A retired lawyer in Raleigh, North Car­oli­na, this is Mark Wern­er’s third lit­er­ary for­ay. He is the author of a pre­vi­ous book describ­ing his first four vol­un­teer expe­ri­ences, Army Fatigues: Join­ing Israel’s Army of Inter­na­tion­al Vol­un­teers. He also edit­ed his father’s Holo­caust mem­oir, Fight­ing Back: A Mem­oir of Jew­ish Resis­tance in World War II by Harold Wern­er. Mark is cur­rent­ly the nation­al pres­i­dent of Vol­un­teers for Israel the orga­ni­za­tion that enables him and oth­er Amer­i­cans to serve as civil­ian vol­un­teers on Israeli mil­i­tary bases.