64 THE NEW BARKER www.TheNewBarker.com OUR FAVORITE PICKS FOR BOOKS, MOVIES & MUSIC, WHERE DOGS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE. Books on this page, reviewed by Anna Cooke. books, movies, music & more... We have lost almost 7,000 U.S.soldiers during the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts.More than 51,000 wounded in action.Then there are the hundreds of thousands more living with the invisible wounds of war, including PTSD. The Department ofVeterans Affairs reports an average of 20 veterans and active-duty service members die by suicide every day. Touching The Dragon by James Hatch and Tuesday’s Promise by Luis Carlos Montalván, reveal the personal struggles each author faced after coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their stories have very different outcomes. Hatch found a purpose that has helped him take control of his life. For Montalván,the mental and physical pain became too much for him to endure. He died in December 2016. Their stories make it profoundly clear that war is one helluva nightmarish inferno. And, that is a grave understatement. Touching The Dragon James Hatch and Christian D’Andrea Published by Alfred A. Knopf Special ops Navy SEAL senior chief Hatch describes the mission to rescue rogue soldier Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl. After 149 missions, this would be the one to end his military career as a result of a horrific injury. Throughout the rest of the book,Hatch details what it was like for him to come home to the country he’d spent his life defending, and the process of recovering from his injuries. The path he finally discovered that saved his life, now involves protecting the lives of K9s, working in police departments across the country. He finds some solace in his new mission that also honors the military working dogs who gave their lives protecting him. An excerpt from the book:“Shame that stays a secret will kill you.But my secret was now out. I was clearly not the successful wounded vet. That gun in my mouth was me telling the truth.Yes, it was a pathetic and sad way to communicate, and it showed I had miles to go before I was even close to being in the clear, but at least it was the truth.And despite the fact that Mike knew the sad truth about me, he was nonetheless saying I might have a path.” “What is the best way to get close to war?” Hatch asks his reader, then answers with,“Read Forgotten Soldier. And chapter 26 of ForWhom the BellTolls.Then go to the KoreanWar Memorial in D.C., but do it on a very rainy day, in the cold, so that when you stand amidst the poncho-clad figures,you can let your clothes soak through, while you try to feel the weight they carried.” Hatch knows the value of the human-K9 partnership – in war and law enforcement. “I guess I’ll always struggle with the brutality of humanity,and how the dogs are just innocent players in our savagery and our drama.And how unfair it is.” Tuesday’s Promise by Luis Carlos Montalván and Ellis Henican Published by Hachette Books This was the follow-up to Montalván’s bestselling book, Until Tuesday, about the service dog he credits with saving his life. The reader knows, prior to reading Tuesday’s Promise, that Montalván died in December 2016.An autopsy report revealed it was an overdose on pentobarbital,leaving many to believe he com- mitted suicide. He left Tuesday with family in New York before traveling to El Paso for a medical appointment.Tuesday had always been super intuitive of Luis’moodswings and depression.He knew when Luis was in physical pain and knew how to calm him. One can only wonder,hadTuesday been with Luis in El Paso,would he still be alive? Tuesday’s Promise continues Luis’ journey. “Before Tuesday, I caught glimpses of snipers on rooftops,” Luis wrote. “Before Tuesday, I spent more than an hour in my apartment working up the courage to walk half a block to the liquor store.Tuesday is my barrier against crowds, my dis- traction from anxiety and my assistant in everyday tasks.” Like Hatch in Touching The Dragon, Luis describes the atroc- ities of dealing with their second war, and the indignities faced from those who should know better at the veteran’s hospitals. Luis describes it as “theWar after theWar.” Luis Carlos Montalván was an Iraq war veteran. With Tuesday by his side, they toured the United States as an advocate for soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder,and the use of service dogs.Mothers of warriors who had been beaten down by the military, would ask Luis for help with navigating the system to get their children the help they needed. The warriors come home with a chest full of medals.They start to experience adjustment problems and emotional pain. Rather than being given the chance to deal with their issues in a decent, supportive environment,“...they get an old-fashioned army beat- down,” wrote Luis. “I never sat down and calculated the thousands and thousands of miles we’ve traveled together, but I do know this much: The longest journey of all was the one inside my head,”wrote Luis. He describes the affectTuesday had on others as,“like a four-legged Dalai Lama had just arrived. Or painting the walls with tail-wagging, loving goodness.” Luis wanted people to understand - especially those in Washington and at theVA - how much of a difference a dog can make in someone’s life.“As long as mental health is an elusive con- dition, as long as the love of a canine can make a difference to someone,we will have places to go and people to visit and work to do,” Luis wrote.U