A small-town kid from the cornfields of Illinois, Jarrod grew up dreaming of serving his country one day. When he finally found the courage to become a soldier, the terror attacks of 9/11 turned his world upside down. Soon, he would find himself facing Taliban fighters in the treacherous mountains surrounding Afghanistan's Shah-i-Khot Valley, an insurgency in rural areas of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Jaysh-al-Mahdi fighters in the war-torn streets of Sadr City, Iraq.