we jumped on a plane, flew to fort ben ining, georgia, where e infantry trains and i spent three days getting my butt kicked. parachute jumping grounds, sniper range, humvee rollover test where they spin you around until you're sick to your stomach, then you're upside down and they give you an order to get out, egress, they call it, and the army functional fitness training, where i have a sergeant behind me and in front of me and you do one hour nonstop of this circuit that they -- that emulates what soldiers do, all pushing and pulling and squatting and you can't stop or the guy behind you will run right on top of you. i also spent time talking to people and listening, everybody from privates to two-stars to commandants and learn about what people do, how they do it and why. i continued to do it as i was writing the novel. i didn't want to write a military novel not knowing anything about the military. i wanted to do some of the things these people did. and also get into their heads and hearts by talking to them. i spoke about this earlier. listening, you have to be a good listener a
