Congratulations to Bob Carroll, one of my favorite four-time authors, who has turned his golden years into masterpieces of legacy. This latest project, The Heart of a Warrior, is especially meaningful to me, only because of the dedication, time, and emotional investment of author Bob Carroll—so palpable that I got caught up in it.The full book description is below, but I want to first note a couple of unique qualities of this book.
The team of three authors did their best to recount tales from their own experiences with Ernie Webb, the subject of this biography. Most of the events took place at the West Point Academy or during the Vietnam War. In addition, other old friends and Ernie’s family members (his daughter, in particular) were sought out and made their own contributions of stories and/or photographs.
Bob discovered that Ernie had been interviewed as part of a special history project about veterans and that an in-person video of him is hosted on the Library of Congress website. During the one-and-a-half-hour interview, Ernie recalls many of the stories that authors Bob, Jim, and Jack wanted to include in the book.
Bob figured that anyone who was interested enough in this biography to be reading the book would be delighted to see and hear Ernie himself telling the tales. Instead of simply referring readers to the full interview, Bob had me (his editor/publisher) excerpt several short clips of Ernie recounting stories also found in the book. My team then set up a special YouTube channel for Bob (“The Heart of a Warrior”) and uploaded the eleven short videos. As the reader gets to a certain page in the book, they are offered the opportunity to click on the link to the corresponding story interview clip. In the e-book version, it’s a simple hyperlink; in the hardcover and paperback editions, Bob had the great idea of providing a QR code, which I did for each video. In this way, we have produced an interactive print book and personally, I think it came out great!
The Heart of a Warrior: The Life of Ernest Leroy Webb is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online booksellers in formats for hardcover, paperback, and e-book. It already has 5-star reviews. The description reads:
This book is written for anyone who ever knew Ernie Webb and anyone wishing to read the biography of an amazing leader. Military history buffs will enjoy the many true accounts, including stories from West Point and the Vietnam War.
Ernest Leroy Webb is a great patriot, a phenomenal leader, and a dear friend. But most of all, he is a warrior… a warrior with a heart.
These seemingly contradictory two words are, in fact, complementary.
- Webb is a combat hero, brave beyond the pale. He is a ferocious fighter and fearless leader. He is a warrior in the spiritual sense of fighting for good against evil.
- At the same time, he possesses great compassion for mankind, including the enemy he has been ordered to fight. He is extremely passionate about his country, his fellow soldiers, and his family. He has a heart for humanity.
The three authors, Bob Carroll, Jim Ellis, and Jack Fagan, teamed up to write this fascinating biography of their friend of 60+ years.
In the Preface, Bob Carroll writes: “I first met Webb on July 1, 1958, the day we both arrived at West Point. After graduation in 1962, Webb and I served together in the US, Vietnam, Germany, and on the faculty at West Point. After retiring from the Army, we joined forces in teaching corporate executives the fundamentals of leadership.”
The authors discovered (as part of The Veterans History Project) a one-and-a-half-hour interview with Webb…is a treasure trove of stories, told in first-person by the man they pay tribute to in this book.
The Heart of a Warrior has an extraordinary feature for readers: throughout the book, the authors include eleven short video clips from that interview, where you can see and hear Ernie himself. These short clips are easily accessible using QR (Quick Response) codes, the square images placed throughout the book.
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Now I understand the term “old Army buddies” as a description of lifelong, deeply rooted relationships, born of shared experiences that are unusual and often profound, to say the least. I hope that not only will you enjoy reading this inspiring book (or gifting it to a veteran), but that you’ll think about what impact it can make to write a memoir or a biography. True life stories deserve to be told.
Call me and we’ll talk about it.
Barbara Dee
