The Hero Next Door

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Emmy Award–winning ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz shares inspiring profiles of the 9/11 generation of warriors and their families who have shown courage and resilience on and off the battlefield

“An antidote to the cynicism that surrounds us, a celebration of sacrifice, selflessness, and moral courage. It is exactly the book we need.” —Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of 13 Hours • “I have read hundreds of books on the military, and none has impacted me as profoundly as this one. Raddatz has captured the humanity and heroism (and the humor) of our nation’s troops and their loved ones. Riveting, inspiring, and beautifully told.” —Andrew Carroll, author of War Letters • “Powerful and profoundly immersive.” —Kathyn Bigelow, Academy Award–winning director of The Hurt Locker

For twenty-five years covering America's wars, Martha Raddatz has seen the courage and resilience of the men and women who have been fighting America’s wars since 9/11. What motivates them to do such impossible things? How do they find the strength to walk towards danger, to improvise in the heat of the moment and start over when things don’t go as planned? The Hero Next Door offers a dozen portraits of servicemen and women who are every bit as inspiring as those of the Greatest Generation. Every one of them has shown awe-inspiring strength of character, faced daunting odds in, and come out stronger. What is it about military service that inspires such selfless service and what can we learn from them?

Take Kevin Shaeffer, a naval officer working at the Pentagon on 9/11, whose experience on that day fueled his determination to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Or Mark Little, who swore the day an IED blew up his convoy in Iraq was the best day of his life, wouldn't let the loss of his legs keep him off the ice, and made it his mission, once he'd recovered, to help veterans rebuild their lives when they were down. Or Josh Webster, who dangled by a rope under enemy fire to rescue a fallen officer in the mountains of Afghanistan. Or Rocco Armonda, a highly skilled surgeon who pioneered a new way of treating traumatic brain injury in Iraq. Or Danielle “Purple” Thiriot and Charles “Wingnut” Wickware, who, once they started flying, knew exactly what their mission was. Many veterans returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with wounds that never fully healed. There isn't one of them who would say they could have done it alone.

Life can turn on a moment, and who’s to say what we’ll do? That, Martha Raddatz tells us, is when you spot the real heroes: when no one is watching. “Individually, their stories are deeply inspiring,” she writes. “Together, they offer something beyond inspiration: insight into what it means to live with a life-defining courage and sense of purpose.”