Sandra Brettig. Unfit to Serve. Elk Lake, 2024.

Recently we reviewed a book whose main character struggled with “shell shock,” now called PTSD, after serving in World War I. Unfit to Serve has a main character who is trying to help men suffering from what was then officially called battle fatigue in the wake of that war.

The title can apply to several people. First, Unfit to Serve can apply to the victims of PTSD, that they are no longer mentally or emotionally fit to serve in the military. It also applies specifically to Dr. Albigence “Albie” Pembrooke. He failed the army physical due to poor eyesight, but volunteers for the Medical Corps since he is an M.D. and psychiatrist specializing in battle fatigue.

As can happen in a situation where there are a lot of men who are looking for physical challenges, some people see their job to harass others. So our nearsighted doctor becomes the victim a camp bully. How will he deal with this? After all, he studied psychology, he should know how people behave. Eventually Dr. Pembrooke (Capt. Pembrooke) will be sent to France to minister to men coming back from the front lines with shell shock.

But there are other men who are unfit to serve as well. Many men who volunteered for the army are semiliterate. Some are immigrants whose native language is not English. They fail the I.Q. test that the army gives to all recruits.

As an aside, the first such test was conducted by the Canadian Armed Forces at this time. The concept was picked up by the American military during the war, and by the College Board in 1926 for a test that would evolve into the S.A.T. fifteen years later. The book includes a page each from two of the earliest such tests.

Albie’s wife Josephine, “Jo,” teaches at the one-room grammar school on the Texas base. After hours she tutors some of the soldiers to try to help them pass the intelligence test. While everyone realizes she is a good teacher, she does not seem to fit in well with the more socially-oriented officers wives on the base. Is she unfit to serve as an army wife? We see a parallel between the social snubs she senses and the outright bullying experienced by her husband.

More conflict comes. One of the men Jo has been tutoring dies by apparent suicide. Rumors spread that there was something more than tutoring going on between the two. Bookish Albie is trying to learn all he can about battle fatigue before being sent abroad. Once in France, Albie and Jo quit sending letters to each other.

Chapters alternate between Albie’s perspective and Jo’s perspective. Plot twists keep on happening right up until the end. When they arrived at the Texas army base, New Yorkers Albie and Jo not only deal with unfamiliar desert weather and landscape, but with a number of other external problems. Those external problems like the bullying and the rumors test them and their marriage.

When they arrive, they are still virtual honeymooners. With all these challenges, plus others we will not mention for fear of spoiling things, one can begin to wonder if their marriage will survive—and if so, how? We can learn some history form this story, but we can learn more as well about human relations and the importance of hope, both for shell-shocked soldiers and married couples.