SYNOPSIS:

Anthropologists have no business in a war zone. Army officers will tell you it’s a waste of military assets. Social scientists will tell you it’s a violation of professional ethics. Yet there are those in power who believe anthropology to be the secret weapon in the War on Terror. “Make me proud,” was the last thing Hoxie Burnside’s mother said to him on September 11th, moments before she was crushed by a collapsing skyscraper. He tries, even graduates from West Point, but the deluge of anger and hatred is crippling. Deployed to Afghanistan, newly minted Lieutenant Hoxie Burnside is assigned to a Human Terrain Team led by his estranged father, Lieutenant-Colonel Norwood Burnside, a battle tested military anthropologist. Mission after mission Hoxie wrestles with his contempt for the man who abandoned his mother and his hatred of the people who killed her. As the anniversary of her death approaches the tension between father and son reaches its boiling point. When dawn breaks on September 11, 2008, a Human Terrain mission turns into a full-fledged firefight putting the honor and courage of both officers to the ultimate test. Hoxie’s anger toward his father is displaced by an unanticipated respect. It is only then that he is able to fulfill his mother’s last request.