A year ago, Ali Turner told our readership that she was writing a book about her three-year experience in the “Great Sandbox” — Iraq. She never thought the book would take as long as it did to come to fruition, but today she presents with pride, “Ballad for Baghdad.”

Turner went to Iraq in 2004 as a Department of Defense contract worker in Morale, Welfare and Recreation, which she calls “kind of a combination parks and recreation department and U.S.O.”

Turner’s publishers, Morgan James, targeted a February release for “A Ballad for Baghdad.”

“It (the book) ended up taking on a life of its own,” she said. “It could have been the size of ‘War and Peace’ with all the stories I have to tell. My editor said she had more than she could fit in one book. I couldn’t anticipate all of the process. I have to trust that it is coming out at the right time.”

As well as telling stories of the coalition forces and Iraqis, Turner said her book is a tribute to her father, the late Lt. Roy White Jr., USN Air Corps (Ret.), a World War II veteran, said he would defend to the death her right to protest the Vietnam War, although he passionately disagreed with her. Today, Turner, eyes brimming with unshed tears of regret, admits to calling returning Vietnam veterans “baby killers.”

“That was 40 years ago, but I want to finally tell them that I came to the party,” she said. “Because of them, I have the freedoms that I do.”

The subtitle of “Ballad for Baghdad” is “An Ex-Hippie Chick Viet Nam War Protester’s Three Years in Iraq.”

In her preface, Turner writes: “The people who bought and paid for and are still buying and paying for my freedom—those folks, living and dead—deserve to be told ‘thank you,’ even if it’s late in coming.”

Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schindler Schiavo, wrote the forward for Turner’s book. Schiavo, who died March 31, 2005, after 14 days without food or water, was the subject of an intense 15-year legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court between her family and her husband, Michael Schiavo, who petitioned to have his wife’s food and water withdrawn. At one time, President George W. Bush ordered her feeding tube reinstated, but the courts overruled his order.

Turner writes that the members of the military and the Iraqis closely followed the case and were angered when Michael Schiavo prevailed. She writes:

“If there had been any way to pull it off, there were American soldiers in Iraq who would have commandeered a Black Hawk, stormed Woodside Hospice, rescued Terri Schiavo, helo’d her back to Baghdad, and kept her safe. She would have had a better chance of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in some med tent in Baghdad, Iraq, than she did in fancy Florida in the U.S. of A.”

Turner said the Iraqis viewed Bush as a weak leader because he couldn’t protect Terri Schiavo.

Turner said she is gratified by book sales thus far. She said on its launch day, the book was No. 3 in sales in Amazon’s “Emerging Democracy” category; No. 4 in “Military History/Iraq”; and No. 7 in “Military History/Spies.”

She will speak and play her song, “Ballad for Baghdad,” Veterans Day at an event sponsored by Serra Toyota in Decatur. She is also making the rounds of local radio and TV stations. Anyone going online and purchasing a copy of her book at: Ballad for Baghdad.com can download a recording of her song.