When I was first given Public Affairs NCO Steve Valley’s forthcoming book, Inside the Fortress: A Soldier’s Life In the Green Zone, my immediate thought was “what could possibly be interesting about the experiences of public affairs in the Green Zone? Thankfully, I read the book anyway. Boy was I wrong!

Steve Valley was the First Sergeant for the U.S. Army Reserve’s 287th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment that was deployed to Iraq in late 2004 to man the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC).

In the book, Steve brings readers into the Reserve world as his unit is notified of mobilization, forgotten about, ramped down, and then notified of mobilization again. It follows the unit’s journey to support the Public Affairs mission through some of the worst fighting of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Inside the Fortress is a humorous and eye-opening book that offers readers a frank, in your face assessment of the successes and failures of the military’s public affairs and media missions. It is an informative, easy-to-read book that should be required reading for anyone that questions the media’s coverage of modern combat operations. Valley doesn’t pull any punches nor does he waiver in pointing fingers at the people responsible for how the military mostly lost the information dissemination battle, both within the military within the media. It’s a page turner that will keep you glued to its pages from cover to cover.

Valley’s candid behind the scenes portrayal during his deployment, which included the Sadr uprising, Abu Ghraib scandal, the battles of Fallujah and Najaf, and visits by dignitaries such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, are invaluable in understanding how and why the media covered stories from Iraq. Valley pulls no punches in criticizing the media’s demanding and biased coverage and his unit’s efforts to proactively get the whole story into the mainstream.

At one point, Valley got so frustrated with media coverage that he personally castigated a Reuters reporter whose incessant focus on casualty counts rubbed him the wrong way.

“On a personal note,” Steve wrote to the Reuters reporter. “I find it improper to treat American military heroes that gave the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of freedom and democracy as just a number. I realize you have a job to do, but to denigrate their sacrifice and classify these warriors as a simple number is not the proper recognition they deserve.”

Reuters’ response to this severe reprimand is indicative of the shameful manner in which the press in general handled the very sensitive issue of combat casualties. But, you’ll have to read the book to see it.

Inside the Fortress will be published in soft cover on October 26, 2009 by American Book Publishing and will be found anywhere books are sold or purchase it online at Publisher Direct.