Victoria Hudson's Reviews > No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife

Angela Ricketts’ No Man's War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife, is as raw as any soldiers's war memoir. She gives voice to the often neglected contributor to the strength of the American military – the Army spouse. And not just any Army spouse – but an active duty, Infantry Officer’s wife. While the husband has volunteered, the wife is conscripted into service that preempts her own career dreams with few exceptions. The woman that must care not only for her own family, but the family for every soldier of her husband’s command so each will concentrate on mission, and not lose focus worrying about what is going wrong at home. His life and his comrades' lives, depend upon it.

The wife of a career Army Infantry Officer that deploys to combat from Mogadishu to post 911 battlefields, Ricketts lays bare the overwhelming emotional tar pit that is the life of the Infantry wife. The husbands know the names of the fallen, the wives know the names of the fallen, and their wives, or more often mothers of the predominantly young men, and hold their hands when the memorials are held. Not just for a few hours, but days, weeks, even months after their soldier has been killed, listening and comforting the women and their families left behind.

Sacrifice, civility, and the insidiousness of women defined not by their own right, but their husbands’ position in life meld together in Ricketts’ non-linear and compelling account of her service as an Infantry Wife. And make no mistake, the wives have their own duty and honor to uphold in service to the Nation, as much, if not more, than the husbands. The veil of protocol and tradition is pulled away and her prose is as irreverent to the Army and it’s community she’s spent her life in as it is honoring. She reveals the complex, competing forces that fuel her life’s work as an Army wife, as rewarding as it is damaging to her own soul and well being.

Being an infantry wife, especially a Commander’s wife, is not for the faint of heart. In telling her tale, Angela Ricketts’ gave voice to what is hidden from view, the less than pristine, fabric that binds up the wound after wound inflicted during this era of persistent conflict, and the longest period of war in our country’s history.

If you read one memoir this year, read Angela Ricketts’ No Man’s War: Irreverent Confessions of an Infantry Wife.