Ryan A. Conklin - An Angel from Hell: Real Life on the Front Lines

This war memoir is different from any other. It is as real as it gets. Ryan A. Conklin has written a brutally honest, exciting, and heartfelt account of life as a turret gunner during the year of the most intense combat in Iraq. Conklin brings the reader as close as you can get to combat without walking into a recruiters office. An Angel from Hell is a gripping story of patriotism, camaraderie and sacrificeMore than anyone else in America, Conklin has become the face of the Iraq War veteran. If you care about your country, get this book.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America and author of Chasing Ghosts

Just as Generation Kill shows the unvarnished truth of the Iraq invasion, An Angel from Hell portrays the grim reality of Iraqs condition during the 200506 horror years in Tikrit. A candid, humorous, and tragic memoir from a genuine American soldier about the real world of war.

David J. Danelo, author of Blood Stripes:
The Grunts View of the War in Iraq

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Copyright 2010 by Ryan A. Conklin

Afterword copyright 2011 by Ryan A. Conklin

Cover design by Richard Hasselberger

Book design by Kristin del Rosario

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PRINTING HISTORY

Berkley Caliber hardcover edition / April 2010

Berkley Caliber trade paperback edition / April 2011

Berkley Caliber ISBN: 978-1-101-40425-6

Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity.
In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our reader; however
the story, the experiences, and the words are the authors alone.

In memory of

Corporal Andrew J. Kemple,

Sergeant Benjamin J. Miller,

Specialist Darren Subarton

and

Sergeant John M. Rogers

Ne Desit Virtus

My name is Ryan Allen Conklin. I was born in the very small town of Marshall, Michigan, on April 1, 1985. All my life Ive been asked whether I was truly born on April Fools Day, but I take that as a compliment to my keen sense of humor. I am the youngest of three siblings: one sister and one brother. I lived what anyone would call an average American life. I played more backyard sports than league sports, attended church regularly, and was surrounded more by family than friends. My immediate and large extended family lived in close proximity in and around Battle Creek, Michigan. Nicknamed the Cereal City, it is the home of cereal manufacturers Post, Kelloggs, and General Mills. On most Sundays, we held family gatherings. This gave me, my brother, and our cousins continuous adventures in my grandparents endless acres of woods, while we abandoned the adults who sat inside and talked. The girls would pretend they were princesses and the boys all played Army in the woods. Little did I know then that all of us who played Army would eventually join the Army and play it for real. None of my female cousins became princesses.

In 1996, my parents sought a lifestyle change and moved to the historic town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Gettysburg could not have been a better place for my family, because we were all devoted history nerds and drawn to community activities. It was a perfect place for us to grow.

High school was the time when I really started to come out of my shell. I picked up the guitar, flirted with girls, gained a passion for filmmaking, and focused more on making my peers laugh than on my studies. Jokes dont get you far in high school, but they landed me a spot on the Homecoming Court and sealed the deal with my being voted the Class Clown. High school was also a time when we all sought out where we would be pursuing higher education after graduation. I was undecided on what to do or where to go. But all these questions were silenced during my junior year, on the morning of September 11, 2001. I was sitting in English class when two classmates of mine stormed in crying and stated that the World Trade Center is getting attacked. I think were getting attacked. It was fair to say that that drove everyones attention away from the days lesson, and we all looked to the teacher for guidance. On that morning no one could accurately ascertain what was truly going on. Teachers were instructed to keep the televisions off for the rest of the day and proceed with normal activities. How normal was anything for anyone on that day?

It wasnt until I got home from school, and watched from the edge of my couch as the news unfolded on television, that I really began to put it together. Even then, it took about a week to fully grasp what was happening to my country. As I listened to countless stories of tragic loss and cunning heroism, I wanted to contribute. I wanted to do something. This was my generations Pearl Harbor. I knew military actions would soon be launched, and I decided that the military would also be the route for me.

My senior year I chose to enlist in the Army. I did not come from a military family, but when my country called upon men to fight in time of war, my ancestors had never hesitated and always answered the call. The war in Afghanistan was raging and I didnt want to miss the action. There was even talk that Iraq could see an invasion from U.S. troops. I wanted a job where I would be guaranteed to put boot-to-ass, so I sought to join the infantry. I was only seventeen, under the legal age, when I decided to join, so it took a lot of persuading my parents to allow me to go. With great resistance, they eventually came around and realized it was a path that I wanted to take. My mom always said that when she signed her name on my enlistment papers, it was the heaviest pen to hold and the hardest signature to write. That was all before the war in Iraq kicked off. I can only imagine how much heavier that pen would have felt had I needed her signature after the invasion of Iraq.