On a yearlong deployment to war-torn Afghanistan, Washington Army National Guard Soldier Joe Wardell found something that helped him stay sane and focus on his family back home - a stuffed camel named Doodey.
Doodey accompanied Wardell into combat as a way to explain the long deployment to his then 3-year-old son, Clive.
"So he could see that things that go over there come back," Wardell said.
When he could see his son still struggling with the distance, Wardell took it a step further and wrote Clive a book entitled Doodey the Combat Camel.
In the book, Doodey executes missions with Wardell, operates machinery and rides in military vehicles.
The result has become an increasingly popular book for parents who are also looking to explain deployments to their own children. Published under his own newly created press, Little Clive Press, the book sells for $12.95 on Amazon.
"Almost immediately, they started talking about it being a good resource for families dealing with deployments," Wardell said. "It stresses that I'm not the only one ... other people's dads have to go, too. It alleviates the feelings of abandonment."
While the majority of the published books have been given as gifts to other military families, Wardell has sold roughly 50 copies in the last two months through Amazon - nearly a book a day for two months.
All the proceeds are going to help the family of a Soldier named Zach Parker. A medic in Wardell's unit, Parker lost both legs and an arm in an IED explosion. Wardell said he hopes the fund is able to continue to help other military families in need in the future.
Now back from his second deployment, the 32-year-old Wardell lives in Kelso while finishing out his military contract at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He's attending school at Pierce College in Tacoma, where he studies science. Clive lives with his ex-wife in Spokane.
Wardell hopes that the book served not only to assuage his son's anxiety about the deployment, but that it will also show his son how special he is to his father.
"As he gets older, I hope it will be something he appreciates more and more," Wardell said.
 But for all the good the book has done for Clive and a growing number of other families, the book was rewarding to Wardell on more than one front. He has just finished a second book, Clive and the Dinosaurs, and hopes that he can continue to write as a hobby - or even as a second career - after the military.

Doodey the Combat Camel also proved invaluable when it came to dealing with the emotional wear and tear of combat.
"When I look back on it, the deployment was very hard, and we were under a lot of stress," Wardell said. "Having the project was something to look forward to and to distract me. And it created something of an internal bond with my son."
For more information, visit www.amazon.com. For information about Zach Parker and his family, visit the "Prayers for Zach Parker" Facebook page.