The Baghdad Shuffle is a crime thriller set against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but much of the world behind it comes directly from author Josh Bates’s own experience as a Marine.

Bates was serving as a Marine infantry officer when his unit pushed north from Kuwait into Iraq and eventually into Baghdad. What stayed with him was not only the combat, but the chaos that followed the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime—the looting, criminal activity, money left behind, and Marines suddenly dealing with situations far outside conventional warfare. One episode in particular, a Baghdad bank robbery involving thieves trying to breach a vault with RPGs, became part of the inspiration for the story he would eventually write.

Although the novel is fiction, Bates says much of the Iraq section grew out of things he actually experienced during the initial push to Baghdad and the period that followed. He estimates that roughly 85 to 90 percent of the events informing the first act happened to him in some form, then were condensed and reshaped for the story.

We’ll talk with Josh about his Marine Corps career, his experiences during the invasion of Iraq, and how those memories eventually became the foundation for a novel. We’ll also discuss the mix of military experience, crime, humor, and absurdity that shaped The Baghdad Shuffle, and why he wanted the book to reflect the perspective of the young Marines who actually lived through those early days of the war.

Josh Bates is a retired Marine infantry and intelligence officer, podcaster, and author. The Baghdad Shuffle is his first novel.

Lt. Col. Frederick C. Brems carried a camera throughout his World War II service with the 2nd Armored Division, preserving an extraordinary visual record of the war as he experienced it.

Brems enlisted before the attack on Pearl Harbor and eventually served in Europe with the famed “Hell on Wheels” division. From the fall of 1944 through the end of the war, he photographed the soldiers, vehicles, towns, battlefields, and everyday moments around him. His journey included the Battle of the Bulge, Operation Grenade, the advance across Germany, the occupation of Berlin, and the long road home.

Join us for a conversation with his son, retired Lt. Col. Frederick “Fred” Brems, about Knights of Freedom: With the Hell on Wheels Armored Division in World War II, A Story in Photos. The book brings together more than 500 photographs taken by his father, along with wartime letters and the stories he shared with his family over the years. Together, they offer a deeply personal account of one soldier’s service and a vivid look at life inside an American armored division during the final campaigns of the war in Europe.

We’ll talk about the photographs, the stories behind them, and the process of turning a family archive into a detailed history. Brems will also discuss his father’s experiences with the 2nd Armored Division, including combat during the Battle of the Bulge, the Allied drive into Germany, and the occupation that followed. The book contains nearly 600 photographs, dozens of maps, and hundreds of additional illustrations documenting that journey.

Fred Brems is an educator, researcher, writer, and photographer who spent years studying his father’s wartime service and preserving the collection he left behind. He has also worked in U.S. embassies and schools in the United States and overseas.

We hope you’ll join us for this remarkable story of war, memory, family history, and the photographs that brought one veteran’s experience back to life.