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Mark R. DePue

Born: 1954 in Decorah, Iowa
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: DePue currently resides in Springfield.

Biography: Mark R. DePue is an American historian and retired military officer. He received his Bachelor of Science from West Point Academy, Master of Arts and Doctorate from the University Iowa. He served as the Secretary Illinois Militia and History Society from 1999—2001 and as President of the Officers Association American from 2003-2005. His has been an Oral Historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois since 2006.


Awards:

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Mark R. DePue on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=mark+r.+depue


Selected Titles

Patrolling Baghdad :
ISBN: 9780700614981 OCLC: 73503012

University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. : ©2007.

For the 160 national guardsmen from America's heartland, Baghdad was more than just a long way from home. It also confronted the 233rd Military Police Company with America's most difficult challenge in Iraq: establishing security in a nation rife with religious, tribal, and sectarian conflict and violence. The first MP company assigned to patrol the heart of Baghdad, the 233rd (from Springfield, Illinois) was a key part of the American occupation forces from April 2003 to April 2004. Charged with helping rebuild the city's police force - not just reopening stations but training a new force to replace its corrupt and hated predecessors - these men and women waged a military police war while witnessing all of the larger conflict's central themes, from the shortcoming of prewar planning to ongoing security problems, from media coverage to humanitarian efforts. DePue recounts the 233rd's actions in the streets and alleyways of Baghdad and the inevitable clash of cultures, along with lootings, shootings, roadside and police station bombings, and the inevitable bureaucratic bumbling. Here are the horrors of firefights and summary executions and the drama of the UN bombing. Here too is the untold side of the war, as these volunteers on their own initiative reopened Baghdad schools and took under their wing a Catholic orphanage for handicapped children located in the heart of the city. Based on extensive interviews with the unit's members and others associated with their mission, DePue's eye-opening account also covers what it was like for the 26 women of the unit, how a romance blossomed between two MPs, and how support groups back home - with the help of the Internet - helped families cope with worry over loved ones. The 233rd's story is not only deeply compelling, it is also central to our understanding of one of the most momentous problems of our day and helps us understand what went wrong - and what went right - during that crucial first year. As one of a frustrating war's few success stories, it epitomizes the work of America's citizen-soldiers and attests to the vastly expanded role that guardsmen and reservists now play in our nation's defense.--BOOK JACKET.

 

 

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