Honor Bound
An American Story of Dreams and Service
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
The inspiring story of the first female Marine to fly a combat mission in an F/A-18—and the transformative events that led to her bold decision to take on the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate.
Amy McGrath grew up in Edgewood, Kentucky, a childhood shaped by love of country, baseball (the Cincinnati Reds), and, from the age of twelve, a fascination with fighter jets. Her devastation at learning that a federal law prohibited women from flying in combat fueled her determination to do just that--and then, to help change the laws to improve the lives of all Americans.
McGrath writes of gaining an appointment in high school to the U.S. Naval Academy, making it through Marine Corps training, graduating from Annapolis, Maryland, becoming a Second Lieutenant, and raising her right hand to swear to defend the U.S. Constitution, honor bound.
She vividly recounts her experiences flying in the Marines, and her combat deployments to Iraq (Kuwait) and Afghanistan, her work as an Air Combat Tactics instructor—and what it was like to finally fly that fighter jet: high-speed, intense, and physically demanding.
Here is McGrath, training to do the most intense tactical flying there is (think the Navy's TOPGUN ); meeting the man who would become her husband; being promoted to major and then lieutenant colonel; marrying, having three children, a career and life in Washington and then moving her family back to Kentucky to begin a whole new chapter in politics; her roller-coaster congressional campaign (she lost by three percentage points); and making the tough decision to run again, in an even bigger, higher-stakes national campaign, against the five-term leader of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell.
A moving, inspiring American story of courage, determination, and large dreams.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McGrath, best known for her near-successful campaign to unseat Mitch McConnell in the 2020 U.S. Senate election, reflects on her career of public service in her earnest if disappointing debut. She spent her childhood in Edgewood, Ky., in the 1970s surrounded by a supportive family and, while researching WWII aircraft for a middle school project, her dreams to become a naval aviator took flight. But, at the time, the U.S. military was legally barred from letting women fly combat missions. Even still, McGrath attended the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer in 1997. After the law changed, she went on to fly just shy of 90 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, garnering over a dozen awards for outstanding performance before entering the political realm in 2011 and running for a Kentucky House seat in 2018. Though she lost, her strong showing led Chuck Schumer to recruit her to challenge Majority Leader McConnell in 2020. Despite her inspiring achievements, McGrath's narrative falters in its clichéd prose ("Home. That word carries such weight and power when you serve in the military") and curious omission of any mention of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly, this feels more like a paint-by-the-numbers campaign bio than anything.
