Susan Galleymore, the author of "Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror," is in Seattle tonight and will be in Lakewood this weekend as part of a book tour.

Galleymore's son, Nick, served in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he deployed to Iraq in 2004, she linked up with an advocacy group and traveled to Iraq to meet her son.

"During her trip to Iraq was moved and inspired by the stories she heard from the mothers of Iraq," a press release said. "This started her on a journey interviewing mothers in war zones including Iraq, Israel and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan and the US."

Today
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Keystone Congregational Church, 5019 Keystone Place, Seattle
Friday
When: 7 p.m.
Where: First United Methodist Church, 621 Tacoma Ave., Tacoma
Saturday
When: 4 p.m.
Where: Coffee Strong, 15109 Union Ave SW #2, Lakewood

Author and McClatchy military columnist Joe Galloway will be at the Fort Lewis PX 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to sign copies of his new book, "We Are Soldiers Still." (Review here.)

It's a followup to his "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young" with retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore.

If you don't have a Department of Defense sticker or ID, but you want to get a signed copy or meet the author, you can still get on Fort Lewis. Go to the visitor center at the main gate – Exit 120 off of Interstate 5 – and present your driver's license, proof of insurance and registration to get a visitor pass. Everybody over the age of 16 needs to present photo ID.

The Woodruffs will be at the Fort Lewis post exchange from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday to meet people and sign copies of their new book, "In an Instant," the story of their recovery from the January 2006 IED attack in Iraq that nearly killed the ABC news anchor and cameraman Doug Vogt.

They'll also spend about a half-hour visiting with doctors and patients at Madigan Army Medical Center, officials said.

A portion of the proceeds from the book will go to the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury.

UPDATE: If you don't have a Department of Defense ID card or sticker on your vehicle, you can still get on post. Go to the visitor center at the main gate, bring your driver's license, registration and proof of insurance, tell the friendly security officer why you want to get on post, and more than likely you'll get a temporary pass. Can't vouch that it'll work if that overdue library book landed you on some watch-list somewhere, but they tell me that's how it's supposed to work.

Meant to do this one a while ago: Tom Ricks' "Fiasco" should be on your reading list. But don't look for much there about Fort Lewis-based units, including the two Stryker brigades that were in Iraq during the period covered in the book.

There is one reference to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division and Task Force Olympia – and not by name. And it was only in the context of Ricks' homage to then-101st Airborne Division boss Maj. Gen. David Petraeus' handling of Mosul. On page 232, Ricks wrote:

"But the city would encounter far more trouble after the 101st went home in the spring of 2004 and was replaced by a far smaller, less effective unit. Not all officers thought that Petraeus was blameless for that. 'He had 18,000 soldiers up there, and the enemy was just biding its time and building capacity, waiting him out,' argued one skeptical military intelligence officer. That view seems unfair: Mosul was quiet while Petraeus was there, and likely would have remained so had his successor had as many troops as he had – and as much understanding of counterinsurgency techniques."

I do not challenge the breadth of Ricks' reporting in his excellent book. But I spent some time in Mosul, and I've always thought this notion that it was "quiet" was a bit overdone, especially after the summer of 2003. The leaders of that "smaller, less effective unit" that followed the 101st in February 2004 will tell you a huge factor was money -- the 101st had a lot more to dole out to keep the locals happy. When the money dried up, trouble followed.