Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior
Hard as it is to believe, one of the most significant stories of the post-9/11 age is also one of the least known—life at Gitmo, the detention facility for many of the world’s worst terrorists.
Book Description:
“Hard as it is to believe, one of the most significant stories of the post-9/11 age is also one of the least known-life at Gitmo, the detention facility for many of the world’s worst terrorists. Few individuals are more qualified to tell this story than Montgomery Granger, a citizen soldier, family man, dedicated educator, and Army Reserve medical officer involved in one of the most intriguing military missions of our time. Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay is about that historic experience, and it relates not only what it was like for Granger to live and work at Gitmo, but about the sacrifices made by him and his fellow Reservists serving around the world.” Andrew Carroll, editor of the New York Times bestsellers War Letters and Behind the LinesSaving Grace at Guantanamo Bay, or “Gitmo: The Real Story,” is a “good history of medical, security, and intelligence aspects of Gitmo; also, it will be valuable for anyone assigned to a Gitmo-like facility.” Jason Wetzel, Field Historian, Office of Army Reserve HistoryU.S. Army Reserve Captain Montgomery Granger found himself the ranking Army Medical Department officer in a joint military operation like no other before it – taking care of terrorists and murderers just months after the horrors of September 11, 2001. Granger and his fellow Reservists end up running the Joint Detainee Operations Group (JDOG) at Guantanamo Bay’s infamous Camp X-Ray. In this moving memoir, Granger writes about his feelings of guilt, leaving his family and job back home, while in Guantanamo, he faces a myriad of torturous emotions and self-doubt, at once hating the inmates he is nonetheless duty bound to care for and protect. Through long distance love, and much heartache, Granger finds a way to keep his sanity and dignity. Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay is his story.Montgomery J. Granger is a three-time mobilized U.S. Army Reserve Major (Ret.) who resides in Long Island, New York, with his wife and five children. Granger is the author of Theodore, a personal narrative published in the 2006 Random House wartime anthology, Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Home Front in the words of U.S. Troops and their Families. Publisher’s website: http://sbpra.com/MontgomeryJGranger
Reviews for the Book
Two months ago, I signed up on Twitter.com, particularly paying more attention to soldiers and writers, for whom I always have a great respect. Then, a uniform-soldier-avatar struck me with his profile saying: Author: SAVING GRACE AT GUANTANAMO BAY: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior; 3 times mobilized retired US Army Res. Major; husband, father, school dist. admin. #Hooah Impressive! I found who I want to follow on Twitter and what I want to read. As a voracious reader, I purchased the book and read it 2 times – first time just dancing through it, but my mind and my heart just keeping drag me into the 2nd round of reading. Author, Montgomery, J. Granger’s experience in the combat, has naturally and vividly unfolded in front of my eyes with his unique writing style – simple, natural, easy-reading layout separated every incident with various famous quotes, among which, the quote on prologue page from ancient Chinese military strategy genius, Sun Tzu: “One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Subduing the other’s military without battle is the most skillful.” I was sold, right there. And I rated this book as a 5-star memoir! I always treat my books with respect – no one else could have touched them. So, my friends and family member all have to buy this engaging book by themselves. It is a very good idea of gifts! - Ahma
About the Author: Montgomery J. Granger
Montgomery J. Granger is a three-time mobilized U.S. Army
Reserve Major (Ret.), who was called into his Reserve Center in
Uniondale (Long Island), New York, on 9/11, in response to the
attacks on the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and
Flight 93, which crashed at Shanksville, Pennsylvania. He answered
his country’s call to duty next in January 2002 for a mission to help
run the military detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba. He was called up again just six months after
returning from duty at Gitmo, but this time remained stateside at the
U.S. Army Reserve Training Center at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After
nearly six months at Fort Dix, MAJ Granger returned to civilian life
for about a year when he was involuntarily transferred to another
Reserve Army unit that was deploying to Iraq in the fall of 2004.
Major Granger served 14 months of active duty on his third deployment
and served in Baghdad, Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca, and Ashraf,
Iraq, as Medical Service officer for military detention facility operations.
He is married and is the father of five children, and lives on
Long Island, New York. He is also the author of “Theodore,” a personal
narrative published in the 2006 Random House wartime anthology
“Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Home Front
in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families,” where he wrote
about his fear and anxiety over having left his family in 2002, and
especially two-day-old Theodore, and what reaction there was upon
his return. Operation Homecoming was sponsored in part by the
National Endowment for the Arts, and edited by Andrew Carroll, editor
of the New York Times bestselling book, War Letters.
Granger was born in Illinois, raised and schooled in Rubidoux,
California, and attended undergraduate school at the University of
Alabama in Tuscaloosa where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree
in education. He earned a master’s degree in curriculum and teaching
from Teachers College—Columbia University, where he met his wife.
He also attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook,
where he earned professional credits to obtain a New York State
School District Administrators’ license. He is an accomplished coach
and teacher of health and physical education, having taught in Alabama,
California, New York City, and Long Island, before becoming a
director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics. He was most
recently Director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics, and
then District Administrator for Operations for the Comsewogue
school district in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., and is now a Director of
Health, Physical Education and Athletics, and Director of Facilities
for and east end school district in Long Island.
Granger is the author of many writings and musing as yet unpublished,
but hopefully soon to be shared with a waiting world.
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