57 pages • 1 hour read
David FinkelThank You For Your Service
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
The book opens with a three-page Prologue focused on Sgt. Adam Schumann. Schumann is nervous and shaky; Finkel notes that he has three prescription bottles near him: one for his racing heart, one for his anxiety, and one for his nightmares.
He is awaiting a helicopter and is under escort, preparing to return home to a wife who, we are informed, had just told him she fears his return.
We see his computer screensaver is a fireball with the words, “Fuck Iraq,” then Finkel shares with us Schumann’s private journal. Finkel gives us Schumann’s first entry, a sort of flat, newsy entry about the happenings of the day. They offer no deeper thought or emotion, until the final entry: “‘I’ve lost all hope. I feel the end is near for me, very, very near. Darkness is all I see anymore’” (3).
We then get Schumann’s voice discussing how the first deployment began for him, back when the war felt exciting. He describes the firefights as the sexiest feeling ever. During his subsequent deployment, Schumann notes a shift. Now, serving seems a nightmarish Groundhog’s Day. Each day, there are the same smells, sounds, and bitter experiences. He vacillates between wanting to kill as many enemies as possible and wanting to kill himself. Death seems inevitable to him, and a part of him just wants it all over with. While dealing with the anxiety and terror, Schumann outwardly continues to be a respected, selfless leader. No one seems to realize he’s falling apart inside, until he goes into the door marked COMBAT STRESS and asks for help. He tells his men that he is leaving for a mental health evacuation, and is overcome with guilt at leaving and his perceived failure.
Chapter 1 Summary
Chapter 1 begins two years after soldier Adam Schumann returns home from Iraq. He’s holding his four-day-old son, Jaxson, but Schumann falls asleep, dropping the baby. His wife seems sullen, and in response Schumann grabs his shotgun, gets in his pick-up truck and drives around with the gun pointed at his face. Eventually, he returns home without mentioning it.
This scene, from his time enlisted, continually haunts Schumann:
Emory, shot in the head, is still draped across his back, and the blood flowing out of Emory’s head is still rivering into his mouth. Doster, whom he might have loved the most, is being shredded again and again by a roadside bomb on a mission Schumann was supposed to have been on, too, and after Doster is declared dead another soldier is saying to him, ‘None of this shit would have happened if you were there’ (9).
Schumann’s wife, Saskia, says of Schumann, “He’s still a good guy...He’s just a broken good guy” (10). On good days, Saskia still has hope that the man she knew will reemerge, “[o]n other days, though, it seems more like an epitaph, and not only for Schumann” (10).
Schumann says he believes no one came home from the last deployment without demons. The demons are somewhat different for each soldier, but there are some commonalities. Nightmares. Anxiety. Depression. Suicidal thoughts. Violence or anger issues. Guilt. Persistent unwanted memories.
Half a million Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers have come home with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, the author shares.
Schumann has nightmares and will sleep for 12 hours at a time, then fall asleep during the day unexpectedly. He has anger spasms, forgetfulness and jittery nerves. He keeps tasting Emory’s blood. Schumann states that he feels weak, as opposed to wounded.
Saskia turns her frustration into mini-outbursts against the world. They live in a small old house, and are struggling financially. Saskia now counts Schumann’s pills and checks his guns after their fights.
As the couple travel to the VA hospital in Topeka, Kansas Saskia has road rage. Schumann attempts to console her. The visit is typical, with doctors asking Schumann about his symptoms and suicidal thoughts. Schumann is told to continue his meds. He is wounded, the doctor says.
We learn that when Schumann was very young he was sexually molested by an older boy. Although Schumann’s home life was chaotic, he was a good student and popular. However, at age 9, his abusive father left for good, and Schumann and his mom become destitute, eventually living in a car until they move in with Schumann’s grandfather, a veteran and recovered alcoholic. Schumann bonds with him.
The end of the chapter flashes back to Schumann’s return home from war. Instead of parades and celebrations, he gets off a plane at the airport. He’s ashamed and dreads what his wife will think of him. He’s relieved to see her smiling and feels hopeful until a woman beside Saskia rushes over, asking, if Schumann knows the fate of the woman’s husband. These are the first words Schumann hears as he returns from the war.
Prologue-Chapter 1 Analysis
Adam Schumann’s last deployment comes to an end. This signals a shift in Schumann’s life, where his invisible wounds have caught up with him so that he has no choice but to ask for help. He suffers from massive PTSD, and while certain aid is available, his day-to-day life is illustrated, by Finkel, is dominated by trauma-based agony.
While enlisted, Schumann had been of service to his country: an able, responsible and even heroic figure. He has the respect of his men and himself. But as he ends this last deployment, a break occurs in Schumann’s psyche and with his return home, we witness how the burdens of war affect this transition. Support systems exist, but they do little to ease the pain and trauma armed conflict has on those serving.
With Chapter 1, we are plopped down in the middle of Schumann’s family life, two years after his return home from the war in Iraq. The first episode we witness is when Schumann, trying to help his wife out so she can sleep, volunteers to hold their newborn baby. When he falls asleep and drops his son on the floor, his wife scrambles to care for the infant. Schumann feels her frustration and anger, and he retreats.
The incident shows how Schumann’s first reaction is to withdraw. Schumann’s impulse to isolate and desire to harm himself are common symptoms of PTSD, both for military veterans and civilians. In isolating, matters are only made worse, as the person suffering effectively cuts themselves off from the outside world and any aid that it might be able to offer.
Next, Schumann is drawn to his gun. This is a common thread through many of the soldier’s stories in the book. There is a loss of control over one’s life and one’s body, and so the soldier returns to what they know: weapons and violence.
Finkel offers the statistics of how many soldiers returned home from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, or both. The half-million soldiers who for some reason, didn’t come home whole, appear to be just fine to the uninformed. There are no missing limbs. There are no visible scars. There are no signs of external damage. Yet they are wounded, and when they come home, it impacts not only them, but their families, friends, and communities. Finkel asks, “How to grasp the true size of such a number, and all of its implications, especially in a country that paid such scant attention to the wars in the first place?” (11).
Finkel attempts, through the soldiers’ stories, some of which are interconnected, to try to help the reader visualize the scope of the issue facing our nation, and facing each family involved. He shares their pain to shed light on the problem as a whole. He will also show the attempts made to reach these soldiers and their loved ones, but without sentimentality or simple answers.
