Prayer at Rumayla [Paperback]

Charles Edward Sheehan-miles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001

PRAYER AT RUMAYLA is a blistering account of the Gulf War that will be very difficult to put down and impossible to forget. The story of Chet Brown, who arrived home from the Gulf War in the spring of 1991 to find that the war was only beginning, is bluntly honest in its language and description. Betrayed by his friends and lover, ignored by his family, Brown travels across the country in an attempt to find answers to questions he doesn’t even know to ask.

The speed and violence of the Gulf War profoundly affected Chet Brown, a 20 year old Gulf War veteran. He once believed he would follow in his father’s footsteps – a father who won the Medal of Honor before his death in Vietnam. Violently at odds with the public memory of the Gulf War as quick and clean, Chet’s story is anything but clean. As the story progresses, we meet his platoon, his fiancé, his old friends and above all, the dead father who looms over everything Chet does. Through it all, Charles Sheehan-Miles’ crisp storytelling drives home the truth behind the images – that even a clean, modern war has its casualties. As Chet Brown struggles to understand the implications of his war, he spirals into a self-destructive spree, running away from his life, his memories, himself. The only question in the end is this: will he ever truly be able to come home? After reading this book, you will never again look at the Gulf War – or any war – the same way.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a much-needed corrective about a much-misunderstood war. -- Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour M. Hersh

Bleak and disturbing... dead-on-target ...This first novel is a work of pure psychological conflict ... -- Gannett News Service, December 21, 2001

Highly recommended. -- Patrick G. Eddington, Former CIA Intelligence Analyst; Author: Gassed in the Gulf

The book's narrative is gripping...Sheehan-Miles has Army lingo and procedures down pat. -- Suburban Sun-Gazette, November 22, 2001

This is a must-read for those who have gone to war or have imagined that they want to. -- David S. Pierson, Author, Tuskers: An Armor Battalion in the Gulf War

About the Author

Charles Sheehan-Miles served in a tank company during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Since the war he has been an outspoken advocate for ill Gulf War veterans. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, he currently lives with his wife and two children in suburban Washington, DC.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401030459
• ISBN-13: 978-1401030452
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,328,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles Sheehan-Miles is the author of Republic and Prayer at Rumayla: A Novel of the Gulf War. He is currently writing Insurgent, the sequel to Republic.

Charles served in combat with the 24th Infantry Division during the 1991 Gulf War, and was decorated for valor for helping rescue fellow tank crewmen from a burning tank during the Battle at Rumayla. Since then, he has been a regular speaker on issues relating to the Gulf War, ill veterans and the impact of post-traumatic stress.

He is a former President and co-founder of the National Gulf War Resource Center and has served on the board of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center. Prior to becoming executive director of Veterans for Common Sense in August 2004, he was director of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC. He continues to serve on the board of directions of Veterans for Common Sense.

Charles lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Veronica and their two children.

Charles can be found on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/CSheehanMiles and on his blog at http://www.sheehanmiles.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After the War, July 31, 2002

By 

Fritz Mihelcic, Gulf Vet 90-91 (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prayer at Rumayla (Paperback)

I climbed into bed last night and started reading, intending only to read for a few minutes. Several hours later I finished "Prayer at Rumayla." Charles has captured the feel of what we combat vets know to be true. It was all there: Anger, rage, self-loathing, mental anguish. The list goes on. The next time I get asked "how did the war affect you?" I'll simply say: READ THIS BOOK.

I saw so much of myself in Chet's character. Questioning how I could have done the things I did, why I'm doing the things I do now. Searching for answers to questions I can't even formulate. The in-garrison sections were so true, I'd swear he had a hidden camera at my outfit when we got back! The REMFs, the ones who didn't go--they could never understand what the war did to us. They saw it on the television; we saw it on the faces of our buddies and the people we fought. I still see those faces every night when I go to sleep. As for relationships with families, girlfriends, wives? Charles nailed that too. These were the silent casualties of war. Readers will see the effect that war has on those who stayed behind as they try to understand the soldier who left as one person but came back as another.

Gulf War vet? Read this book and see yourself. Know a Gulf War vet? Read this book for insight into why he is the way he is. Want to know what it was like? Read this book and look at the unspoken side of war.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting book, November 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Prayer at Rumayla (Paperback)

I was a tanker in Desert Storm so I was very anxious to read this book. It is a good book and accurately depicts what life was like for us overthere. It shows Desert Storm was not some slick footage that civilians saw on television every night, but real soldiers doing real killing in face to face combat. My only problem with this book is the character's angst became boring after awhile. He obviously needed some help but everybody who offered a chance for this guy to unburden on, he hurt or turned away in some manner or another. Overall this book is well written and clearly shows the pain soldiers face after surviving battle.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gives the feel of the Gulf War for those who were not there., March 14, 2003

By 

"aashurst32" (Spruce Pine, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prayer at Rumayla (Paperback)

Sheehan-Miles does a great job of showing us what the day to day was like for a tank loader in the Gulf War. The sleep deprived crew is counted on to make the right, split-second decisions in the middle of combat. It was not all ice cream and rounding up prisoners.
He also shows what the struggle was like for a young man returning to the "sanity" of America and trying to work out his feelings about what he had to do to keep himself and his fellow soldiers alive.
Chet Brown has elements of Catcher in the Rye in his back-in-the-states persona. He is complex and does things he does not fully understand because of his inward struggle. It is a brutal portrayal of someone fighting his demons about actions that he truly had no control over.
I agree with an earlier review that called for the copy editor's head for the spelling and sentence problems that were left in the book.
I look forward to reading more from Charles Sheehan-Miles.