The US military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq but newly minted lieutenant Jack Porter is struggling to accept how it is happening. Day after day, Jack tries to assert his leadership in the sweltering, dreary atmosphere of Ashuriyah. But his world is disrupted by the arrival of veteran sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked so hard to establish.

Pulling readers into the captivating immediacy of a conflict that cans shift from drudgery to devastation at any moment, Youngblood provides a startling new dimension to both the moral complexity of war and its psychological toll.