At the age of fifteen, Earl Russell’s life was ripped out from under him. His uncle, the only father he ever knew, banished Earl from the only home the boy had ever known. Earl found himself a teen outcast in a state of despair that sent him spinning without direction or hope for years. His vision and dreams blurred by tears, he walked blindly through life.

Desperate, he turned to the military for salvation and structure. When he was eighteen, he earned the distinction of being one of the youngest platoon sergeants in the Korean War. During his service, he traveled to thirty-six countries. In this memoir, he now shares some of the highlights and heartbreaks of a young man thrown into war and travel, including his time served in a Libyan prison for the crime of holding a woman’s hand in public.

For Earl the world was a dazzling adventure. This collection of true tales of one man’s journeys is, at times, humorous, amorous, and poignant. Often, the world traveler and soldier felt like a dog chasing his own tail. In the end, his travels brought him back to the hills and mountains of his childhood home in Georgia. He left as an unsettled boy and returned a wiser man. These are his stories.