Adam Harris was the least likely person to enlist in the military: he'd grown up marginalized as the sole Jewish kid in his public school in Ottawa, Canada, and learned early on not to trust authority. As the youngest and smallest in his class, and burdened with a severe speech impediment, Adam looked like an easy target. Using his hard-won agility and pummeling fists, however, he soon proved that he was quite the opposite. After moving to the States as a teenager with his family, Adam's path took a serious downward trajectory. Intent on salvaging his life, he joined the US Army. Not long in, a field accident left Adam with a horrific injury. Labeled AWOL and left for dead by his platoon sergeant, he wasn't found until a week later. Immersed in the arduous chore of recovery, he faced the sobering realization that his fidelity had been rewarded with zero loyalty in return. As a reward for preventing catastrophe, Adam became the fuse setter for the Death Dealers, a position fraught with unparalleled risk. Further assignments pushed him to the brink of human endurance. Weighted by stress and a hefty chip on his shoulder, Adam found solace in alcohol, beautiful girls, and antagonizing the higher-ups--details of which he confided to his brother via candid letters home. These letters are interspersed throughout the book, allowing the reader into the sometimes bluntly crude, sometimes profoundly reflective mind of a soldier. Told with rawness, honesty, and no shortage of wry humor and artful pranks, Adam chronicles the grueling two years he spent in the US Army during the Cold War, from 1984 to 1986--"where brothers from another share the worst and best with you, without ever knowing the details of each others' lives; where rewards and punishments are doled out without rhyme or reason, with neither fairness nor justice playing a part; where the separate reality allows for the insane to be the norm and for the unthinkable to be common."