Former President Carter introduces this gripping first-person narrative that provides significant details about six headline stories not previously revealed. Captivating experiences from my unique childhood—attending boarding school at the age of seven, escaping the 1964 Congo rebellion as a refugee, and being inducted into the Masai tribe in Kenya—jump start the book.

Human-interest vignettes punctuate fascinating accounts of developing the Predator drone, conducting the 2003 scud hunt in Iraq, and accompanying Senator Obama to Africa in 2006. I painfully describe surviving the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, and then recall speaking at the 2008 National Democratic Convention and helping to birth South Sudan in 2011. My reflections at the end of the memoir highlight important lessons I have gleaned during my unlikely journey from son of Africa to a warrior and diplomat. In 2012, I was fired from my job as Ambassador to Kenya over disagreements with the State Department on security and other issues, including using my Gmail account to supplement the Department’s computer system.

When revelations about Hillary Clinton’s private email server surfaced, I was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union” program and my name appeared in numerous articles about the State Department’s “double standard.” This book provides facts that have not been exposed previously. Author: Scott Gration was reared as a son of missionaries in Congo and Kenya. After graduating from Rutgers University, he joined the US Air Force and spent much of his military career as a fighter pilot. After retiring as a Major General from the US Air Force, Scott Gration served as a chief executive officer, the President’s Special Envoy to Sudan, and the US Ambassador to Kenya. He and his wife, Judy, live in Florida where Scott is a consultant and professional speaker.