The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War

Major General Mark Graham and his wife, Carol, lost two sons. Both were pursuing military careers and both were dedicated to serving their country, but only one son was honored as a hero. The other was talked of in whispers. Jeff was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq and Kevin committed suicide. Thier parents struggled with the different ways their sons’ deaths were treated. In their eyes, both their sons died heroes, albeit fighting different battles. In the wake of their tragedy, they sought to change the military’s unacceptable attitude toward soldiers suffering from PTSD, depression, and other mental illnesses. The military’s ingrained culture of seeing any sort of assistance as a sign of weakness (often resulting in show more harassment, has made changing this attitude difficult. While Major General Graham has done much to change the military’s attitude, there is still much left to be done.

The Invisible Front is engaging, heartbreaking, and brutally honest in its discussion of mental illness on both a personal level and at an institutional level. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in military history and mental health issues. It’s well written, frank, and honest about a problem many do not want to address. show less

Major General Mark Graham and his wife Carol lost both of their sons in less than a year. The younger of the two committed suicide after going off his antidepressants. He stopped the medication because he feared they would show up in mandatory ROTC drug testing and cost him his Army career. Nine months later the older son was killed by an IED in Iraq. The Graham's profound pain over their losses was made worse by the differences in the way people treated the two deaths. Jeff was lauded as a hero, but people either didn't want to talk about Kevin's death at all or said incredibly cruel things. As a result of this experience they made it their mission to do everything they could to prevent suicides and change the Army's approach to issue. show more In “The Invisible Front” Yochi Dreazen uses their experience to look at the suicide epidemic that has hit the military as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the larger issue of how the military deals with the “invisible wounds” of war.

This book is a difficult read, but an important one. In the era of endless war it behooves all of us to look long and hard at the results of the decision to deploy troops and to become educated on the issues surrounding suicide, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. At the very least people need to have enough compassion not to tell the loved ones of those who die by suicide that they were just weak or that they're burning in hell. show less

Yochi Dreazem has written a heartbreaking and heroic story about a family who lost their sons, 9 months apart, while in service in Iraq. Jeff Graham, the eldest son was killed while looking for explosives in Fallujah while Kevin Graham committed suicide soon after he enrolled in the ROTC. Jeff was treated as a hero by the military while Kevin, and his family, was treated like a pariah. How their deaths were treated by the military is the center of this devastating book.

The military has a long and painful history of ignoring and punishing soldiers with depression, PTSD, mental illness and those who commit suicide. What made this book particularly gripping was the way it told the story of one particular family's struggles with the show more military's pernicious and hostile culture towards soldiers with mental illness yet also fully examines the policies and systems that have kept this culture in place. This makes for a rich and thorough understanding of how the suicide rate in the military is higher than the military in civilian life. It also speaks to the bravery of the Graham family, especially Major General Graham's quest to change the culture of the military and stop the marginalization and stigmatization of those with mental illness. This book has the potential to be a game changer for the military and beyond.

I thank Blogging for Books for giving me the opportunity to review this book for an honest review show less

A compassionate, engaging, and powerful look at the cost of war, the consequences of ignoring mental health issues, and society's response to suicide versus non-suicide death, specifically death in combat. Dreazen offers a close inspection of one family's tragedy: the suicide of one son & the combat death of another. The statistics included in this book are heartbreaking.

**This was an advanced reader copy won through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.**

This is one of the standout books I've received from LibraryThing. A journalist tells the story of a family's loss of two sons for two different reasons and the military and societal response to those losses, and the events unfold at a perfect page and rivetingly. It has important points to make about our judgments about mental issues and about the horrors of war, but it also reads as smoothly as if it were fiction. I was impressed by this book and glad to have the chance to read it.

The army has a stigma about mental illness and this book gives the reader an enthralling and engaging report on this societal failure. The emotional legacy of America in two most recent wars is disturbing, and outlawed by Dreazen. This is a compelling story about a military family that lost two sons, one to suicide and one in combat, and who have directed their grief into fighting the suicide epidemic of the military.
Told with great sympathy and profound insight, the Invisible Front is the story of the wars lingering human cost, which remains long after the guns are silent.

Families, including the children of these military individuals, suffer their losses silently.
I highly recommend this book to all readers to fully understand that we show more should not be silent anymore. Wars kill! show less

Excellent telling of the Graham family story. Brings to life the trials of returning servicemen, troubled people, and the families that have to deal with them. Informative without being dry, touching without being maudlin. We need to do more for them, but not pity.