Rare stories from more than 250 years of Native Americans' service in the military Why We Serve commemorates the 2020 opening of the National Native American Veterans Memorial at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the first landmark in Washington, DC, to recognize the bravery and sacrifice of Native veterans. American Indians' history of military service dates to colonial times, and today, they serve at one of the highest rates of any ethnic group. Why We Serve explores the range of reasons why, from love of their home to an expression of their warrior traditions. The book brings fascinating history to life with historical photographs, sketches, paintings, and maps. Incredible contributions from important voices in the field offer a complex examination of the history of Native American service. Why We Serve celebrates the unsung legacy of Native military service and what it means to their community and country.

Most people wake up and drive to a job that they hate. Think about your five closest friends. Are they happy? Do they live their lives with purpose? Do you? We put on a fake front for what we want people to see and think about us, but the reality is most people aren’t happy. We’re lost. We settle. We aren’t happy with where we are. You can’t be happy if you don’t know your purpose. It’s not possible. You want more but you don’t even know where to start. You know there is more out there. You see others having success and you want it, too; there is nothing wrong with that. You just need help finding your purpose so you can find the success you see all around you. You can be productive, crush your goals, pretend that all the things that you’ve acquired actually mean something…but at the end of the day, if you don’t know your purpose, you’ll always feel like there’s something missing. You’ll know that you’re capable of more and that you’re not living the life you should be. You might be fooling the world, but you’re not fooling the person looking back at you in the mirror. You need to find your actual power source. Your purpose is your source of power. Once you find your purpose it’ll fuel you for life. You’ll do things that you never thought you were capable of. Achieving your purpose will force you to morph into a stronger version of yourself. You’ll have to push through fears, insecurities, and doubts that held you back. But somehow it’ll all feel possible and necessary because you’re purpose-driven now…and that’s the only thing you’ll ever need.

I would have climbed up a mountain to get on the list [to serve overseas]. We were going to do our duty. Despite all the bad things that happened, America was our home. This is where I was born. It was where my mother and father were. There was a feeling of wanting to do your part. --Gladys Carter, member of the 6888th To Serve My Country, to Serve my Race is the story of the historic 6888th, the first United States Women's Army Corps unit composed of African-American women to serve overseas. While African-American men and white women were invited, if belatedly, to serve their country abroad, African-American women were excluded for overseas duty throughout most of WWII. Under political pressure from legislators like Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the NAACP, the black press, and even President Roosevelt, the U.S. War Department was forced to deploy African-American women to the European theater in 1945. African-American women, having succeeded, through their own activism and political ties, in their quest to shape their own lives, answered the call from all over the country, from every socioeconomic stratum. Stationed in France and England at the end of World War II, the 6888th brought together women like Mary Daniel Williams, a cook in the 6888th who signed up for the Army to escape the slums of Cleveland and to improve her ninth-grade education, and Margaret Barnes Jones, a public relations officer of the 6888th, who grew up in a comfortable household with a politically active mother who encouraged her to challenge the system. Despite the social, political, and economic restrictions imposed upon these African-American women in their own country, they were eager to serve, not only out of patriotism but out of a desire to uplift their race and dispell bigoted preconceptions about their abilities. Elaine Bennett, a First Sergeant in the 6888th, joined because "I wanted to prove to myself and maybe to the world that we would give what we had back to the United States as a confirmation that we were full- fledged citizens." Filled with compelling personal testimony based on extensive interviews, To Serve My Country is the first book to document the lives of these courageous pioneers. It reveals how their Army experience affected them for the rest of their lives and how they, in turn, transformed the U.S. military forever.

My goal for this book was to highlight fifty women veterans. But the outpouring response from the women warriors' willingness to share the reason behind their selfless service in the US Military was beyond what I could have ever imagined. These stories you are about to read will either make you laugh, cry, cheer, or get angry; they may even shock you! Just know that these women did what most women would not do, and that's serve their country. Women have been serving and loving America long before America loved her, but that never stopped the heart of a warrior.With over two million women that have served, past and present, what better way to show them homage than this? Storytelling is the best form of historical documentation, and these stories need to be told. Here is a small yet powerful introduction to sixty-eight of America's most brave and beautiful women telling their story Why I Served.

Since her childhood, author Georgia Barnes questioned her self-worth and assumed her life was disposable. She struggled to find completeness. Knowing something was missing among the jigsaw pieces of her life, she didn’t realize she was hiding from herself. Shocked that she was living in denial, Barnes finds the courage to unlock the area of her life that was never allowed to surface. In Pregnancy Centers, she narrates her journey of healing that she found when she stopped running from her past. An honest and sincere account, Barnes pairs her personal story in conjunction with her experiences becoming a volunteer at a Michigan pregnancy center. As a birth mom, she shares her story and why she feels so strongly about supporting this ministry. In this memoir, she addresses the misconceptions often associated with pregnancy centers while at the same time encouraging others to become involved in a ministry suited to their own needs and interests. She offers a reminder that the journey through life can take many forms and chapters. Each person’s path neither defines them nor their future.

Over 2.9 million US military personnel—facing serious emotional and spiritual challenges—serve in more than 150 countries. Called to Serve pinpoints the needs of these military families. Real-life stories drawn from twenty-three years of military experience offer encouragement, humor, and tools to combat relational threats from the perspective of the “Warrior” (husband) and his “Spouse.” Thirty compelling, uplifting, and encouraging devotionals address the top identified stressors affecting military personnel and their families. Each account, tied to relevant Scripture, whets the spiritual palate, encouraging the reader to seek additional encouragement from the Bible.

The former VA secretary describes his fight to save health care from politics and money-and how it was ultimately derailed by a small group of unelected officials with influence in the Trump White House. Known in health care circles for his ability to fix ailing hospitals, Dr. David Shulkin was originally brought into government by President Obama, in an attempt to save the broken Department of Veterans Affairs. When President Trump made him VA secretary, Dr. Shulkin was as shocked as anyone. Yet this surprise was trivial compared to what Shulkin encountered as the VA secretary: a team of political appointees devoted to stopping anyone-including the secretary himself-who stood in the way of privatizing the organization and implementing their agenda. In this uninhibited memoir, Shulkin opens up about why the government has long struggled to get good medical care to military veterans and the plan he had for how to address these problems. This is a book about the commitment we make to the people who risk their lives for our country, how and why we've failed to honor it, and why the new administration may be taking us in the wrong direction.