Twenty-Percent Soldiers: Our Secret Life in the National Guard

". . . a poignant reminder that our freedom still depends on 'twenty-percent soldiers' who volunteer to protect and defend our nation when duty calls."
-Tom Ridge, 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania, First US Secretary of Homeland Security

The National Guard and Reserves is comprised of remarkable men and women who work behind the scenes as our nation's supplemental fighting force. It's a part-time job with a full-time commitment that involves the entire family. They wear the same uniforms and train to the same standards as America's full-time military. And when called to service, they fight right alongside the active duty. Nobody knows the difference. Yet they are very different.

Twenty-Percent Soldiers is the true account of one couple's life in the National Guard through eighteen years of part-time warfare. With humor and humility, Kevin and Susan Dellicker portray what it's like to jump back and forth between having a "normal" civilian life in small-town Pennsylvania and conducting special operations missions in Southwest Asia. A tribute to all the part-time soldiers and their families who have been fighting the Global War on Terrorism since 9/11, this story is also a call-to-action for politicians and military leaders to fix a broken family support system that is failing the part-time force.

Twenty-Percent Soldiers reinforces a truth that all Americans can embrace: With perseverance, love and faith, ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.

About the Author
Dellicker, Susan: - Susan is a military wife of twenty years and mother to three teenage boys. She studied in Europe as a Fulbright Scholar, earned a master's degree from the University of Cincinnati and taught English at a Gymnasium in the former East Germany. She worked as a public relations professional and co-founded a business with her husband before devoting herself full time to her children as a stay-at-home mom. Today, she is a high-school German teacher.Dellicker, Kevin: - Kevin is married to Susan and father to the same three boys. He has degrees in history, environmental management, public administration and military science, and is working on a master of divinity in global studies. Kevin is the owner of a successful technology company and former policy advisor to the governor of Pennsylvania. He is a veteran of the National Guard with twenty-four years of part-time service as an Army infantry soldier and Air Force intelligence officer. He has deployed four times for the Global War on Terrorism with the 193rd Special Operations Wing.