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While husband deploys, Army wife pens book

An Army wife has written a book chronicling her experiences during her husband’s 16-month deployment to Iraq.

Michelle Cuthrell was 23 years old and 11 weeks pregnant when her husband, then-1st. Lt. Matthew Cuthrell, of 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, deployed to Iraq. In August 2006, as the soldiers prepared to return to Fairbanks, Alaska, their tour was extended by four months.

Her book, “Behind the Blue-Star Banner,” documents her journey until her husband’s long-awaited homecoming in December 2006.

“There [in Alaska] Michelle endured the pregnancy and rearing of the couple’s first and only child as her husband, Matt, served with Task Force 2-1 in Mosul, Iraq,” according to a press release on the book. “But when the Department of Defense extended Matt’s unit for four additional months in country, just 10 days shy of his much-anticipated homecoming after a year at war, Michelle temporarily fell apart. It was in those difficult days that she learned the real value of friendship, faith and unfailing love.”

Cuthrell, now 25, lives near Fort Lewis, Wash., where her husband is now stationed.

For more information or to buy the book, visit http://www.behindthebluestarbanner.com/home.html.