Swafford also often incorporates stories and information from his home life, which shows the reader how he got to where he is today. I got the impression that he didn't have an amazing home life (his brother was incarcerated) and also, he felt somewhat pressured to uphold the family tradition of serving in the military.
Most readers will be unfamiliar with the conditions in Saudi Arabia, so the author provides a lot of description for the desert, barracks,