I wanted to announce that the 2nd Edition of The Ground You Stand Upon has recently been published and is available on Amazon for Kindle, as well as the full-color hardcover and black & white paperback.
The original edition of this book was published in May of 2018. The hardest part was actually finishing the project, as I continued to come across new information and new people with stories to tell, such as family members and friends of the fallen, as well as other former Alpha Company soldiers. At a certain point, I had to simply finish with the information I had at the time. I actually had a deadline of sorts. Many Alpha Company soldiers had already contributed much to this book, and I had promised them that I would have print copies available at the 5/7th Cav’s upcoming bi-annual reunion that was scheduled for August of 2018. Since that time, I’ve met a handful of additional Alpha Company soldiers, some at the reunion my dad and I attended, and others through email.
The catalyst for publishing this revised edition was a phone call I received in December 2018 from a gentleman named John Benson. Apparently, he had written an article in 2017 for his local newspaper commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the death of an Alpha Company soldier who was killed in action, and who had been a close friend of my dad. A friend of his happened to be reading this book and recognized the name of the soldier from their hometown whom John had written his article about. He called John to tell him about it, and then John called me. He provided me with details about this soldier’s life before being drafted into the Army, as well as the text of his citation for the Silver Star that he was awarded for his actions during his final battle. Before this, I wasn’t even aware that he had been awarded the Silver Star. John also put me in contact with one of the soldier’s hometown friends. He spoke of their years growing up together, as well as the day he saw soldiers in dress uniform approaching the family home of his friend along with their priest. I’d always felt that this soldier, being good buddies with my dad before he was killed, deserved to have a more prominent role in this story—and now he does.