Bookreporter.com - FROM BAGHDAD, WITH LOVE by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman

FROM BAGHDAD, WITH LOVE: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava
Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman
Lyons Press
Memoir
Hardcover: 1592289800
Paperback: 9781599211824

When Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman walks down the hallway of a compound housing U.S. Marines in Fallujah, Iraq, he's startled by a noise. He shouts and raises his gun, his nerves still on edge from having just patrolled the dangerous streets of a city in the grip of violence. His adversary? A five-week-old stray puppy. "There's fear in his eyes despite the bravado," writes Kopelman in FROM BAGHDAD, WITH LOVE. "He's only a puppy, too young to know how to mask it, so I can see how bravery and terror trap him on all sides while testosterone and adrenaline compete in the meantime for every ounce of his attention. Recognize it right away."

The "little outlaw" has been named Lava in a nod to the nickname of his rescuers' regiment --- the 1st battalion, 3rd Marines, otherwise known as the Lava Dogs. In a breach of military policy, the Lava Dogs have been secretly caring for the tiny canine. "The newest grunt" has been "de-flead with kerosene, de-wormed with chewing tobacco, and pumped full of MREs [Meals Ready to Eat]."

Although the soldiers enjoy Lava's energetic company and take comfort in the routine of caring for him, Kopelman included, they avoid talking about what will become of the puppy when they move on. And then something happens. Perhaps it's when Lava falls asleep head first in Kopelman's boots. Or maybe it's the morning he wakes up to find Lava curled in a ball at the bottom of his sleeping bag. "Once I decide to save Lava," Kopelman says, "it becomes an unprogrammable mission I don't have the smarts to reassign or the guts to walk away from."

What begins is Kopelman's five-month effort to get Lava out of Iraq and into the United States, no small feat in a war-torn country where red tape runs deep and the well-being of one dog is of little consequence except to the few who have come to care for the "cute but fairly drastic breach of military law." What is truly remarkable is that even after Kopelman leaves Iraq, the wheels keep turning to get Lava out of the country, thanks to a group of people determined to complete the mission.

Along with Kopelman's first-person account, in which he conveys the harsh realities of life in Iraq, are the stories of those who worked to help him bring Lava home. There is Sergeant Matt Hammond, a Marine recovering from life-threatening wounds who looked after Lava when Kopelman was transferred to another base, and who later arranged a special convoy to take the pup to Baghdad; Anne Garrels, an NPR journalist who sheltered Lava in Baghdad's dangerous Red Zone; "Sam," an Iraqi who risked his life obtaining vaccination papers (and dog biscuits) for Lava; and John Van Zante, director of public relations at the Helen Woodward Animal Center in California, who wonders "what the heck possessed a three-tour, tough-guy Marine to try to save a little puppy in the middle of a war."

Indeed, with death and destruction rampant in Iraq, why should the fate of a single puppy be of much importance? In the pages of FROM BAGHDAD, WITH LOVE, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman shares his and Lava's remarkable story --- one that is heartwarming and heartbreaking, inspiring and candid. Kopelman explains how and why, in the midst of war, he forged a life-altering friendship with "a mangy little mutt."

--- Reviewed by Shannon McKenna

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