Craig & Fred

Starting 2018 out strong with my fav dog book of the year, Craig & Fred!

So I first saw a video posted on The Dodo Facebook page of a marine who snuck a dog out of Afghanistan while on deployment.

 Obviously, I knew I had to get this book.

But here's a little back story first:

My husband and I currently live in South Korea because that's where the Army put us.

 I'm not going to even pretend this is in any way similar to Afghanistan, but there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE like Craig describes in his book, hence how he got Fred (well kind of).

So Craig worked in corrections in the Marine Corps for 4 years but just wasn't loving it. After his contract was up, he reenlisted for 4 more years, this time doing something else, intel.

That's when he got the orders he was waiting for: Afghanistan.

While there fighting the Taliban, he and the other Marines noticed a dog was just hanging out at shots rang out, completely unphased by the terror around him or even the people. That's when Craig decided to give him a piece of jerky, the rest was history.

Looks like Craig has a 'Fred!'

Soon after the initial meeting, they tried picking all of the bugs out of Fred's fur, and he let them! In fact, he loved all the attention he was getting. It didn't take long to realize the troop had a mascot. Fred even got to go on missions with them!

Basically, he was learning how to be a marine.

Which is when the guys knew... Fred was going home.

It took a crazy amount of people to smuggle a dog out of a war zone, into a helicopter, hide him in the barracks, and get him home to the states.

But it happened, IN JUST A FEW WEEKS.

 Now Craig has a lifelong friend who went through the same events as himself.

They had the same experiences and now they're getting to make their own memories.

Craig & Fred is such a heartfelt read, but with the rawness that only a Marine could tell.

Told through alternating chapters, we learn how Craig and Fred rescued each other and the tale of their adventures after the war.

Highly recommending Craig & Fred to be your #1 read in 2018!