Excellent autobiography of her career as a Navy Nurse, focusing on the peak of her career on the frontlines in Iraq during the startup of Operation Iraqi Freedom in early 2003. She describes the work done by Navy medical personnel in the extreme ly harsh desert environment in very primitive conditions with short supplies. Her unit, Bravo Company of the Second Service Support Group which cared for the 1st Marine Division during its push into Iraq.

In February 2003, Cheryl Ruff landed in Kuwait as part of Bravo Surgical Company and spent the next three months following the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force into war in Iraq. If you think of the TV series MASH, plunk it down in Southern Iraq, add lots of sand, gastroenternitis, sand, flies, sand, scud missles, and a lot more sand, you can begin to imagine what Commander Ruff experienced. Well, only if you also take away buildings, water, cots, enough abdominal sponges to use more than one per patient, and reliable transportation.

Ruff was a registered nurse anesthesiologist with 25 years of service in the Navy when she went to Iraq. The first quarter of the book details her resume to that point: her childhood, her decision to join the Navy, and her training. This part of the book could have been summarized to a few pages without losing any significant impact. Once Ruff lands in Kuwait, however, the book gets interesting. The writing is fairly flat, but the details are fascinating. For instance, of the six surgeons assigned to Bravo Surgical Company, a frontline surgical unit, two of them were OB/GYNs and one was a podiatrist. Military planning at it's best.

The disquieting parts of the book were both the military's stance toward the medical treatment of Enemy Prisoners of War (EPWs) and Ruff's own change of attitude toward the Iraqi soldiers, which I found difficult to understand within my own context of medical personnel being the unbiased providers of aid and life.

If you read Ruff's War with an eye toward understanding frontline medicine in a war zone, I don't think you will be disappointed. Just don't expect poetic writing or an unbiased political viewpoint. ( )