Logue knew her son, Mike Logue, had a tattoo on his side to memorialize his 2005 deployment to Iraq, but it was several years before she knew the whole story behind it.
The tattoo — which includes the Marine symbol and a helicopter — is surrounded by smoke, which represents a train explosion in Iraq that nearly killed Mike.
“He had just gotten off the train when it hit an IED,” Logue explained. “It’s a picture from that day.”
Logue’s struggle to be a mother to a soldier son is the basis for her book “Skin in the game: Journey of a Mother and her Marine Son.”
Beyond the fear and worry any mother would possess when their child is sent into danger, Logue was tormented by another conflict: how could she support her soldier son when she vehemently opposed war?
Logue diligently kept copies of her e-mail correspondence with Mike while he was in Iraq, as well as news stories and casualty reports she poured over during Mike’s deployment.
“The book is the story of their relationship,” said Logue’s husband, Jerry. “It’s a story of a struggle and what it feels like to have a warrior in the family.”
Logue said she was conflicted in 2004 when Mike, then a 17-year-old senior at Lebanon High School announced he was joining the Marines.
“I had protested the war and Bush when it was announced,” Logue said. “It goes against my being. I all know we have violence in us, but there has to be a better way.”
Logue became more troubled when her son was sent to Iraq for nine months. She scoured news stories and kept track of casualty reports, fearful she’d see her sons name listed. Logue describes her conflict in “Skin in the Game: Journey of a Mother and Her Marine Son.”
When Logue was interviewed by a reporter in 2005, she said she was very careful to watch what she said, keeping her comments directed toward supporting of Mike and avoiding discussing what she thought of the war.
As she watched reports of casualties increase, she began protesting the war and was called a coward by people her son’s own age who had chosen not to join the military.
“At the time, you couldn’t support the troops without supporting the war,” Logue said. “After so many deaths, I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.”
Logue said she and Mike argued about her stance against the war but he has come to respect his mother’s position and approves of the book.
“I wouldn’t have published it if he disagreed,” Logue said. She said her son read the book in one sitting over several hours one night then reflected on it in his own writing, which is included in the book.
Logue said she initially kept records of her conversations with Mike to be a sort of scrapbook. Writing a book proved daunting because of the wave of emotions brought about by recalling Mike’s time in Iraq.
“For two years, I couldn’t even look at (the letters and records Logue had kept),” Logue said. “But then it just started flowing out of me.”
“Skin in the Game” is the first book written by Logue who is a retired teacher and education administrator and currently works with Iraqi refugees living in Ohio.
Skin in the Game is available at most on-line book dealers. Logue is also taking direct orders from her e-mail account, Ponderacre@aol.com.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.
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