Central Florida Author Wins Grand Prize in 2009 DIY Book Festival

Online, February 9, 2010 (Newswire.com) - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Charles M. Grist
[email protected]
Phone: 407-956-0717

Central Florida Author Wins Grand Prize in 2009 DIY Book Festival

Local Police Officer to Accept Award on February 25 in Hollywood
For "My Last War: A Vietnam Veteran's Tour in Iraq"

Winter Springs, Florida - Author, veteran, and Central Florida police officer Charles M. Grist will receive the grand prize in the DIY Book Festival on February 25 during an awards dinner at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California. Grist's book, My Last War: A Vietnam Veteran's Tour in Iraq, tells the story of his tour in Iraq with his team of Army Reservists.

Grist is one of the few Vietnam veterans to have served as an enlisted soldier in the Iraq war. In 2004, he volunteered to be the sergeant-in-charge of the Protective Service Detail for an Army Reserve general in Baghdad. Based on the detailed war journal he kept during his service in Iraq, and coupled with his experiences that began a generation ago in Vietnam, Grist completed his own journey of war.

"In My Last War, I am able to share my team's story from the unique perspective of a Vietnam veteran still serving as a soldier during Operation Iraqi Freedom," explains Grist. "During my first war in Vietnam, I served with extraordinary warriors; in my last war in Iraq, I was proud to serve with their sons and daughters."

Grist used his daily journal to tell the story of his C.O.B.R.A. team's wartime experiences, documenting the events that shaped Iraq in 2004 and preserving the heroic deeds of some of the Army Reserve and National Guard warrior-citizens with whom he served. Based inside Baghdad's Green Zone, Grist and his team's mission with the general led them along the deadly roads of Baghdad, to the throne of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, and through the picturesque hills of Kurdistan. It was a fast-paced life of high adventure, filled with convoys, mortar or rocket attacks, and the constant threat of ambushes or improvised explosive devices.

My Last War is also a tribute to Vietnam veterans, as Grist hopes they will able to see that their service was indeed appreciated - even decades later. For the veterans of Iraq, Grist writes with the hope that Americans will understand what wonderful differences American troops have made in the lives of innocent Iraqi citizens.

About the Author - Charles M. (Chuck) Grist is a native of Orlando and a master police officer in Central Florida who retired from the Army Reserve in 2009. Enlisting for the first time in 1968, Grist was commissioned a year later as a second lieutenant at the age of twenty. He graduated from the Army's Airborne and Ranger Courses and served in Vietnam as an infantry platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division. After a long break in service, Grist reenlisted in the Army Reserve as a sergeant and volunteered for service in Iraq in 2004. He is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and has been married to his wife, Debbie, for over thirty-six years. They are the parents of four children and the grandparents of three little girls and one little Ranger.

My Last War: A Vietnam Veteran's Tour in Iraq
Available from: www.iUniverse.com, www.bn.com, www.amazon.com, and other online booksellers.
October 2009 · 6 x 9 · 308 pages
Paperback · ISBN: 9781440152689
Dust Jacket Hardcover · ISBN: 9781440152702