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Roadside: My Journey to Iraq and the Long Road Home
A military memoir by a biracial child of refugees and survivors, Roadside is about life and death, about family lost and gained, and about America, as a dream and a reality. It's about the roads one takes to leave home and find it again.
As a half-Black, half-Korean kid in Campbell, California, Dylan Park-Pettiford never really fit in, so he and his little brother Rory became joined at the hip. But after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, swept up in patriotism, Dylan enlisted in the US Air Force and was sent to Iraq, and the brothers were separated.
There Dylan's days alternated between boredom and terror, and rare moments of levity and learning came thanks to an Iraqi boy named Brahim. Like Rory, Brahim was wise beyond his years, and he and Dylan bonded as much over rap music as about life. Over the following year, Dylan would bring Brahim food and toiletries to keep him going; Brahim would bring intel to keep Dylan and his friends alive. When they said goodbye at the end of Dylan's tour of duty, he knew it was for the last time.
Or was it?
Dylan returned to a world that had moved on without him. He would go through a soul-crushing divorce, a bout of homelessness, and struggles with prescription drugs, alcohol, and his own mental health. Eventually, he caught a few breaks and overcame the odds—until the violence Dylan thought he'd left in the Middle East followed him home.
Just when his life was at its darkest, fate intervened again, but this time to orchestrate an impossible reunion. In a world marred by a seemingly endless wave of negativity, this story of love, loss, and brotherhood may offer a faint glimmer of hope as we face an uncertain future.
As a half-Black, half-Korean kid in Campbell, California, Dylan Park-Pettiford never really fit in, so he and his little brother Rory became joined at the hip. But after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, swept up in patriotism, Dylan enlisted in the US Air Force and was sent to Iraq, and the brothers were separated.
There Dylan's days alternated between boredom and terror, and rare moments of levity and learning came thanks to an Iraqi boy named Brahim. Like Rory, Brahim was wise beyond his years, and he and Dylan bonded as much over rap music as about life. Over the following year, Dylan would bring Brahim food and toiletries to keep him going; Brahim would bring intel to keep Dylan and his friends alive. When they said goodbye at the end of Dylan's tour of duty, he knew it was for the last time.
Or was it?
Dylan returned to a world that had moved on without him. He would go through a soul-crushing divorce, a bout of homelessness, and struggles with prescription drugs, alcohol, and his own mental health. Eventually, he caught a few breaks and overcame the odds—until the violence Dylan thought he'd left in the Middle East followed him home.
Just when his life was at its darkest, fate intervened again, but this time to orchestrate an impossible reunion. In a world marred by a seemingly endless wave of negativity, this story of love, loss, and brotherhood may offer a faint glimmer of hope as we face an uncertain future.
281 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2025
3 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 21, 2025
Book Review: Roadside: My Journey to Iraq and the Long Road Home by Dylan Park-Pettiford
Rating: 4.7/5
Reviewer’s Perspective & Initial Reactions
As a female sociologist and public health professional—and a parent of a deployed service member—I approached Park-Pettiford’s memoir with a blend of scholarly rigor and personal trepidation. The book’s exploration of biracial identity, military trauma, and the fractured American dream resonated deeply with my work on systemic inequities and veteran health disparities. Park-Pettiford’s raw portrayal of postwar struggles (homelessness, addiction, PTSD) evoked both admiration for his resilience and anger at institutional failures that abandon veterans. His bond with Brahim, the Iraqi boy, stirred complex emotions—hope for cross-cultural solidarity, grief for war’s collateral damage, and frustration at the geopolitical forces that render such connections fleeting.
Strengths & Emotional Impact
-Intersectional Lens: The memoir’s grounding in Park-Pettiford’s biracial (Black/Korean) identity and refugee-family history offers a rare critique of how race, class, and militarism intersect. His enlistment post-9/11—driven by patriotism and a search for belonging—mirrors sociological studies on marginalized groups’ overrepresentation in the military.
-Public Health Imperatives: The author’s postwar battles with addiction and mental health (prescription drugs, alcohol, and his own mental health) starkly illustrate gaps in VA care. As a public health scholar, I appreciated its implicit call for trauma-informed veteran services, though explicit policy critique is sparse.
-Parental Parallels: His brother Rory’s absence and Brahim’s surrogate brotherhood resonated painfully with my fears as a military parent. The memoir’s emotional core—love as both casualty and salvation of war—left me emotionally spent yet galvanized to advocate for systemic change.
Constructive Criticism
-Structural Analysis Lacking: While Park-Pettiford indicts individual struggles, broader critiques of militarism, the VA system, or racial inequities in veteran care remain submerged. A sociologist’s lens demands connecting personal trauma to policy failures.
-Gendered Blind Spots: The memoir centers male relationships (brotherhood, military bonds). How might women veterans or Iraqi women’s experiences diverge? This omission reflects wider erasures in war narratives.
-Redemptive Arc Risks Oversimplification: The impossible reunion climax, while uplifting, risks glossing over the chronic, cyclical nature of PTSD and addiction—a nuance vital for public health realism.
Why This Book Matters
Roadside is a piercing addition to military literature, amplifying voices of veterans of color and reframing war’s legacy as a public health crisis. Its emotional honesty outweighs its academic silences, offering scholars qualitative depth to complement quantitative studies on veteran health disparities.
Thank you to the publisher for the free copy via Edelweiss. Rated 4.7/5—a must-read for sociologists studying militarized identities and public health professionals advocating for veteran care reform.
Pair With: What It Is Like to Go to War (Karl Marlantes) for veteran psychology or The Broken Circle (Melissa Del Bosque) for borderless brotherhood narratives. A visceral reminder that war’s wounds outlast treaties—and demand interdisciplinary solutions.
Rating: 4.7/5
Reviewer’s Perspective & Initial Reactions
As a female sociologist and public health professional—and a parent of a deployed service member—I approached Park-Pettiford’s memoir with a blend of scholarly rigor and personal trepidation. The book’s exploration of biracial identity, military trauma, and the fractured American dream resonated deeply with my work on systemic inequities and veteran health disparities. Park-Pettiford’s raw portrayal of postwar struggles (homelessness, addiction, PTSD) evoked both admiration for his resilience and anger at institutional failures that abandon veterans. His bond with Brahim, the Iraqi boy, stirred complex emotions—hope for cross-cultural solidarity, grief for war’s collateral damage, and frustration at the geopolitical forces that render such connections fleeting.
Strengths & Emotional Impact
-Intersectional Lens: The memoir’s grounding in Park-Pettiford’s biracial (Black/Korean) identity and refugee-family history offers a rare critique of how race, class, and militarism intersect. His enlistment post-9/11—driven by patriotism and a search for belonging—mirrors sociological studies on marginalized groups’ overrepresentation in the military.
-Public Health Imperatives: The author’s postwar battles with addiction and mental health (prescription drugs, alcohol, and his own mental health) starkly illustrate gaps in VA care. As a public health scholar, I appreciated its implicit call for trauma-informed veteran services, though explicit policy critique is sparse.
-Parental Parallels: His brother Rory’s absence and Brahim’s surrogate brotherhood resonated painfully with my fears as a military parent. The memoir’s emotional core—love as both casualty and salvation of war—left me emotionally spent yet galvanized to advocate for systemic change.
Constructive Criticism
-Structural Analysis Lacking: While Park-Pettiford indicts individual struggles, broader critiques of militarism, the VA system, or racial inequities in veteran care remain submerged. A sociologist’s lens demands connecting personal trauma to policy failures.
-Gendered Blind Spots: The memoir centers male relationships (brotherhood, military bonds). How might women veterans or Iraqi women’s experiences diverge? This omission reflects wider erasures in war narratives.
-Redemptive Arc Risks Oversimplification: The impossible reunion climax, while uplifting, risks glossing over the chronic, cyclical nature of PTSD and addiction—a nuance vital for public health realism.
Why This Book Matters
Roadside is a piercing addition to military literature, amplifying voices of veterans of color and reframing war’s legacy as a public health crisis. Its emotional honesty outweighs its academic silences, offering scholars qualitative depth to complement quantitative studies on veteran health disparities.
Thank you to the publisher for the free copy via Edelweiss. Rated 4.7/5—a must-read for sociologists studying militarized identities and public health professionals advocating for veteran care reform.
Pair With: What It Is Like to Go to War (Karl Marlantes) for veteran psychology or The Broken Circle (Melissa Del Bosque) for borderless brotherhood narratives. A visceral reminder that war’s wounds outlast treaties—and demand interdisciplinary solutions.
June 1, 2025
I finished this memoir last night and I’m still carrying it with me. I knew the general outline of the story before I opened the book, but reading it in the author’s own words was an entirely different experience. It is honest, unfiltered, and deeply personal in a way that doesn’t hold back, even when the truth is messy or hard to carry.
This book tells the truth about the impact of war, but even more than that, it gives a raw and powerful look at what happens after. The trials and traumas back home, the inner battles, and the emotional fallout. It is all laid bare here with courage and clarity. The writing is sharp and unflinching but never performative. It simply tells the truth.
What stayed with me most was the balance of pain and strength. The author opens every corner of their life, sharing the moments that are heavy, chaotic, heartbreaking, and sometimes darkly funny. It’s the kind of humor that only shows up when someone has seen the darkest parts of life and kept going. It doesn’t soften the hard parts. It deepens them.
This memoir is not just about a war zone overseas. It is also about the war that follows you home. It is about identity, survival, love, loss, and the long, hard road to healing. It is one of the most vulnerable and powerful things I’ve ever read, and I feel genuinely grateful to have spent time with it.
This book tells the truth about the impact of war, but even more than that, it gives a raw and powerful look at what happens after. The trials and traumas back home, the inner battles, and the emotional fallout. It is all laid bare here with courage and clarity. The writing is sharp and unflinching but never performative. It simply tells the truth.
What stayed with me most was the balance of pain and strength. The author opens every corner of their life, sharing the moments that are heavy, chaotic, heartbreaking, and sometimes darkly funny. It’s the kind of humor that only shows up when someone has seen the darkest parts of life and kept going. It doesn’t soften the hard parts. It deepens them.
This memoir is not just about a war zone overseas. It is also about the war that follows you home. It is about identity, survival, love, loss, and the long, hard road to healing. It is one of the most vulnerable and powerful things I’ve ever read, and I feel genuinely grateful to have spent time with it.
May 27, 2025
Dark, funny, sad, honest memoir by a veteran unafraid of questioning American war machine contradictions and prioritizing human life above national service.
Roadside is also a powerful portrayal of the modern American family, manhood, and grief.
Highly recommended for its gripping content, brutal transparency, emotional weight, and biting humor.
Roadside is also a powerful portrayal of the modern American family, manhood, and grief.
Highly recommended for its gripping content, brutal transparency, emotional weight, and biting humor.
May 26, 2025
This book is incredible. Gripping and very emotional.
May 30, 2025
I received a copy for review. All opinions are my own. This book was an up close and personal look at what it was like for one man to serve his country and wow I felt so many emotions while reading this. The brutal honesty was a hard pill to swallow but this was an important look at what a person goes through physically AND mentally. I learned a lot about the author’s life before enlisting and even after when he navigated his attempt to return to the “normal” world and grappled with the loss of people close to him. Definitely a book everyone should read.
December 27, 2025
A gripping memoir that traces early relationships, deployment to Iraq, disillusionment with war, and the lasting impact of personal loss after returning home.
Dylan is a great storyteller and his style of writing mixing in humor and emotion was excellent.
Dylan is a great storyteller and his style of writing mixing in humor and emotion was excellent.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews