FLY SAFE

Cody recollects the terrifying year her husband—a U.S. Army helicopter pilot—was sent to war in the Middle East.

In 1990, Cody had been married to her husband, Dick, the commander of an “elite attack helicopter battalion,” for 15 years. She was accustomed to both long periods of his absence, as well as the danger of his profession. When he was deployed to the Gulf War in the wake of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, however, it felt different to her—she was uncharacteristically unprepared for his departure. While he was away, they were beset by various obstacles to communication—both technical and strategic since Dick’s principal mission was classified—and the author was sometimes reduced to interpreting newspaper headlines to divine the nature of his work. Still, Dick sent Cody nearly 100 letters during that period, some of which are reproduced in their entirety in this moving memoir. At the heart of her sometimes-anguished remembrance is the terror induced by the specter of the unknown: “It is hard to be patient, hard to ignore this feeling of mystery, because it involves the person I love most in this world. Then again, so many times in life, we don’t get to know the answers ahead of time. Maybe there’s a reason for that; maybe knowing what’s around the corner is far more stressful than living with the mystery.” Cody not only recounts her own experience on the homefront, but also Dick’s daring participation in a “history-making raid” to destroy Iraq’s most critical radar sites in advance of a full-scale invasion. The author’s informal prose forges an intimacy with the reader. This is an impressively candid recollection, poignant and thoughtful.

A searchingly personal memoir that also provides a thrilling peek into the Gulf War.