Title: Millennial Warrior
Author: Jack Glad
Publisher: The Wave Media Solutions
ISBN: 979-8895252611
Pages: 141
Genre: Memoir
Reviewer: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Hollywood Book Reviews
Author Jack Glad offers a stirring memoir emphasizing life lessons that he wishes to share with others, stressing that we all live in constantly changing, challenging circumstances, and should “commit to becoming the best versions of ourselves.”
Growing up in a separated family, an early trauma for the author was being left by the hardworking, financially struggling mother with whom he had been living, in his father’s care. He suffered from coping in a home with three siblings and a stepmom and the torments of being a child of poverty in an affluent school environment. But he fought against his depression and neglect, and after high school, joined the Air Force National Guard for a decent education and salary. In basic training- seven weeks of “absolute hell” – he learned that comradeship can be the best protection in the chaos of war. Working with his father in a steel mill, he met a woman he would fall in love with. But he was soon deployed to Afghanistan to be constantly mortared by the enemy, victimized by nature with sandstorms, and emotionally crushed when his girlfriend sent a break-up letter. Upon his return he met a new female friend who soon became pregnant. Thoughts of how he would greet and care for this baby sustained him, even as he became estranged from the baby’s mother. Glad’s son Jaxon became his primary focus, even as he was sent to Afghanistan again, given a leadership role. Back home, he struggled with courts for several years to get custody of Jaxon – not generally offered to fathers. The toddler was diagnosed with autism, necessitating even deeper insight and oversight. Though single fatherhood was difficult, Glad developed a deep-seated wish to give his son every chance to be his own person, while also grooming him to be fully accepted by others.
Glad rose to recognition and reward in his work for the Air National Guard, his qualities of leadership affording greater zeal to raise his son as he believes any child should be – with continual encouragement in social realms and practical assistance in simple accomplishments like tying his shoelaces, accompanied by outreach to parents with similar problems and counselors offering practical techniques for improvement.
Glad addresses his work to “fellow Millennial Warriors” who can, like him, discover the joys of accepting their children’s limitations and evoking their strengths for the forward march through life. Jack Glad’s story reminds us that true warriors are not defined by the battles they fight, but by the strength they summon to keep going. Millennial Warrior invites readers to step inside the life of a man who turned hardships into stepping-stones, offering inspiration to anyone seeking to rise above their circumstances.