Ticket to Ride: The Promise of America

Book excerpt: Hussey's memior begins with a letter to his son, Gregory written a few weeks before his first deployment to Iraq as a officer in the U.S. Army. Hussey flew to Ft. Hood, Texas to be with his son, meet his commanding officers, attend the briefing sessions, and meet the other soldiers as they prepared for the long journey to the deadly Anbar Province of western Iraq. Hussey handed his letter to his son as he exited the barracks for the short bus ride to the flight line. "I wanted to share my life, my growing-up years, with my son because I feared I may never see him again." Hussey's letter details a story of a young boy growing up in relentless poverty and abuse. "There were stories from my childhood that I had never shared with him, and he never asked. Hussey left high school to find work and support his mother and younger brother. His brother suffered continuously from bleeding episodes resulting from his being born a hemophiliac. In 1965, after serving four years in the U.S. Air Force, Hussey was faced with the greatest series of challenges one could imagine. How he managed to navigate through that period has come to define him. This is a story of triumph over disaster...an unflinchingly honest memoir of a man with uncommon character who outwitted the odds to bring home his "ticket to ride."