Mother's Day is not a panorama of the decades-long effort, but a brief moment, a close-up of a long and tragic conflict that reveals the immediate in five soldiers' existence; staying alive, staying dry, getting through the day, the night, the next day, the next night-and the boring and rare terrifying events during a year in-country. The reader experiences adapting to life in a free-fire zone among caustic veterans, the fear produced by baptism of fire, and the terrifying incident of a deadly ambush. Also, the readers will endure the survival pipeline from initial medevac to aid stations, field hospitals, and finally, far away from the conflict, in modern military hospitals.