Ryan Cureton grows up in a toxic environment with parents so abusive that he refuses to acknowledge them to others as his parents. Instead, he refers to them as his “biologicals.” At eighteen, to distance himself from his family as much as possible, he joins the Air Force. And later, to further the disassociation, he changes his name to Jonathon Benjamin. Shortly after Senior Airman Cureton is assigned to a postal service job in England, he is involved in a near-fatal car accident that renders him in a coma for twelve days with a traumatic brain injury, a cervical spine fracture, and PTSD. He spends two months in the English hospital before he is transferred to Walter Reed Hospital in Maryland, then to a veterans hospital in Virginia where they specialize in brain and spinal cord injuries. The rest of AMERICAN AIRMAN is about Cureton’s long road to recovery from the accident, the impressive people he meets along the way, and his admirable accomplishments.

Benjamin does an exemplary job discovering and divulging the core of who he is by weaving together an aggregate of select personal experiences. The book is written in vivid detail, with a wide range of emotion. After reading it, one senses that his story is authentic and truthfully reflective of his relationship with his parents, his time in the military, the obstacle-riddled recovery from his accident, and his life afterward. He narrates the story with brutal and vulnerable honesty from incredible insight and introspection and makes sense of it so others can relate.

AMERICAN AIRMAN is well-structured and easy to follow. Scenes are appropriately intermixed with exposition for a balanced narrative. Benjamin’s style and tone are consistent with the subject matter. His selections of which aspects of his life to share in this book—the main events that led him to be the man he is today—make it an interesting and intriguing read. The detail and level of emotion in which he shares his trials and tribulations enable readers to make a connection with him on his growth journey.

Jonathon Benjamin’s AMERICAN AIRMAN is a well-written, interesting and compelling memoir told from a collection of emotional truths that evoke compassion and serve to educate and inspire.

~Florence Ormand for IndieReader