Christopher Hayden

It All Fades Christopher Hayden

IT ALL FADES is a personal journal of a young man who writes in order to express himself. He desires to make something out of himself, but is unsure of his future. He decides that joining the Army Infantry will allow him to break free of his mundane life and experience the world for the first time. He enlists and finds himself in the hostile and often times frightening environment of Infantry Basic Training. He graduates and finds himself thrown into a fast paced Infantry unit gearing up for deployment. That deployment comes and they are tasked in one of the most hostile areas of Baghdad with little to guide them other than the will to survive. The author of the journal struggles with the horrors of war, the fear of losing his friends, and the darker side of human emotion. A mistake in judgment leads to the breaking point and he must face the outcome of that choice. Once he returns home, he finds it hard to balance life through the static of a head injury, un-diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress, and feelings of regret for the things he did overseas: both good and bad. Many of the stories or "days" in this journal are based on true events that happened to author, Christopher Hayden, during his time in the service. A true blend of realism with drama.