Frontlines and Lifelines

This work captures personal experience of the Army's Surgeon General as a military doctor in crisis and war, spanning 30 years from Northern Ireland; through Kosovo to the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns; culminating in the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukraine war. Poetry provides the ability to say what is otherwise difficult or unpalatable. Some of the poems are critical and challenging. Some are humorous, as dark humour is a well-recognised resilience tool of the soldier. All are observational--and all are grounded in the realities of crisis and conflict. It is likely you have read war poetry from the perspectives of the combat soldier: but this book is the alternative perspective of those who manage the consequences of war. The work exposes that saving lives in conflict, picking up the human pieces, takes a toll on the carers. Writing these poems has been a means for the author to sustain mental resilience and to cope with serial morally injurious events.