"Captain Vivian Gembara’s Drowning in the Desert is a fascinating true story with all the intrigue of a best selling mystery novel."
—Donald P. Bellisario, creator of the hit TV series, JAG

"This is an honest account of one officer struggling to return with honor from early in the Iraq war when the U.S. Army didn't understand how to fight it."
—Thomas E. Ricks, author, FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005.

"Major General Orlando Ward wrote, 'One of the first regulations might be to think.' Gembara's thoughtful account lends credence to 'truth is stranger than fiction' and the read is much better than A Few Good Men."
—Richard Marcinko, aka Rogue Warrior, founder of Seal Team Six, the Navy's elite counter-terrorism unit.

“This is a disturbing collection of experiences of a judge advocate general officer, a lawyer for an army brigade fighting the insurgency from 2003 to 2004. . .Capt. Vivian Gembara endured as much physical discomfort as the fighting men plus long working hours because of chronic understaffing. The pace never flags as Gembara describes struggling to solve soldiers’ personal problems; dealing with the cliques, rivalries, and petty politics of rear area service; and trying (often in vain) to ensure troops observed the official Rules of Engagement and Geneva Conventions. When soldiers were accused of deserting, officers leaned over backward to see justice done. When other soldiers murdered several innocent Iraqis, she discovered that the soldiers, who said they were “following orders,” were terrified of a sadistic sergeant. . . the extensive coverup occupies the second half of the book. “I will always be disappointed by my chain-of-command’s cowardly handling of the murders,” Gembara writes in this straightforward, honest account, and many readers will share her outrage.”
—Publishers Weekly