 2003, on Valentine’s Day. I spent five months in Iraq until an injury earned me a trip back to Ft. Lewis. After rehabbing in Ft. Lewis for six months, I was finally discharged and retired out of the National Guard. I went back to my civilian career which was a school teacher. I have taught elementary and middle schools for twenty-eight years. I am now retired from education and live in Ocean Shores by myself. In total I have taught for twenty-eight years and been involved with the military for over twenty-one years.