Warrior Wannabe

Book excerpt: 2 Readers will get to know Tom Baker well in this unflinching, introspective, and honest account of his always-interesting life. In prose that is unadorned, sometimes ugly, but always authentic, he mixes harrowing tales of combat in Vietnam with humorous tales of growing up in the mountains of western North Carolina. He introduces readers to the friends, family members, and forces that have shaped him and his experiences. In the process, he reveals how history impacts people in ways large and small that echo for generations and across continents. His story reveals firsthand the thrills and consequences of a warrior mindset, a mindset that can lead to be trauma and enlightenment. Tom Baker is much more than just a warrior, though, and certainly not a wannabe. He is someone who has seen a lot of darkness but has not let that block out the light. —Alex Macaulay, PhD, US military historian Many people have sought solitude and inner peace in the mixed hardwood forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains. My father, Charles Woodard, also heard the call to the woods. Like Tom Baker, his mentee and friend for many years, Dad was pulled into the comforting and sometimes dangerous confines of the forest. These forests were where Tom Baker went to not only make a living but also to confront and deal with the demons of war and the struggles they bring to lives beyond war. Living life one day at a time, he searched for the inner strength to slowly, over time, remake himself, his life, and so many of the lives around him. —Dickie Woodard, former timber cutter and lifelong outdoorsman All of us have demons. Tom Baker’s memoir is moving in how transparently and unashamedly its author shares his demons with us. Here is a man who has loved and been loved, has dodged death and has dealt death, has been scared and has been lost, and has loved and been loved yet again. As you read about his life, you realize that it is not insanity that leads a former soldier and logger to run and bike and navigate through the woods at all hours of the day and night, but sanity and his need to preserve himself for himself and for those he loves. Baker tells a tale of how adventure racing, instead of helping him to outrun his demons, gave him the emotional tools to turn, face those demons, and stomp them into the ground. His example is a gift to all who know him, and his memoir is a gift to all those who will know him now through his writing. —Nate Kreuter, PhD, author and adventure racer