This Page Intentionally Left Blank (Change 1): Memoirs of an Army Knucklehead

by Raymond L. Jones

These are some stories I have written and have published for my Facebook group, Memoirs of an Army Knucklehead. In an effort to assist the sales of my first book (and future books) I have decided to publish some of these stories periodically as changes to the original manuscript. Amazon has a minimum charge for a published work so if you buy this as a stand-alone publication, you’ve paid the what they require. I really don’t make anything off of these changes. I urge you to hound Amazon so an author such as myself can publish free (or at least reduced priced) works.
After I published my first book, I started remembering several other stories I had left out for one reason or another. Initially, I thought about just publishing them on Facebook and that be the end of it. However, several weeks later, I thought to myself, just because a subscriber to my Facebook group reads the story doesn’t mean a reader from goodreads.com will read it. So, yes, these changes are a marketing ploy in an effort to reach more readers.
With that as a confession, I hope you enjoy the read.

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2013

About the author

Raymond Jones is a twenty-five year combat veteran of the United States Army. He has deployed five times including three tours to Iraq and two to Afghanistan. His combat tours to Iraq includes time as Maintenance Officer, a Battalion Fire Support Officer (two tours), and an Operations Battle Major on a Brigade Staff. His combat tours to Afghanistan include time as Mobile Training Team Leader and an Artillery Subject Matter Expert on a corps level staff. He entered his military service as a private in 1989 in the Texas Army National Guard, transferred to active duty in 1991 with a tour to Germany (1991-1994) and a tour at Fort Carson Colorado (1995). He transferred back into the Texas Army National Guard while he attended ROTC at Tarleton State University where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics before returning to Active Duty as a Field Artillery officer at Fort Sill Oklahoma (1998-2002). Later he transferred to Fort Hood Texas where his deploy cycle began until he retired in 2014. Raymond Jones still lives in Central Texas near Fort Hood with his wife Dallice.

His combat resume includes:
March-July 2003 - Battalion Maintenance Officer 4-42 FA
July 2003-March 2004 – Fire Support Officer 1-22 IN
December 2005-August 2006 – Battery Commander B/2-77 FA
August 2006-Dec 2006 – Squadron Fire Support Officer 8/10 CAV
July 2008-April 2009 – Brigade Operations Battle Major 41st Fires Brigade
September 2011-June 2012 – Mobile Training Team Leader- RMTC-E Afghanistan
April-August 2013 – SME Artillery, IJC, Kabul, Afghanistan

Reviews

[Chavonne Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining story regarding life in the military. I thought I may enjoy it as my husband is a retired Army Ranger. There was a lot of "country boy embellishment" as Mr. Jones calls it. Overall quite a good read. I passed it along to my husband and think he may enjoy it more than I did!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recieved this book from a First Reads giveaway. I really enjoyed this book. It made me laugh. A side from a few typos and remembering what certain abbreviations meant it was really good.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somethings never change

I had fun reading this book. It just showed how somethings never change. When I was in the military I met several of the people described in this book. Now I don't mean these people, but several just like them. So I had many laughs over the record antics. My only problem with this book was the author's describe of Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. I live in Arkansas in fact at one time I worked at Fort Chaffee and I can truthfully say that it was not a swamp as stated so someone got something wrong on that period. Now this might be not seem to be a big problem, but that could mean other things were stated as true could have been false. Still I liked the book enough to give 4 stars because it was funny. To anyone who has been in the military or likes to read about the military then read this book for a look at the way things are done in the military, which the right way, the wrong way, or the Army way. I let you guess which way is the one used.

[Richard A Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected just a random collection of Army jokes, but was surprised to find a lot more. This is a fairly serious study of leadership in general. About how corrosive and counterproductive poor managers are to any organization, but how a few true leaders can turn the tide.

The whole tale is much more serious and complicated than, I think, even the author intended. And not in a grim way. The focus isn't on combat, but on "Big Army," and those soldiers trying to survive it. Or, as is too often the case, those thriving in that senseless environment!

While civilians might only snicker at the humor, vets and active duty folk will slap their knee laughing! All in all, a good read and I hope part of a continuing series.

As is standard practice in this industry, I received a free copy to review.

[Erik Twisk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that this book is written very well but that you have to know something about the army to enjoy this book. I liked the way it was written but had difficulties with understanding what the writer meant and and all those Abbreviations where hard to get.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
I want to thank the writer and Goodreads for giving me the opportunity to read this book.This Page Intentionally Left Blank FM 101 Knuckleheads