Come by Page & Palette on Thursday, August 14th at 6pm to listen to Andrew Wiest talk about his newest book, Dogwood: A National Guard Unit’s War in Iraq, along with General Robinson and LTC Lyon.
Dogwood: A National Guard Unit’s War in Iraq
Based on years of interviews and written by one of the finest American military historians of his generation. An unsparing account of the sharp end of war.
This book traces the experience of the 150th Combat Engineers (the Dixie Sappers) of the Mississippi National Guard through the unit’s tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, the Dixie Sappers were a true melting pot. Comprised of city youth hoping to attain college benefits, to rural African Americans seeking a way out of grinding poverty, to women who sought to break barriers, to patriots answering their nation’s call after 9/11 – the Dixie Sappers represented nearly all of what America had to offer in 2005.
Amidst the transformation of the military in the 21st century, no longer was the Guard destined to be weekend warriors tasked mainly with local disaster relief. The new Guard was a sharp weapon of war. Guardsmen and women grew up together in the same communities, played sports and served together. This provides a singular advantage, but also makes loss hurt all the more. Defying poor equipment, lack of specialist training and heart-breaking losses, the Dixies Sappers endured combat. But they also did much more. Thinking on their feet they implemented their own homespun counterinsurgency policy that turned a hotbed for insurgency into a thriving community – one of the few success stories of the war. But it was all for nought.
Set within the context of a changing military, an evolving strategic situation and an unpopular war, Dogwood lays bare the harsh reality of war.
Andrew Wiest
Dr. Andrew Wiest is University Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi and has served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in the United Kingdom and as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Warfighting Strategy at the United States Air Force Air War College. Dr. Wiest is the Founding Director of the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society and the Founding Co-Director of the Center for the Study of the National. Guard at Southern Miss. Dr. Wiest has published widely and presented his research at conferences and at invited talks both nationally and internationally. Dr. Wiest has published more than 20 books, including The Boys of ’67: Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam and Vietnam’s Forgotten Army (which won the Society for Military History’s Distinguished Book Award). He has also been nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on National Geographic Channel’s documentary Brothers in War, which was based on his book The Boys of ’67, and won a New York Festivals Gold Medal for his work on the History Channel documentary Vietnam in HD. His new book, Dogwood: A National Guard Unit’s War in Iraq was released in May with Osprey/Bloomsbury.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL LYON
Lyon is a retired Lieutenant Colonel with 37 years of active duty and Mississippi National Guard military service. He has multiple deployments to include a 2005 company command in Iraq, 2009 Brigade Staff officer in Afghanistan and in 2018 he served as the battalion commander for the 150 th Combat Engineer Battalion charged with Security Forces (SECFOR) Kuwait and command of Cp. Patriot, Kuwait. Lyon also served in various full time positions with the Mississippi National Guard (MSNG) to include the Training Officer and Administrative Officer for the 150 th Engineer Battalion, Education and Services Officer at Joint Forces Headquarters, Training Officer for the 168 th Engineer Brigade, MSNG Deputy G3 and the MSNG Outreach Director.
While serving as the Education Officer and later as the Outreach Director Mr. Lyon worked extensively with universities, colleges and businesses in Mississippi developing programs that help guardsmen and their families attain educational and professional goals through the State Educational Assistance and the Work for Warriors Programs as well as many others. Lyon now serves as the managing director for the Center for the Study of the National Guard (CSNG) at the University of Southern Mississippi. Lyon has numerous military awards to include the Combat Action Badge, Two Bronze Stars, the Legion of Merit and the Mississippi Magnolia Cross. He is married to Jane Lyon from Collins, Mississippi and has four daughters and 12 grandchildren.
GENERAL ROBINSON
Brigadier General (Retired) Roy Robinson founded Patriot Solutions LLC on January 1, 2024, to provide advisory and consulting services to a variety of clients with an emphasis in the NationalGuard (Army and Air), as well as within the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Patriot Solutions is also involved in consulting and advisory roles that involve international travel and support.
General Robinson recently retired as President of the National Guard Association of United States where he was responsible for the association’s day-to-day operations in Washington, D.C., and the full-time support staff. He also oversaw the National Guard Education Foundation, which maintains the National Guard Memorial Museum, and the NGAUS Insurance Trust.
His principal duties included providing the Guard with unified representation before Congress and a variety of other functions to support a nationwide membership of nearly 45,000 current and former Army and Air National Guard officers.
He came to NGAUS after serving eighty years as executive director of the National Guard Association of Mississippi, the nation’s largest state Guard association with more than 2,500 members. He simultaneously served as NGAUS vice chairman-Army from 2014 to 2016.
General Robinson has more than 34 years in uniform, much of it while holding a series of full-time sales and marketing positions in the private sector, all of it in the Mississippi Army National Guard. He spent time in every duty status available in the National Guard: Traditional part time, as a state employee, federal technician and in the Active Guard and Reserve. He began his career in 1983 as an enlisted soldier, earning his commission as second lieutenant through the ROTC program at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1985. He retired in 2016 as assistant adjutant general of Mississippi-Army.
Among his military career highlights is commanding the 150th Engineer Battalion (Combat), 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team, during combat operations in Iraq in 2005. He earlier commanded Camp McCain Training Site in Grenada, Mississippi, for 18 months. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from Southern Mississippi, General Robinson holds a master’s in business administration from Jackson State University. He also completed a U.S. Army War College fellowship in logistics and acquisition at the Center for Strategic Analysis at the University of Texas.
The general holds several military decorations, including the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal (with four Bronze Oak Leaf clusters), the Combat Action Badge and several Mississippi National Guard awards.