Jack Crain, a beloved son and a young man of promise and hope and quiet strength of charter, enlists in the United States Army after high school to earn money for a college education. With this one fateful step he is pulled into a war that he did not plan or want or understand. Through the experience of one foot soldier and his family-traced from birth to Baghdad-West Point graduate Jason Berndt makes the war in Iraq the palpable tragedy that it is. A Conspicuous Quiet is a parent-child love story that, in defense of love, presents a scathing social and political critique.