Walk to Freedom: The Hand of Freedom - Inspirational Motivational Book for Personal Growth & Self-Improvement | Perfect for Book Clubs, Gifts & Empowerment Journeys

I served 22 years in the Air Force and retired in 1997. I was quite interested to read Carolyn Merrimon's story since she served during the same time as I did.The first 58 pages of the book describe her life before the Air Force. She grew up very poor and was raised by her mother. Once in the Air Force, she was able to travel and see much of the world. She received promotions and retrained in to the Accounting and Finance field by her own choice. Unfortunately, rather than appreciating what the military life did for her, Merrimon's true character is revealed and she can be seen as a completely immoral and dishonest person who never deserved the trust given her.Merrimon changed men as often as she changed shoes and unashamedly describes her affairs with married men while married herself. Right and wrong just did not seem to enter into her thinking.Merrimon also blames racism for a lot of her problems, but this seems to be just an excuse for her own failures. She applied for a commission to become an officer after completing her bachelor's degree, but her commander refused to recommend her. Merrimon says, "Prejudice and discrimination had once again affected my life." Hundreds of airmen and NCOs apply for commissions each year, but only a very small number are accepted. The Air Force considers the "Whole Person" in making these selections, not just military performance. When Merrimon applied, she already had been married and divorced twice, and had a bankruptcy behind her. The bankruptcy alone would have disqualified her. But, Merrimon blames it on racism.Concerning her bankruptcy, Merrimon admits to spending freely on all sorts of things, but mainly blames the men in her life for it. She demonstrates no remorse for stiffing all the creditors who lost money because of her irresponsibility. She says of it, "I was no longer responsible for payments to my creditors. My financial situation was looking up; except for the fact that my credit would be bad for 10 years." Clearly, she looked at the bankruptcy as way to avoid responsibility. Her financial situation was "looking up" after it.Merrimon stole over $500,000 in cash from the U.S. taxpayers while stationed in Italy. She was supposed to send the bills to the Federal Reserve, but she and her security policeman (SP) boyfriend just didn't send it and kept it. Merrimon may claim that she did it to try to buy love from a man, but that is just one big fat phony excuse. She stole the money because she thought she could get away with it and she had absolutely no moral fiber to keep her from doing it. Once again, she blames a man, her SP boyfriend, for her getting caught.Merrimon was sentenced to 8 years confinement, 5 years plus 3 more because she would not pay the $175,000 fine that court-martial required. Merrimon claimed that she was indigent. She stole $500,000. If she had paid back the $175K, that would have still left her a profit of $325K for her crimes. Merrimon admits to paying her civilian lawyer with cash. Also, somewhere along the line, her penniless mother bought a condo. Her claims of being indigent just don't sound right.Merrimon displays her own racism when she arrived at prison and states that when she saw that all the guards were black, she knew that everything would be all right. Merimon complains much about the prisons and her treatment. She howls about being confined with male sex offenders, but she did not hesitate to try to hook up with them out of sight of the guards whenever she could.Carolyn Merrimon seems to have written this book to portray herself as a strong woman who has overcome huge obstacles to make a success of her life. I found it a story of a completely dishonest person who lied, cheated, and stole her way through life and who did not deserve the trust and responsibility given her. She does not even seem to realize that what she did was WRONG. Maybe someday she will learn that, but she certainly hadn't when she wrote this book.