Summary

Chapter 4, “Below the Belt: The Cruelest Shot of All.” During a visit to Walter Reed Veterans Hospital, the author encounters a soldier named Gavin Kent White, severely injured in an explosion caused by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in Afghanistan. While he has injuries to his legs, the author focuses more on injuries to his reproductive organs, injuries of a sort that she says are rarely noted by non-military personnel, but are of almost primary, or primal, importance to the male soldiers who experience them. (This chapter makes little or no note of genital-related injuries to female personnel).

In contemplating White’s situation (he was his unit’s commander, and was apparently more concerned about the well-being of his men than about himself), the author contemplates the concept of selflessness, as associated with heroism. “Hero has always been a movie word, a swelling orchestral...