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'John Cantwell, Queensland country boy, enlisted in the army as a private and rose to the rank of major general. He was on the front line in 1991 as Coalition forces fitted bulldozer blades to tanks and buried Iraqi troops alive. He served in Baghdad in 2006 and saw what a car bomb does to a crowded marketplace. He was commander of Australian forces in Afghanistan in 2010 when ten of his soldiers were killed. He came home in 2011 to be considered for the job of chief of the Australian Army. Instead, he ended up in a psychiatric hospital.
Exit Wounds is the deeply human account of one man's tour of the War on Terror, the moving story of life on a modern battlefield: from the nightmare of cheating death in a field strewn with mines, to the utter despair of looking into the face of a dead soldier before sending his body home to his mother. Cantwell hid his post-traumatic stress disorder for decades, fearing it would affect his career.' (Publisher's description)
Notes
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Dedication: This book is dedicated to my wife Jane, who has been an unfailing source of support and love through many dark days. I also dedicate this book to the memory of the extraordinary soldiers who lost their lives while under my command in Afghanistan in 2010, and whose courageous families continue to mourn ...
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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No Surge in Illness : Defence
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 April 2015; (p. 17) -
Grand Strategic Blindness
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December 2012 - January 2013 no. 347 2012; (p. 10-11)
— Review of Exit Wounds : One Australian's War on Terror 2012 single work autobiography -
Scars from a Never-Ending Battle
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 November 2012; (p. 33) The Saturday Age , 10 November 2012; (p. 27)
— Review of Exit Wounds : One Australian's War on Terror 2012 single work autobiography -
Writing the Next Chapter after Horrors of War
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 28 September 2012; (p. 5)
-
Scars from a Never-Ending Battle
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 November 2012; (p. 33) The Saturday Age , 10 November 2012; (p. 27)
— Review of Exit Wounds : One Australian's War on Terror 2012 single work autobiography -
Grand Strategic Blindness
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December 2012 - January 2013 no. 347 2012; (p. 10-11)
— Review of Exit Wounds : One Australian's War on Terror 2012 single work autobiography -
Writing the Next Chapter after Horrors of War
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 28 September 2012; (p. 5) -
No Surge in Illness : Defence
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 April 2015; (p. 17)
Awards
- 2014 shortlisted National Biography Award
- 2014 shortlisted Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature — Award for Non-Fiction
- 2013 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Biography of the Year
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cIraq,cMiddle East, Asia,
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cAfghanistan,cSouth Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- 1990s
- 2000-2010
- 2010-2012
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cIraq,cMiddle East, Asia,
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cAfghanistan,cSouth Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- 1990-2012