Proud to Serve will be published on September 11, twenty-five years after the day that changed the course of my life and the lives of so many others.
The book begins inside the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, but it does not end there.
It follows what came afterward: returning to the Pentagon in the early hours of September 12, the responsibility of command, preparing Soldiers for war, and eventually leading more than 1,500 Soldiers responsible for building and sustaining the fuel lifeline supporting coalition operations in Iraq.
Near the end of the book, I reflect on what those experiences taught me:
“War tested every assumption and instinct I held about soldiers, about what it truly meant to place the mission first, to lead by example, and to do so with trust, discipline, and purpose.”
Those lessons are ultimately why I wrote Proud to Serve.
It is a story about September 11 and war, but also about responsibility, trust, leadership, Soldiers and families, and what happens when people are asked to step forward before they feel completely ready.
Nine days to publication. ARC - contact me at shawn@proudtoserve.us
Proud to Serve: Leadership, Responsibility and Command from 9/11 to Iraq September 11, 2026
Proud to Serve will be published on September 11, twenty-five years after the day that changed the course of my life and the lives of so many others.
The book begins inside the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, but it does not end there.
It follows what came afterward: returning to the Pentagon in the early hours of September 12, the responsibility of command, preparing Soldiers for war, and eventually leading more than 1,500 Soldiers responsible for building and sustaining the fuel lifeline supporting coalition operations in Iraq.
Near the end of the book, I reflect on what those experiences taught me:
“War tested every assumption and instinct I held about soldiers, about what it truly meant to place the mission first, to lead by example, and to do so with trust, discipline, and purpose.”
Those lessons are ultimately why I wrote Proud to Serve.
It is a story about September 11 and war, but also about responsibility, trust, leadership, Soldiers and families, and what happens when people are asked to step forward before they feel completely ready.
Nine days to publication. ARC - contact me at shawn@proudtoserve.us
Proud to Serve: Leadership, Responsibility and Command from 9/11 to Iraq
September 11, 2026