The Play Soldier

Frank Warz considers firefights blood sports he’d star in. A laborer in 1975 Detroit, he feels suckered into bypassing them for college. Finally, a necessary crime makes the antihero chase his guts-and-glory dreams. But the Foreign Legion rejects him. The devil, however, performs a miracle.
The mixed blessing lets Warz follow the Legion to Djibouti to play soldier as a conflict photographer. After close calls enroute but no action, he finds the colony equally disappointing. Until a deserter’s trick leads to Warz’ coveted game. Only, it’s a last stand.
“Do you ever feel the portfolio of your manhood should include combat?” William Hamilton, The New Yorker magazine, 2001
“It’s something a man needs to experience.” PFC Bennie Crouch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, USA, enroute to Iraq, 2006