"The Profession" by Steve Pressfield

The Profession
By Steven Pressfield
Crown Publishers, 2011, $ 25.00
ISBN # 978-0-385-52873-3

It’s 2032 and the world is still at war in the Middle East and Central Asia. Iran is in flames, uprisings in Saudi Arabia, and a coup in Tajikistan. Still a geopolitical mess of oil – religion – politics – corruption; it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Or perhaps not, as the fighting and dying has changed from the proud Marines and soldiers of today to paramilitary forces fighting under private banners and funded by the likes of ExxonMobil, BP, Credit Suisse, and Lukoil - a not-unthinkable scenario where a mixture of Blackwater, private enterprise, and national interests fight and scheme for supplies of oil, food, and raw materials.

Author and former-Marine Steve Pressfield’s newest book “The Profession” lives up to his reputation for combining gripping action with intellect and principle. Following his “Honor-Courage-Commitment” theme honed in “Gates of Fire” and “The Afghan Campaign,” Pressfield uses one of the protagonists in the story as his narrator and tell the story of conflict in the 2030’s from his boots-on-the-ground level.

The storyteller is one Gilbert "Gent" Gentilhomme, a former Marine serving under his former Marine commander, Gen James Salter. Both are mercenaries; highly paid warriors who still live by the bonds they learned as Marines. War, be it either conventional war, peacekeeping in Africa, or quelling rebellions in Central Asia, is more than just a series of violent incidents and as in his prior books, Pressfield introduces the reader to combat-related concepts of loyalty, love, and fidelity.

It’s difficult to decide on good and evil when war is being fought by surrogates, and in the “The Profession”, both Gent and Salter find their straight-forward, hard-charging Marine background at odds with the nuances of their current situation.

Similar to those Marines who fought the Sunni’s in Ramadi in 2005-2006, yet found them to be allies in 2008, Gent seeks safety and solace with his fellow troops, while trusting Salter to deal with big picture geopolitics and those dubious sorts of despots and oligarchs.

Pressfield’s clearly done his research on the complexities of today’s 3-block war, including an embed in Marja last year and the intricacies of international politics. “The Profession” blends an opening action sequence as brutal as any RT Michigan ambush with a renegade mercenary army later invading and seizing a sovereign state – a not impossible scenario perhaps taken from Blackwater’s 2004-2005 thoughts buying ships, forming a MEU, and being hired by the United Nations.

A combination of nuance and incredible violence, “The Profession” remains a story of loyalty; of Gent and his men, but more important, Gent and Salter to each other. But it’s these bonds of loyalty and love, sharpened in their Marine Corps training and ethos, that Pressfield uses in his surprising ending in which Salter stretches
“Honor-Courage-Commitment” to its absolute limit. Honor and Commitment: to your fellow Marine, to your country, or to who or whom?

Highly recommended!

"Do the Work" by Steve Pressfield

"Do The Work"
By Steven Pressfield, 2011
ISBN # 978-1-936719-01-3

What a great book!

How many people go through life saying (or thinking) "I coulda done that.." as they manufacture excuse after excuse for races not run...articles not written...careers not pursued...or dreams unfulfilled. The road to ennui is filled with these folks; isn't there a better way to live?

Yes there is - and "Do The Work" is your roadmap to it.

It's really simple, best-selling author Steve Pressfield explains, "a child has no trouble believing the unbelieveable, nor does the genius or madman...it's only you and I, with our big brains and tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate." Listen to your dream, he writes, and work hard to beat "resistance" and "rational thought.," that inner voice that calmly explains why you can't write a kick-ass article or run a personal best on a windy day.

Get out there before you're prepared, Pressfield advises "we show huevos. Or blood heats up. Courage begets more courage. The gods, witnessing our boldness, look on in approval"

He's correct - sometimes you've just got walk to the starting line, look the world in the eye, and say "F/U - catch me." Thanks for writing this; now I've got the moto to BELIEVE that the rest of the world is wrong and I can achieve my dream - or my dream until I reach for the next big one...

"Our Daddy Is Invincible!"

Our Daddy Is Invincible!

By Shannon Maxwell
4th Division Press, 2010, $ 15.95
ISBN# 978-1-61751-003-8

In the nine years of war since 9/11, much has been written (and rightly so) of the courage of our wounded Marines and soldiers. With 35,000+ returning burned, wounded, with multiple amputations, the military medical system was overwhelmed, and groups such as Fisher House and Wounded Warriors sprang to the forefront to assist.

All well and good, but in the rush to assist these badly wounded warriors, there was unseen and unnoticed collateral damage – the children of these same wounded warriors.

Fortunately, author Shannon Maxwell’s fine book “Our Daddy is Invincible” addresses these issues, and in terms young children can understand.

This brightly- illustrated children’s book is directed at both the children of the wounded, as well as the children of those deployed. Dads and moms do get hurt, her pictures and age-appropriate text explain, but in the end, our family endures.
“Daddy’s been hurt”, a mom tells her two young children, “but it will all be OK.” To a wife suddenly dealing with wounded husband, she’s calmly conveyed the situation to her children, and now can go back to learning the realities of medivac’s, an emergency flight to Germany, rehab, and the multitude of care issues that will be arising. But the children lying in bed at night have their own fears, and it’s to them that Maxwell address her book “daddies can be hurt?” they think, “how can that be? We didn’t think it that way.”

Maxwell knows too well of what she writes; her Marine husband was badly wounded in Iraq in 2004, and she dropped their two children off with her sister as she made a mad dash to Germany to meet her husband at the hospital. “They sometimes get hurt, just like you and me,” Maxwell explains,” Even superheroes get hurt by the villain sometimes.” She also takes time to explain how nurses, doctors, and an array of therapists are standing by to help amputee mom or blind dad.

In a compassionate, but direct fashion, “Our Daddy is Invincible” deals with wounded dads and moms directly with illustrations of amputee dad or TBI dad. But it’s the context that’s so important, and here Maxwell and illustrator Liza Biggers make their point: amputee dad is happily swimming with his daughter, TBI dad (with helmet) is having breakfast with his young son, and wheelchair dad is on the sidelines of his daughter’s soccer game and cheering her on. “Our daddy is the bravest man we know”, one of Maxwell’s characters writes, ”we are so glad that he’s here to see us grow.”

While one wishes that Maxwell and Biggers (who lost her brother in Iraq) did not have the personal experiences that made “Our Daddy is Invincible” such a powerful and effective book…thankfully they did. If my son (with 5 deployments) ever returns as amputee dad or blind dad, this is the book I’ll be reading to his son / my grandson. A must-read for anyone with a deployed spouse and children at home.

"A Chance in Hell" The fight for Ramadi

Ramadi; 2006…the Marines and soldiers were taking heavy casualties in what had been dubbed “the most deadly city in the world.” The television news seemed to have a daily ticker scrolling “Marine killed today in Ramadi,” every morning, and in August the Washington Post reported that Marine intelligence officer Col Peter Devlin submitted a classified intelligence report saying that the American military had lost control of Anbar Province to Al Qaeda.

But within a year, Ramadi and Anbar Province were being hailed as ‘the’ example of American success in stabilizing Iraq, and in “A Chance in Hell,” author Jim Michaels provides a gripping tale of how a few determined individuals turned the tide of battle.

Unlike Fallujah or An-Nasiriyah which were battles of a set duration, the battle for Ramadi was fought over a space of three years, with the lead units being a mix of 1st MEF, 2nd MEF, Pennsylvania National Guard, and regular Army. With so many unit and so many individual heroic actions on which to write, Michaels made the decision to emphasize the individuals most responsible for the turn-around; Army Col Sean MacFarland, Sheik Sattar Abu-Risha, and MajGen Richard Zilmer, USMC.

Michaels is a superb storyteller, and as both a former Marine infantry officer and USA Today’s military editor, has the skills to present a story in a manner that is both accurate and readable. And what a story it is.

MacFarland was the commanding officer of the Army’s “Ready First” (First Brigade, First Armored Division), that arrived Ramadi in May 2006, under the command of 1st Mar Div’s MajGen Richard Zilmer. The city was in chaos; the Pentagon had sent the Pennsylvania National Guard to control Ramadi and while the Guardsmen fought hard, they lacked the resources to conduct a proper urban fight. “These were Pennsylvania coal miners,” said Devlin, “and they were duking it out and holding their own.” But barely holding their own…their Camp Corregidor was under such daily siege that six soldiers had been killed inside the base by indirect fire, and flaks and kevlars were needed in order to reach the chow hall or make a head call.

Clearly an unsustainable strategy, as Zilmer and MacFarland both knew. Ramadi was an economy of force mission in the eyes of the Bush Administration, and as MEF intelligence officer Maj Ben Connable quickly learned after working with MNF-I staff “most of us (had)bought into the line that commanders get what they ask for. That was a blatant lie.” The only direction coming from Washington was to turn responsibility for Iraqi security over to the Iraqi’s so American troops could come home; Zilmer and MacFarland were on their own.

Employing the Marine concept of ‘Commanders Intent,” Zilmer gave MacFarland huge autonomy. “Fix Ramadi,” he was told, “but don’t do a Fallujah.”

Also newly arrived in Ramadi was 1st Bn, 6th Marines, led by LtCol William Jurney. Headquartered at Hurricane Point in western Ramadi, Jurney’s Marines were responsible for security in the city, including the Government Center. An island of Marine defiance in central Ramadi as the insurgency swirled around it, the “Gov Center” was attacked by mortars, RPG’s, and SAF daily as both the American public and the local population waited to see if the Marines and soldiers were going to regain control of the city from AQI. The locals hated the Americans, MacFarland and Jurney quickly discovered, but they feared Al-Qada – and the American military had shown itself incapable of protecting them.

One of the locals was Sheik Sattar abu-Risha, a minor sheik from a minor tribe. But with the more important sheiks having fled to Jordan along with AQI having killed his father and three of his four brothers; Sattar was quietly cultivating the Americans in order to gain revenge. Zilmer and MacFarland understood the tribes were the key to Anbar, so with Zilmer’s approval, MacFarland and his staff began to co-operate with Sattar and his new group, the Anbar Awakening.

Michaels weaves a story that includes CPT Travis Patriquin, of the famous stick-figure powerpoint, Marine Major Megan McLung, and the other Marine and Army officers who helped make the turn-about possible. He also includes the American interpreters and intelligence officers who worked with Sattar, giving the reader the most complete view of this most interesting individual.

Those readers expecting a Marine-centric view of Ramadi may be disappointed; Ramadi was not a Marine-exclusive operation, and Michaels takes pains to portray this.. But for all readers, and especially those many Marines who fought from OP VA, OP Hawk, and 17th Street, “A Chance in Hell” is a most interesting story of how a few entrepreneurial officers and a charismatic sheik developed the strategy that took back Ramadi and was adopted by Gen David Petraeus as the backbone of his ‘surge’ strategy.
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"Noble Warrior; The Life & Times of MajGen James Livingston

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 fire and smoke in order to bring the Marines out in a phased withdrawl. 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.
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"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.