Kathryn Roth-Douquet       

  AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes  from the Military – and How it Hurts Our Country by Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer published by Collins Books, of Harper Collins, due out May 2006. 

AWOL brings a critical but hidden issue to national debate.  AWOL discusses the absence of the leadership classes from the military and how that absence creates a failure of democracy.  When those who make, support and protest defense policy to the greatest effect have the least actual experience with military – either through their own service, or the service of those close to them – America does not get the best policy possible.  The class gap undermines our nation's solidarity and ability to sustain engagements.  AWOL urges a broader sense of ownership and participation in the military among those in the privileged classes. Authors Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer argue that military service is not bitter medicine, that those who experience it – including the most privileged – often find it to be inspiring and sustaining, and it can reaffirm their connection to their country.  

AWOL makes a policy argument, using surveys and current research, but it is also written from a personal perspective. Kathy Roth-Douquet is a former Clinton White House and Pentagon appointee, now married a Marine Corps officer who has deployed twice to Iraq. Frank Schaeffer was a filmmaker and is a novelist in Boston – his son enlisted in the Marine Corps out of prep-school, and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. 

   What People are Saying about AWOL

 

Publisher's Weekly

  "In this impassioned, convincing manifesto, Schaffer (Keeping Faith ) and Roth-Douquet, a former Clinton White House and Department of Defense staffer, call for class integration of the military. Their arguments are personal: Roth-Douquet is a military wife and Schaffer's son is a marine, and the authors fall within the demographic they critique. Alternately narrating, they relate their experiences with the military and detail the liabilities of the present all-volunteer "corporate" force: the hindered policy-making ability of a civilian leadership without significant ties to the military, the weakening of the armed forces themselves, and "the sense of lost community and the threat to democracy that results when a society accepts a situation that is inherently unfair."  

 

Senator John McCain: 

"Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth‑Douquet have done our country a great service with the publication of their book, AWOL.  The authors, who watched with anxious hearts a son and a husband leave for war, discovered in that difficult experience a more genuine and wiser patriotism than they had known before.  And now they call on their fellow citizens, for whom national service and sacrifice is an abstraction, to recognize that love of country is a more personal and consequential attachment than is popularly understood among many of the most fortunate Americans.  I commend their wisdom and patriotism to all Americans as I honor their loved ones whose military service has entailed danger and sacrifice and has been a burden on the heart fearfully but proudly borne by their families."

Tom Brokaw:

“AWOL is a powerful and timely account of those missing in action – the privileged class of America staying out of uniform and out of harm's way.”

 

 

 

 

General Tommy Franks

  "Compelling – sure to spark dialogue on issues of patriotism and service to our country. Written with warmth and genuine respect for those who serve. I am impressed by the research – this book is based on fact, not fiction. As America looks for balance in a dangerous and complex world, AWOL is a great place to start.”

 

 

Mike O'Hanlon, Brookings Institute

  "For such a provocative and hard‑hitting book, AWOL is also rather fair and balanced‑‑and generally quite persuasive.  Best of all, Roth‑Douquet and Schaeffer are constructive and forward‑looking, with an excellent concluding debate between the authors about the pros and cons of mandatory national service versus other options for bringing the "upper classes" back into the nation's armed forces.”

 

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READ A SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM AWOL:  AWOL chapter two.pdf

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