Ryan Smithson
- Iraq War Veteran
- Author of Ghosts of War
Ryan Smithson, like most teenagers, was unsure of where life would lead after high school. Inspired by the patriotism following 9/11, he joined the army reserves and was deployed to Iraq in 2004. Returning home to a new bride and a college campus, he began writing about his combat experiences. What began as an essay...
read the restRyan Smithson, like most teenagers, was unsure of where life would lead after high school. Inspired by the patriotism following 9/11, he joined the army reserves and was deployed to Iraq in 2004. Returning home to a new bride and a college campus, he began writing about his combat experiences. What began as an essay for an English class turned into much more when Ryan compiled his writings into his memoir, Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI (Collins). He has since traveled the country to talk at colleges, high schools, libraries, and education conferences about his experience in the Iraq War, and continues to benefit from the therapeutic aspects of writing and storytelling.
As he describes enlisting in the Army in the wake of 9/11 at the age of 17, undergoing the disciplinary harshness of basic training, and living through the fire of combat at just 19 years of age, Smithson brings his audiences into the life of a teenaged Army private serving his country half a world away.
When Smithson returned home to his wife, he went to college for a degree in criminal justice, and then for cultural studies and literature. He lives in Schenectady, New York, with his wife and family.
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