In the wake of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Michael Zacchea ’12 MBA, director of the School of Business’ Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), eagerly accepted his assignment to build, train, and lead an Iraqi army.

In his just-released book, The Ragged Edge, Zacchea talks about the staggering hardships and unique challenges he faced and details the insurgent movement that ultimately gave rise to ISIS.

The recipient of two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and Iraq’s Order of the Lion of Babylon, Zacchea describes not just the physical and tactical challenges the U.S. faced but also the physical and psychological toll war takes on a military leader.

And he shares the powerful saga of personal bonds of friendship with Iraqis, the importance of investing the time to develop an understanding and appreciation of another culture — and an assassination plot meant to kill him.

“The thing that saved me was the trusting relationship I had developed with the Iraqis. They watched out for me; they protected me. Absent that, I think it would have been a very different outcome,” says Zacchea.

He describes his mission in Iraq as like “trying to build an airplane in mid-flight.” Supplies were scarce or non-existent, from food to functioning toilets to beds, boots, radios, and vehicles. And beyond those basics were the obvious cultural and religious divides that challenged the development of a cohesive, respectable, accomplished battalion ready to battle the insurgents.

“Our military unit included Zoroastrians that the Iraqis called ‘fire worshippers’; Yazidis, whom the Iraqis referred to as ‘devil worshippers’; and various other ethnic and religious groups, many of whom had a longstanding hatred toward each other,” says Zacchea.

On top of that, he says, Iraqi soldiers were free to resign whenever they wished. “We never knew how many military personnel we’d have on any given day.”