A touching story about a man who went to Iraq and embedded with the unit his son was serving with when he was killed. .

After he buried Darrell "Skip" Griffin Jr. and after the sympathy

calls faded, the elder Griffin, like every American who has ever lost a

beloved soldier, struggled to resume life's normal rhythms.

But this is where Griffin's journey veered from others and took a twist

so unique that it made the U.S. Army bend its rock-hard rules. The

55-year-old accounting consultant, who opposed Vietnam and had never

served in combat, traveled to the epicenter of the Iraq war. There, he

would trace his son's last days.

The result, "Last Journey: A

Father and Son in Wartime," is a common story about a father-son

relationship, told in an uncommon way.

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Sad story, and some reminiscent of Heinlein's Starship Troopers, too.