This is not just another collection of war stories, nor is it a dissertation on strength and triumph. It is a cautionary tale of the personal and professional effects of post-traumatic stress injuries, reaching too far and attempting to go it alone. This memoir is a snapshot of the origin, journey, and twilight of a thirty-year career dedicated to serving others and the toll it took.

This story is not unique. Regrettably, there is good company in the shadows-responders and service members, each concealed in the folds, even from one another. They fear stigma, speculation, consequences, and, worst of all, their truths. They are always anxious about being discovered, being perceived as weak, inadequate, or unworthy of the company they keep.

On these pages, you will not find any halos. You will, however, encounter successes, near misses, hard-earned lessons, and a steep fall from the pinnacle of professional achievement, only to find a path to purpose.

It was the largest one-time amount--$35 million--anyone had ever donated to benefit a university. The Robertsons were specific about the way the money was to be used. It was intended to help Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs focus on sending its graduates into those areas of the federal government concerned with international relations. But the university, the son says, was ignoring my parents' intentions. Furthermore, Princeton's administrators were harming the country. That's not, as you might imagine, the way Princeton saw it--or sees it today.How much control over a gift does a donor have after the gift is given? How accountable is a non-profit recipient for the use of the gift?Robertson v. Princeton may be the most important case higher education has faced over the question of honoring the wishes of the donor. Wall Street JournalDoug White's careful and fair study of the seminal Robertson Foundation endowment litigation against Princeton University should be read by all donors and donees. As a former head of the New York State Law Department's Charities Bureau, I know donors have to have both courage and resources to enforce their rights, especially against iconic donees. Fortunately, the Robertsons had both. Bill Josephson, Former head of the Charities Bureau, New York State Attorney General's officeThis book is based on extensive research and interviews with leading attorneys Victoria Bjorklund and Douglas Eakeley (Princeton) and Ron Malone and Seth Lapidow (Robertson family), experts for both sides, representatives of other major nonprofits, philanthropists, and high-profile public figures including George H.W. Bush, Brent Scowcroft, Chuck Robb, and Paul Volcker.

Wounded Charity offers valuable insights into how charities respond to crises based on information no one else has ever covered: documentation from the charity during and after the crisis, as well as candid discussions and interviews with some former members of the charity's board, executive staff, beneficiaries, and even those who generated or published damaging information.

On its primary, story-telling level, Wounded Charity investigates the effort to marginalize one of America's most vital charities. Its broader level is about what it means for all charities. Wounded Warrior Project is large, important, and effective, and it serves wounded veterans in ways that other charities cannot and that the government does not, and probably never will. This cautionary, provocative narrative describes how WWP came to be so heavily criticized, why much of the criticism was unfounded, why those ultimately in charge of the charity - the board members - failed to do their job, and how individuals and the media need to revise their thinking about what works and what doesn't work in a sector of our society whose tangible accomplishments, despite steadily increasing philanthropic support, largely remain a mystery. It is also a story of leadership, and the discordancy of punishing, as opposed to rewarding, good ideas and effective management.

Beth DeMaret's recently inherited Alabama farm comes with a two-hundred-year-old family history. A history of hardship and prosperity, back through the civil rights movement, through the Civil War, and before the birth of the nation. Beth discovers the story of her family and the very land on which their farm was built. Rumors of buried treasure lead Beth to search for an alleged horde of gold left behind on the land by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition in 1540. Her search uncovers history-book-changing facts about the conquistador, the local indigenous Native American tribes, and two of the most horrific massacres in North American history. It also reveals the possible connection of her own personal family history and genetic lineage to both slaughters.

Sheriff Bacot, while tending his condemned prisoner, Bill Campbell's last days, in rural south Mississippi in 1852, records Scot-free 20 years of the outlaw's scandalous life and now, his sworn, deathbed confession. Campbell confesses to 13 unsolved murders, a myriad of other crimes and secret ties to a plethora of state politicians, judges and crooked attorneys. However, upon learning of the 14th murder, the one which Campbell is to hang in a scant few hours, Bacot becomes convinced of the outlaw's innocence. Adding a wrongful hanging to Campbell's cooperation and naming of important names, Bacot could clean out a nest of state-wide corruption. Alone with this knowledge, Sheriff Bacot quickly must decide to attempt and set the record straight or let fate finish what law enforcement, over four states, couldn't accomplish over two decades.