By Matt Gallagher, Da Capo Press, $16.00, 310 pages

10War is hell. There’s no other way to say it — well, until now. Kaboom, by Lieutenant Matt Gallagher, is a journaling of the time he spent fighting a brutal war for all of us back home in America during his tour of duty in Iraq in 2007. Gallagher’s unbridled candor recounting his time in Iraq is shocking, frightening and at times, deals with the mundane rigors of army life, but is ultimately to be commended. What he and all the men and women during wartime endured no one should have to. But they do, and that sad reality makes for a compelling read.

Often humorous in a self-preservation way, Kaboom allows the reader to ride alongside an officer’s day to day life in a war zone. As with any blog-type writing, there is sometimes internal dialogue that the reader won’t and probably shouldn’t understand. A form of art, maybe. This book won’t help you decide if you are for or against a particular political party or if the war was politically right or not, and makes no aspirations to do so. It is solely serving its purpose by giving the readers a glimpse into the life of a soldier, brave and true to Mother, God and Country. I applaud your courage Matt, not only in the face of death but in the face of brutal honesty!

Reviewed by M. Chris Johnson,