Boots on the Ground by Dusk: A Review

Millions of kids dream of someday playing professional sports, yet very few ever achieve this dream. If you were one of the lucky ones to get there would you give it up for something you believed in? The book “Boots on the Ground by Dusk” follows such a person. Although a biography, it is the single most moving story I have ever read. Written by his mother, it follows the life of Pat Tillman from childhood through college and on to the NFL. He was offered a multimillion dollar deal to play safety for the Arizona Cardinals but walked away from it to join the Army Rangers along with his brother after 9/11. His personal sense of patriotism and wanting to do more than just play a game are refreshing in this materialistic word in which we live. His story was big news back in 2004 but not for all the positive contributions he made to the world this one was far more tragic.

Pat Tillman was a real American hero, proud of where he came from and willing to do what he felt was right despite what others may have thought. As a young man playing in the NFL he left the fame and money that so many dream of for the belief he was going to help protect our United States from a foreign threat. He left his wife and young child behind for his ideals. He is a man every American should seek to emulate.

When I first read this book I already knew who Pat Tillman was and his story. But I wasn’t prepared for the roller coaster I was about to go on when I opened the cover. I couldn’t make it five pages without tears streaming down my face. His mother tells the entire story with vivid imagery and really opens up so you feel her pain. “Boots on the Ground by Dusk” is one of my favorite books despite making me cry every time I read it. It’s a two thumbs up must read.