Travis Harman, a young skater punk from the small farming town of Hughesville, PA has never had a close relationship with his father, Dean, but after 9/11 shakes the nation, Travis and Dean enlist in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard together. Shortly after joining, Travis begins to have second thoughts and devises a plan to leave the Army. Once back in Hughesville, he realizes the only way he’ll ever gain his father’s acceptance is to enlist, and so he reverses course and joins again. This time, now fully committed, Travis endures rigorous basic and advanced training at Fort Benning and Fort Gordon, Georgia. Just as advanced training ends, Dean helps Travis get work at Fort Indiantown Gap supporting the training of troops preparing to deploy. As Travis prepares to head back to Hughesville, Dean calls informing him that father and son will be deploying to Afghanistan together.

Travis and Dean deploy to Afghanistan in December of 2008, heading to Fort Bragg, North Carolina first. After three months of train up, Travis is sent to a remote outpost in the northeast part of the country, while his father has a cushy desk job at Bagram Airfield. Travis is pulled into often horrific realities of modern war as he experiences intense combat all while yearning for his father’s acceptance. Travis goes back to Bagram and sees his father in transit to Qatar where he will be going on pass for some much-needed rest and relaxation. The tales of Travis’ bravery under fire reach his father before Travis arrives, and when he greets his father once again, Travis starts to feel accepted by his father, a feeling he has chased since boyhood.