Konrad R.K. Ludwig is a former non-commissioned officer of the United States Army, and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After serving four and a half years as an Infantryman, he was medically discharged to injuries sustained in combat, and is now perusing a career in writing.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, he tested out of high school shortly after his seventeenth birthday, and joined the United States Army in September of 2005 to support American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon completion of Basic Training he was assigned to the Bravo Company “Deathmasters,” of the 1st Battalion/5th Infantry Brigade, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Ft. Lewis, Washington. In August of 2006 his unit was re-flagged as “Bull Company” of the “1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment,” and relocated to Vilseck, Germany, where they performed joint training operations with allied NATO forces and served as a global quick reaction force in Europe.
After two years of military service, Sgt. Ludwig deployed to Iraq as part of the iconic “troop surge” of 2007, and served a fifteen month deployment with the men of Bull Company as a high profile conventional task force, fighting one of the most powerful insurgent militias in the world. Six months into their operations on the border of Sadr City, Sergeant Ludwig found himself fighting on the front lines of the final battle for Baghdad, and spent the following three months as a machine gun team leader during one of the bloodiest engagements of the war.
His latest work, Stryker, is a first-hand account of Bull Company’s involvement with the Sadr City Uprising of 2008. It is expected to be released in 2012, pending fundraising goals through Kickstarter.