VT Edition: Sgt. Thomas A. Middleton on being a combat medic in Iraq

In 2005 some 400 Vermont National Guardsmen and women began a long and dangerous tour of duty in Ramadi, Iraq - the worst place on earth, according to Sgt. Thomas A. Middleton. Middleton was a combat medic on the mission -- he serves as Burlington's Assistant Fire Marshal in civilian life. Now he's written a book, titled Saber's Edge: A Combat Medic in Ramadi Iraq.

VPR's Jane Lindholm talks with him about the Green Mountain comrades he portrays, and about his own conflicted feelings as a middle-aged firefighter and EMT transformed by violence into a gun-wielding combatant.