Book Review

Fire Support: A Veteran’s Guide to Health, Healing, and Life Beyond Service
By Erik Lawrence
Published by Erik Lawrence (January 15, 2025)
432 pages
Available in paperback

By How Miller

Erik Lawrence, a former Green Beret with multiple combat deployments, has written a book on veterans’ health and fitness called Fire Support: A Veteran’s Guide to Health, Healing, and Life Beyond Service. It offers valuable direction to transitioning veterans and many others who are dealing with lingering effects of service. As he says, it is not a tome with endless details; it is a starting point that can help you get on a path to self-healing.

A look at the cover shows that this is an unusual book. It looks like an Army Field Manual on any military subject. It is organized in an unusual way as well. Alphabetically arranged, it deals with subjects as diverse as arthritis, tinnitus, depression, PTSD, and toxic relationships to types of treatments, self-help, and where to find the abundant help that is available now.

Since the entries are in alphabetic order, you can digest bite-size chunks on one subject or follow where your needs and interests lead you. Some of that additional information can be found in the many appendices at the back of the book.

The very first entry is “Acupuncture,” in which Erik highlights many of the potential benefits, such as pain management, PTSD symptom reduction, improved mental health, reduced medication dependence, and improved sleep. He then gives tips on how to enhance the benefits: seek out a licensed acupuncturist, use acupuncture in conjunction with other treatments, be open and honest with the acupuncturist, and practice self-care.

Finally, in his “Bottom Line,” he extols acupuncture as a safe and effective treatment option and what it is best used for.

He also goes into many unconventional and yet-to-be-approved substances and treatments and what they are purported to do, with the “buyer beware” caveat.

Another type of subject is actions you can initiate to improve yourself. For example, in “Habits” he goes deeply into why and how you can change your habits for the better. This is a subject that can benefit any of us.

In the author’s own words: “Whether you are battling the invisible wounds of service or looking to enhance your physical health, Fire Support is designed as your personal field manual for thriving in civilian life. Use it like a dictionary or encyclopedia—find your topic, get your answers, and reclaim your health and vitality.” Fire Support is available for purchase on Amazon.