Brandon King is a young man from Texas who joined the US Army and was later sent to fight in Iraq. While there he participated in numerous missions, including road block duty leading his squad. During one of these details, he and his squad pursue enemy insurgents and are led into an urban ambush, resulting in death and injury to many of King's men. Upon the unit's return to Texas, they are greeted as heroes with King receiving military medals. Although he has served four or more years based on his successful rise in rank to staff sergeant, he and buddy SGT Shriver plan to leave the military now that their contracts are up. On that final day, King only finds out then, improbably, that he is under stop-loss and is under orders to return to Iraq in a month. Becoming angry, he goes AWOL. Quickly assessing his situation, he naively heads to Washington, DC to get his US Senator to fulfill a pledge to help him out. Riding with Steve's ex-girlfriend, he meets other AWOL soldiers and finally a lawyer offering a chance to escape to Canada and resists buddy Shriver's efforts to bring him back. However, after the suicide of a friend, he returns home. After a questionably short time home, maybe a month, he (without any loss of rank) and the unit mobilize to return to the Iraq War. During the time home, he is shown to be a heavy drinker, physically fit, vulgar, a brawler, a smoker, but loyal and responsible to his squad. He has parents with a ranch. Show less «