Peaceful Meridian

“I joined because I was bored.”


With those words, David Rogers Jr. goes on a true-life journey from U.S. Navy bootcamp in 2004, through the farces of the military life, and into the GI anti-war movement. Working to end the Forever War, he follows in the tradition of the Vietnam-era anti-war GIs, powered by the absurdities of Catch-22.


Whether surviving insane cab drivers on shore leave or sobering encounters with Somali pirates, Rogers portrays dealing with military bureaucracy, emotionally broken shipmates, and the sea itself. But eventually he learns his greatest fight is not with foreign enemies but against the first great injustice of the 21st Century, the Iraq War. Ultimately, he learns that the real path to peace and a better world is finding the peace within yourself.