"War" by Sebastian Junger

War by Sebastian Junger is the story of the 2nd Platoon, Battle Company, 173rd Airborne Brigade fighting at FOB Restrepo. Located in the Korengal Valley's isolated RC East, the 15 to 20 2nd Platoon soldiers fought in almost 500 firefights during their 15-month deployment — some 20 percent of all Afghan combat in that time period. Through five lengthy embeds, Junger followed this single platoon with the goal of conveying "combat" to the civilian audience.

Junger is no novice. Years before he wrote A Perfect Storm, he was traveling from Kosovo to Bosnia to Liberia to Sierre Leone to Kashmir, reporting on human rights violations, war crimes and the kidnapping of civilians as a terror tool. He's also no stranger to Afghanistan; prior to 9/11 he profiled the Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud as they fought against the Taliban for a National Geographic special. So his current best-seller War is written from a depth of knowledge and experience that few writers possess. I recently spoke with him about his book and the time spent with 2nd Platoon, Battle Company.

At one point # 3 on The New York Times bestseller list, War brings the reader directly into the fight at Restrepo. The base is isolated in a valley so remote that the locals speak a different language (Korengali) than the rest of Afghanistan. The reader is thrown into the firefights, ambushes and boredom that make up a deployment. It's in the blend of firefights and boredom where Junger excels; his descriptions, from AK rounds snapping past his head to the primitive living conditions to the funny yet totally sophomoric humor, are amongst the most realistic portrayal of soldiers in combat published to date. "If I sleep with your mother, does that make me your father?" one soldier asks another, and the resulting philosophical and genealogical debate lasted until...the next firefight.

Being this close to the fight, however, brings some disturbing observations about war, and comradeship. The 2nd Platoon has fallen into the practice of giving each member a "beat-down," where the platoon pummels each member.

"It's a form of initiation rite," Junger explained to me,"it's a way of bonding, as well as reinforcing the concept that the group, in this case 2nd Platoon, takes precedence over the individual." An anthropologist by training, Junger continued, "It isn't about abuse, similar to Lord of the Flies, it's about demonstrating group inclusion, knowing that everyone is committed to the unit. You've got a small group of young men, heavily armed, in 4-5 TIC's (troops-in-combat) daily... no email, little comm[unication] with family... their world consists solely of their fellow soldiers. Is it a normal ritual? Probably not, but look at where and how they're spending 15 months."

Despite his previous trips to combat zones, these embeds in Restrepo were Junger's first embed with the Army. Impartiality and accuracy are of paramount importance to a journalist, and especially one of Junger's stature, yet in War he writes of the impossibility of remaining impartial. "I'm living in close quarters with the soldiers. I eat, sleep, and go on patrol with them, and too many AK rounds and RPG's have barely missed us all. But remember, I'm not writing an opinion piece; I'm sharing their experiences in order to bring their story to you."

He does this very well as he describes life at Restrepo, "It's a miraculous kind of anti-paradise up here, heat and dust and tarantulas and flies. No women and no running water and no cooked food. Nothing to do but kill and wait."

After spending five months sharing danger and boredom, Junger finds himself drawing closer to the soldiers of 2nd Platoon and losing any journalist sense of impartiality, but he knows he needs to find a balance between being a journalist and being a combatant. After all, press credentials are worthless in a firefight. Despite the daily threat of being killed, Junger draws his own line at potential levels of his involvement "Oh, I'll carry ammo if asked, and they gave me a refresher in combat first aid. But I'm careful not to become like those journalists who confuse themselves with the story they're covering."

Responsible combat journalism is a difficult assignment, but Junger handles the partial-impartial question well. Embedded with a close-knit unit for some 35 percent of their deployment while sharing the firefights, the boredom and the isolation, all thoughts of impartiality disappear once the first AK-47 round hits the Hesco over one's head and the soldier next to him returns fire. Junger acknowledges this conundrum head-on, and in doing so, brings even greater poignancy to the story of 2nd Platoon, Battle Company.

Shortly after War was published, Gen. Stanley McChrystal closed all the Army FOB's in the Korengal, with the bland statement that engagement in the Korengal no longer fit into the Army's strategic vision. Junger mentioned to me that it would be interesting to see what the surviving soldiers of 2nd Platoon thought of the decision that their 15 months and some 500 firefights had been deemed unnecessary.

"Immediate Response" Brit Chinooks in Helmand!

"Immediate Response"
Maj Mark Hammond
Penguin-Michael Joseph, 2009

It's easy in the United States to overlook the robust British effort in Afghanistan - but "Immediate Response" goes a long way in setting the record straight.

Written by Maj Mark Hammond, Royal Marines,"Immediate Response" is the story of Hammond's Chinook squadron fighting in Helmand Province. Hammond is a helicopter pilot flying British troops into hot LZ's and taking out the wounded. These are incredibly important and stressful missions in which lives are saved or lost due to his flying ability.

Hammond is a superb writer. He succeeds in bringing the reader into the cockpit with him, in the heat, sand, and dust in which he and his mates live and work. They cope with the stress with black humor as saracastic, sophmoric, and semi-obscene as do our troops; this is a no-holds-barred look at men at war.

Our British allies are doing an excellent job in Afghanistan; well done Maj Hammond in making us aware of it.

Noble Warrior; The Story of MajGen James Livingston; USMC-Medal of Honor

Noble Warrior; The story of MajGen James Livingston, USMC, Medal of Honor
By James E. Livingston, with Colin Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis
Zenith Press, 2010, U.S. $28.00
ISBN # 978-0-7603-3807-0

So few Medals of Honor; yet so many are awarded for those quick and usually fatal decisions made in combat; so many citations are of those young Marines who threw themselves on a hand grenade or charged a pillbox. With some 70% of Medals of Honor awarded posthumously, it is rare to have the opportunity to learn about the action from the Marine himself.

“Noble Warrior; The story of MajGen James E. Livingston, USMC (ret), Medal of Honor” provides a unique window into the world of a Medal of Honor awardee who is both a survivor and an officer. An autobiography written with experienced military authors Colin Heaton and Ann-Marie Lewis, MajGen James Livingston’s book gives the reader a look at the man behind the medal. From enlisting in the Marine Corps to fighting in Vietnam to his post-combat career, Noble Warrior is a well-written book that begins to shed light on the life of a most interesting Marine.

Not quite a depression baby; Livingston was born just months prior to the start of WW2 in rural Georgia. With his family economically better off than most, he relates how his parents were unique in ignoring the segregationist practices so prevalent at that time, and how those beliefs carried over to his Marine Corps years. “I always believed,” he wrote, “in what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said…that a man ‘should be judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin.’ This was never truer than on the field of battle, and it is one of the great hallmarks of our beloved Marine Corps”

This was a unique code of ethics for a Georgia boy during those turbulent times, and equally unique was his father’s pushing him off the farm in order to obtain a college degree. Perhaps not so surprising was his joining the Marine Corps, in his eyes ‘the most aggressive outfit,’ Soon Livingston received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, sent to Camp Pendleton, and deployed on a southeast Asian float. After a second cruise, Livingston threatened to resign if he was not given command, so he was shipped to Vietnam as commanding officer of Echo Company, 2nd Bn, 4th Marines. The die was cast.

Just weeks earlier, Echo had suffered 60% casualties and Livingston made certain that any casualties suffered in the future would not be due to slipshod training. A hard-charger even by Marine standards, Livingston explains his rationale for the never-ending and sometimes ruthless training programs for which he was known “I led by example,” he wrote, “and was always shaved, had my gear in order, and was always in the front of a fight or PT run. You have to lead from the front…anyone can shout orders from the rear, but I would not want to follow such “leaders” into harm’s way either.” Sound policy as he led his Marines during the firefights so prevalent in pre-Tet Offensive’s Quang Tri Province.

Most actions resulting in a Medal of Honor are short in duration; Noble Warrior recounts how Livingston earned his during the pitched battle at Dai Do. Written in an understated style that belies the intensity of the fight, Livingston narrates how an understrength battalion landing team found itself locked in a three-day battle against 7,000 experienced North Vietnamese regulars.

With Golf 2/4 finding unexpectedly heavy resistance when assaulting Dai Do, Livingston’s Echo Co was ordered to assist. After their first two attacks stalled, he personally led the reserves in a charge that broke the enemy lines. Although wounded twice, Livingston directed his Marines in killing the remaining NVA fighting from their bunkers. Only 35 of more than 100 Marines remained combat-effective.

Yet the fight was far from finished. Hearing that Hotel 2/4 was pinned down by numerically superior NVA forces, Livingston moved the remainder of Echo to Hotel’s position where he led the merged companies in yet another charge. After an hour of hand-to-hand fighting, the Marines owned the field…for the moment.

Later in the day the reinforced NVA attacked in force, so Livingston ordered supporting fires and smoke in order to bring the Marines out in a phased withdrawal. Wounded for the third time, he was firing at the NVA when two Marines dragged him out.

Recovering from his wounds, Livingston returned to Vietnam, and under the command of Col Al Gray (later Gen, CMC), was involved in the desperate evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese as Saigon fell in 1975.

Retiring from the Marine Corps in 1995, Noble Warrior further describes how Livingston went on to a successful public service career. Written in a blunt and unyielding style that co-authors Heaton and Lewis wisely left unchanged, “Noble Warrior; The story of MajGen James E. Livingston, USMC (ret), Medal of Honor” is well worth reading.

Senator's Son

There is truth, and there is 'The Truth', and in "Senator's Son", former Marine officer and combat veteran Luke Larson gives us the latter.

Based on his two tours in Ramadi, Larson gives the reader a peek into the world of the junior Marine officer on his first combat tour...age early 20's, highly trained and motivated - and worried spitless that he won't measure up to Chesty Puller, Alexander Vandergrift, John Yancy, and all the other awesome Marines whom he'd studied at TBS and earlier.

Larson brings the reader into his world as the young lieutenants plan their missions, interact with the Marines in their commands, relate with their families back stateside, and all the while worrying how to win a battle in which he's not even sure who is the enemy.

His writing is crisp, clear, and very, very honest; if the reader is upset by the directness and earthy humor of young men at war...then stick to watching M*A*S*H re-runs.

And for those of us who spent time in Ramadi...his mentions of OPVA, Route Michigan, Snake Pit, and 17th St Station are dead-on accurate...you can give this book to your children in 20 years and say "I was there; this is what it was like."

This is Larson's first book. Let's hope we see more from him. Bravo Zulu, Marine - Well Done !!

"Inside Story of Pat Tillman" by Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer's Inside Story of Pat Tillman

"Into Thin Air" author Jon Krakauer goes behind the scenes to uncover the life and death of Pat Tillman in his latest book, "Where Men Win Glory"

By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG
Wall Street Journal

Shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, football player Pat Tillman walked away from a lucrative contract offered by the Arizona Cardinals and instead joined the Army.

In his fifth book, "Where Men Win Glory," journalist Jon Krakauer explains why, broadening Mr. Tillman's story by weaving in an account of America's deepening involvement with Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also details how Mr. Tillman was cut down by friendly fire in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, and examines the disturbing aftermath.

Mr. Krakauer, 55 years old, has long been attracted to risk-takers. In "Into the Wild," he profiled Christopher McCandless, a young adventurer who starved to death in Alaska; and in "Into Thin Air," he chronicled a group of mountain climbers who tackled Mount Everest with heartbreaking results.

In many ways, Pat Tillman became the public face of a new generation's commitment to country and service. In addition to being a superb athlete, he was an iconoclast -- a free-thinker who read widely and admired those who challenged the status quo. After enlisting in the summer of 2002, he joined the United States Army Rangers, where he relished the grueling training program. He died at the age of 27.

The cause of Mr. Tillman's death was not at first accurately reported by the military, leading Mr. Tillman's family to allege that a cover-up had taken place. A Defense Department investigation later found that senior Army officers gave misleading information about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Tillman's death, but that there was no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting and no high-level cover-up. A congressional investigation was inconclusive on whether senior White House and Defense officials were involved in releasing information about Mr. Tillman's death.

Q - Wall Street Journal (WSJ): Mr. Tillman never publicly discussed why he joined the Army. What were his reasons?

Krakauer: He had an old-fashioned sense of duty, masculine honor and masculine pride. He really believed after 9/11 that the United States needed to go to war against al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. That he had a lucrative contract didn't mean he should be excused from that duty. He felt he could contribute significantly to the war effort and make a difference. He was also drawn by the challenge. Proving himself in combat under fire resonated with him. He came from a family with a history of military service. But it wasn't simply duty to his country. It was a mix of complicated emotions.

Q- WSJ: You note that the military has always had difficulty acknowledging casualties from friendly fire. How did this situation differ?

Krakauer: The Bush administration placed more emphasis on spinning the war, on managing perceptions of the war, than on waging it well. It seemed like the Bush administration launched a propaganda campaign almost unprecedented in modern times. That's different to me. Most friendly fire incidents aren't investigated properly because of neglect or a natural inclination to cover up the embarrassing fact that they killed one of their own. You don't normally see the feverish manipulation of information that you saw with Tillman. Instantly, everyone knew it was friendly fire. But within hours, by sworn testimony, a move was made to give him a Silver Star. That's not typical in a friendly fire situation. All the forensic evidence, including his uniform and journal, were burned. This was an extraordinary case of manipulation of public perception, which is what the Bush administration specialized in.

Q - WSJ: Are you certain that the events surrounding Mr. Tillman's final hours unfolded exactly as you've described them?

Krakauer: Yes, I'm quite confident. It took a lot of time and effort. I've been working on this book for three-and-a-half to four years, and it's been a long, difficult haul. It's the most challenging book I've written. I tried very hard to get this right. I sent chapters in full to every soldier that I interviewed and quoted so that they could see their quotes. A lot of these soldiers don't share my political views. It was a risk, but it created real benefits in terms of accuracy. I also read 3,000 or 4,000 pages of testimony.

Q - WSJ: If you were able to report this, why didn't government investigators dig more deeply?

Krakauer: They were able. They didn't want to. Their conclusions weren't based on a reading of the facts. They didn't want to find out the worst. It's the opposite of a criminal prosecution or a plane crash investigation. Military investigations are designed not to find anyone guilty. And you can't investigate up the chain of command, which is a huge impediment.

Q - WSJ: You report that Mr. Tillman could have likely left the Army after serving in Iraq after 18 months. Why did he stay?

Krakauer: He was very unhappy in the Army. He knew his wife was miserable. But his sense of honor didn't let him consider it. He made a three-year commitment and he wanted to live up to it. That was his point of view, and it was entirely in keeping with his character. It didn't surprise anyone who knew him well.

Q - WSJ: You end the book with a gloomy visit to Afghanistan in early 2007. What did Mr. Tillman's sacrifice mean?

Krakauer: It didn't mean anything. It speaks to the mythology of war and how we glorify it for our national interests. There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery. And that's what his death tells us. It reminds me that the good aren't rewarded, there's no such thing as karma. Maybe it says something about the dangers of any sort of idealism that isn't tempered by pragmatism or experience.

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Movie Review: "The Hurt Locker"

"The Hurt Locker" is good, gut-slammer cinema that captures, quite accurately"

By Michael Fumento
Philelphia Inquirer, 2 Aug '09

One word keeps appearing in reviews of The Hurt Locker, the critically acclaimed war film: realism.

"Realism is the special effect," was the title of one article about the film's producers. "Realism makes for explosive cinema," read the headline of the Chicago Sun-Times review of the film, which follows a three-member Army Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team over the last 38 days of its 2004 Baghdad deployment.

Actual EOD technicians have been surprised by the description. So was I, a former Army airborne combat engineer (whose job included blowing things up) and journalist who embedded briefly in 2005 with Navy-Marine EOD near Fallujah. That surprise is because of some of the film's serious unrealities, such as:

The men repeatedly don 100-pound bomb suits (useless if the typical rigged howitzer shell goes off in your face) when remote-controlled robots are routinely used. The primary robot, the Talon, pulls the detonation apparatus apart. If it breaks down, as it did in the opening scene of the film, a smaller backup robot (called a "blowbot") carrying plastic explosives blows apart the wiring. I saw this on my first blast in Iraq.

The three EOD technicians in the film repeatedly fire at the enemy. That rarely happens, though the enemy does shoot at them. Rather, EOD meets up with MPs or other soldiers who handle the combat.

In one tense scene, a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle jams because some of the huge rounds have fresh blood on them. No way. The amazingly powerful weapon also would have punched right through the flimsy building material that in the film protects the attackers.

It was also irritating to see the soldiers wearing uniforms they wouldn't have been issued until the next year.

In short, The Hurt Locker is not reality but what moviegoers demand: a fast-paced shoot-'em-up. The Sun-Times review title is exactly wrong: Unless the focus is on one extreme, relatively short event - such as Blackhawk Down - reality is financial death for a war film.

That's because reality is the proverbial 99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror. Box-office bucks demand 99 percent action and 1 percent interlude for a bathroom break. Soldiers, too, like those movies - even after seeing the real thing.

The most obvious explanation for what the reviewers perceived as realism is that they know no more about war, Iraq, or EOD than EOD technicians know about reviewing movies.

Fortunately, they are indeed just movie reviewers. Much damage has been inflicted by journalists who "reported" on Iraq from the safety and isolation of their stateside armchairs. Or those who "reported" on combat and the conditions under which combat soldiers must live, and sometimes die, from a Baghdad hotel.

A more complimentary explanation is that the film is visually and emotionally intense, pulling in the audience. When the soldiers are spooked, you're spooked. When they're confused, you're confused.

"Where's the firing coming from?" they ask, desperately scouring the horizon. You find yourself scanning for them. The fog of war drifts from the screen into the theater.

Which is to say I thought it was a damn good movie.

What I was really looking for - besides the action, that is - was respectful treatment of the U.S. soldier in Iraq, as professional a fighter as this nation has ever deployed. And here the term realism truly applied.

The EOD soldiers were scared and often unsure. True, one was a hot dog who repeatedly and needlessly risked his life and those of his teammates. In reality, he probably would have been disciplined, if not replaced. But his actions were central to the plot.

Despite their flaws, these men did their best not just to defuse the bombs and protect U.S. troops, but to protect Iraqi civilians as well.

And there were no hints of glory. That's good. I saw a lot of things in Iraq. Mostly trash heaps, it seems. But I never saw anything glorious.

Granted, the movie soldiers repeatedly faced false dangers. But these nevertheless represented the real ones the movie didn't depict - including being ambushed en route to a mission and hitting bombs planted especially for responding EOD units. The EOD team that replaced the one I embedded with hit such a bomb in its second week of deployment; two Marines horribly burned to death.

Because the homemade bomb is the insurgents' primary weapon, there's nobody they want to kill more than those who defuse them.

That's the brutal reality. And it's a fitting tribute that the best movie to come out of the Iraq war is a testament to the brave bomb-detonators of the EOD.

"Once A Marine" by GySgt Nick Popaditch

“Once a Marine”
Nick Popaditch, with Mike Steere
Savas Beatie, 2008, $ 25.00
ISBN # 978-1-932714-47-0
www.savasbeatie.com

Only a few books leap off the shelves and demand to be read – and “Once a Marine” is one of those few.

This is the story of Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch, U.S. Marine Corps. It’s important to add “USMC” after his name, because in Popaditch’s story, being a Marine is integral to his survival following a grievous head wound and the subsequent rehab problems afterwards.

In true “Gunny” fashion, this is an aggressive book. “Gy Pop”, as he’s known, came into his own as a young Marine, saw combat in Desert Storm, and became a drill instructor afterwards. He’s as OOH-RAH and Semper Fi motivated as they come, and his energy and enthusiasm for all things Marine comes through loud and clear in this well-written book.

Gy’s life continues on a positive roll when he’s photographed in Baghdad in 2003, cigar-in-hand, in front of the statute of Saddam. Now known to the world as the ‘cigar Marine’, Gy Pop returns home to his loving wife April, and sons. But true to being a Marine, he volunteers for another tour in Iraq, where he’s shot in the head with an RPG in Fallujah, loses one eye, much of his sight in the other eye, and is medically retired from his beloved Marine Corps. A typical macho Marine story, one might think, but it’s Gy Pop who makes “Once a Marine” such a compelling story in the midst of such frustration of his life’s seeming unraveling.

“Once a Marine” is a spellbinding and story. From the stories of his Desert Storm days, to storming Baghdad in 2003, to the horrific story of being shot in the head by an PRG to the personal friction between him and his wife as he contemplates the premature end of his career in his beloved Marine Corps, this is the type of book that the reader will devour in an evening.

What grabs the reader aren’t the battle sequences; those who have fought tend to downplay their role in combat, and Gy Pop is no exception. Instead, his focus is on Marine Corps ethos and work ethic, his Marines, and how they all came together to assist him in his time of need. Needing assistance is unusual for Gy Pop, and he writes honestly and movingly of his struggle to accept help from his wife and sons, his Marines, and even the medical team at the “Blind Hospital.”

For a rough & tough Marine Gunnery Sergeant, Popaditch has written a brutally honest, yet incredibly moving story of his life as a Marine, and how the Marine Corps has prepared him for life afterwards. Recommended? Absolutely!