Stand in the Fire: Three American Soldiers and Their Wars, 1900-1950

Summary

From the first shot fired by his grandfather on a jungle trail in 1903 to the day his father captured plans for the Chinese invasion of South Korea, William Crawford Woods's family has fought in nearly every American war of the twentieth century. Drawing on his family's letters, journals, official records, and other artifacts found in his grandmother's attic, Woods has revived their stories—accounts of his grandfather, who served in the Philippine War and World War I; of his uncle, who rose from a West Point cadet to staff command in the 11th Airborne and died in action in the Battle of Manila in World War II; and of his own father, who transformed himself from a sedentary lawyer into a soldier and a spy. To lighten the dramatic and emotional load of his family's service, Woods occasionally calls on memories of his own time in the army, which he calls "brief, bloodless, and largely comic."

Woods fortifies this work of nonfiction with his skills as a novelist, crafting dramatic scenes and engaging dialog, offering far more than operational battlefield stories. He has skillfully created a memoir about the construction of memory forged in military service and American masculinity. Stand in the Fire is a powerful exploration of the love between fathers and sons and an attempt to honor family valor.