Creekside Books and Coffee is proud to pay tribute to author Benjamin Tupper on Thursday, July 1st at 7:00 pm as he recounts his experiences in Afghanistan from his new book Greetings from Afghanistan: Send More Ammo.

In many respects, this collection of dispatches from the war against the Taliban is a book that should never have been written. Tupper broke all the military’s rules on media access in 2006 when he began blogging as an embedded trainer with the Afghan National Army. Tupper’s on-the-ground reporting soon reached a huge audience when he e-mailed NPR and wound up recording numerous commentaries for Morning Edition – all while on active duty with the National Guard.

“It was uncensored, in the sense that it wasn’t just about the pretty things that were happening,” Tupper says of his posts from Afghanistan. He recounts life and death in battle as well as the culture gap between Americans and Afghans. “I was lucky I never got into trouble. NPR was supportive of the big picture.”

Within two months of his arrival in Ghazni, Tupper was literally shell-shocked and had dropped 30 pounds. “The stress, the heat! The world was falling apart, especially up here in my head,” he says. Writing became the emotional outlet that kept him sane, both in Afghanistan and after he returned home. The power of the book is its unflinching honestly.

“I came home and wrote about it! I think it saved me.” ~ Author Benjamin Tupper

“Raw, direct and powerful! This work is vitally important.” ~ Ken Stern, NPR Radio & former NPR CEO

Join Creekside Books & Coffee a few days before the 4th of July as we pay tribute to a soldier and an American Hero.

Creekside Books & Coffee
35 Fennell St, Skaneateles, New York 13152
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