Publication August 19, 2025-Source Books-Historical Fiction-448pp
Book Summary
From bestselling author Erika Robuck comes the perilous and awe-inspiring true story
of award-winning photojournalist Dickey Chapelle as she risks everything to show the
American people the price of war through the lens of her camera.
Manhattan, 1956.
Since her arrest for disobeying orders and going ashore at Iwo Jima almost a decade earlier,
combat correspondent Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle has been unmoored. Her military
accreditation revoked, her marriage failing, and her savings dwindling, Dickey jumps at an
opportunity to work with an international refugee association—one with intelligence ties.
the aftermath of a refugee rescue that goes wrong, a flame is lit deep inside Dickey— to
survive in order to be the world’s witness to war from the front lines.
Never content to report on battles unless her own boots are on the ground, Dickey and her
camera journey with American and international soldiers from frozen wastelands, to raging
seas, to luscious jungles, covering the plight of those suffering from humanity’s endless
cycle of violence. Told in an alternating prose and epistolary format, The Last
Assignment takes readers along on Dickey’s missions to the Hungarian Revolution, the
Cuban Revolution, and the earliest days of the war in Vietnam, revealing one woman’s
extraordinary courage and tenacity in the face of discrimination and danger.
And it’s along the way, in Dickey’s desire to save the world, she realizes she might also be saving herself.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
This is the story of female paratrooper and photojournalist, Dickey Chapelle. Erika
Robuck’s extensive research is evident as the narrative of Dickey’s life story plays out on
four different continents. Robuck laces her novel with letters, diary entries, telegrams, and
radio broadcasts based on real life accounts. These add authenticity and suspense to the
novel, which is divided into three main parts, spanning 1954, New York City-to 1965, Viet
Nam. A war correspondent grieving the loss of her parents and her marriage, Dickey
Chapelle’s life story exemplifies her courage, determination and commitment to her life
goal, “making the picture to end all wars.” This is a compelling account which leaves
images etched in one’s memory of scenes written with indelible detail and vivid accuracy.
Filled with tension from prison cell to battlefields, Erika Robuck’s Last Assignment bestows
an honorable tribute worthy of the highest award and a Marine salute: To the life and
accomplishments of Dickey Chapelle. Semper Fi.
The Grateful Reader 