Rinker Buck

"... Childers had been an exemplary, even remarkable . After enlisting in the U.S. Marines fresh out of high school in , in 1990, Childers had scored high marks at , and then at a Light Armored Driver's course in California. Eight months after enlisting, Childers had briefly served in combat during the . After seasoning in a combat platoon at , Childers had been selected for a particularly coveted duty, marine security guard service at foreign embassies, and eventually had been stationed at embassies and consulates in ; Paris; and Nairobi, Kenya. In a variety of disciplines—platoon tactics, light armored reconnaissance, guard command, and especially physical fitness—Childers had consistently achieved the highest training and personal evaluations, and scored average in only one area, marksmanship."

"I am an obsessive-compulsive reader and a history junkie. I brake by rote at every , I buy out museum bookstores, and for years my interest in colonial forts and villages so exhausted my two children that they are now permanently allergic to the past. I can tell you, right down to the hour, everything that happened at , and each setback that Franklin Roosevelt endured during World War II feels like it happened to me."

"I didn't spend a year building a wooden and then sailing it two thousand miles down the Mississippi to simply because I was suffering from a complex although that certainly played a part. It was hot that spring on the Tennessee farm where we built the boat and I often relieved the tedium of nailing on deck planking or raising roof stringers by daydreaming about spinning lazily down through the muddy boils, exploring remote islands and s, or pulling off at sunset into s thick with s and stumps. Mostly, though, I was entranced by history. I hungered to see that river country when I stumbled across an account of that America followed toward prosperity and greatness."