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Liddy introduced Ryan as both a Iraq War veteran and a cast member of Real World Brooklyn. He noted that those two things were two extremes of experiences in life and both very different from Ryan's current path, which is being a film major at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Looking at the cover of the book, Liddy spoke about the cover photo, which shows Ryan with a lot of gear including an M4 carbine. Liddy noted that the enemy has AK-47s which can fire under lots of conditions, while the M4 has problems that require it to be slapped to get it to work. Ryan replied that he liked the M4 and it didn't cause him problems too often. However, he liked the heavy machinery the best, like the M240 Bravo machine gun that he used in the turret of his Humvee.
Speaking of the Humvee and turret, Ryan remarked that in his first deployment in Iraq the vehicles and turret were less protected than they are now. Ryan was stationed in the turret and there he was exposed to both snipers and the elements. The turret had some protection, but only up to the chest. The lack of protection contributed to the fatal outcome of a sniper attack on one of his buddies. Andrew Kemple was wearing all the personal protection given to him but the open turret allowed a sniper's bullet to strike him.
Soldiers realized that the vehicles were not as shielded as they should be and so tried to improvise by adding protection themselves onto them. Now there is more armor on the Humvees and the turrets are taller for protection with a canopy to provide some shade. During Ryan's second deployment he could definitely tell that the Humvees were much heavier, being more laden with armor.
Liddy asked Ryan about Ryan's view of what is going on in Iraq. Ryan said that his first deployment was an eye-opening experience. Stationed at Tikrit, Saddam's home town, Ryan didn't see the big picture but rather just what was around him. What he saw made him wonder if it was all worth it for the U.S. to be there. By the time he left Iraq things still looked that same as when he first arrived, which wasn't very good. His units had lost men and he wondered what it was for. After he returned to the United States, he didn't hear anything on the news that would make him think more positively about it.
So when Ryan Conklin was called back for a second deployment, he believed it would be more of the same. However he found that things had changed a lot. There were still IEDs, but they were not as frequent. The Humvees were more protected. The Iraqis were now able to be the first responders and the U.S. soldiers were only the backup. Iraqis are ready to show that they can do it on their own. There were still casualties, but it was not as bad as it was before. Ryan realized that progress had been made. He could now see how the work and sacrifice that occurred during his first deployment had help Iraq to get to this point.
Liddy wondered that if America had trained the Iraqis between Ryan's first and second deployment, how was it that Ryan was unaware of it. Had the media not covered it or had Ryan tuned it out? Ryan replied that his experience with training the Iraqis during the first go around was very frustrating to him, because they were unmotivated and difficult to train. He assumed that after he left it would be inevitable that the country would go down the tubes. Accordingly, he didn't pay attention to what happened after he left, as he didn't see there being a possibility for success.
Liddy asked what prompted Ryan to write the book. Ryan told the story of how when he returned from Iraq he immediately discharged and returned to his hometown of Gettysburg. There he wanted to go to college and get back to a normal life. Unfortunately, he had adjustment problems because he had not had any time to re-acclimate to civilian life. While he tried to figure out his place in the world, his mother gave him a stack of printed emails that Ryan had sent home from Iraq. The emails contained the details of his experience there. His mother suggested that he use the emails as a basis for telling his story in writing. At first he wasn't excited about the project, but eventually he realized he needed an outlet for how he was feeling and he turned to the letters. He used them as the outline for his book, which he wrote while the experiences were still fresh to him. In the process, he made the project his therapy for clearing his mind. A year later, he had created a 400 page manuscript that became An Angel From Hell.
Liddy briefly referred to the experience of being on The Real World Brooklyn. He asked Ryan if he had ever been to Brooklyn before that. Ryan said no, but he loves it now.
