The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division
Bing West and MGen. Ray L. Smith, USMC (Ret.). New York: Bantam, 2003. 303 pp. Photos. Map. Notes. Gloss. $24.95.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Sam Mundy, U.S. Marine Corps
In one of the first books chronicling ground combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom, authors Bing West and retired Marine Major General Ray L. Smith vividly trace the 1st Marine Division's 20-day trek through Iraq. The March Up presents an intriguing narrative of life with young men in combat and heralds Marine achievements. The authors are well qualified to undertake this effort: West, a former Marine Corps officer and Assistant Secretary of Defense, has written several books about Vietnam; and Smith, a veteran of Vietnam, Grenada, and Beirut, possesses renowned combat credentials.
The March Up mixes authoritative storytelling and insightful commentary in describing the 1st Marine Division's 600-mile advance from Kuwait through Baghdad to Tikrit. The authors attempt to "convey the strategy, tactics, stress, errors, leadership, and perseverance that marked the journey," and to that end they are largely successful. Their ranging narrative, for instance, discusses the strategic imperative of seizing the Ar Rumaylah oil fields in southern Iraq (a mission the 1st Marine Division ultimately assumed), assesses the origins and effects of the operational "pause" short of Baghdad, and describes the tactical complexity facing the division's units as they entered and sought to control the urban jungle of Baghdad. By discussing events throughout the chain of command, the book underscores the critical linkages between the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war.
The book also lays out a broad chronological record of actions that occurred on the battlefield. Roaming throughout the 1st Marine Division's area of operations, the authors had the unique advantage of traveling with several units that led the division's attack. They frequently observed major combat actions at close range, discussed key decisions with leaders (often during or right after the events), and recorded the tactics of the Iraqi soldiers, militia, and fedayeen. Of note, The March Up offers one of the first accounts of the confused and difficult fighting that Task Force Tarawa (a reinforced Marine regiment, not subordinate to 1st Marine Division) and Regimental Combat Team 1 (a subordinate unit of 1st Marine Division) encountered while moving through An Nasiriyah and up Route 7. The actions in and around An Nasiriyah suggest many lessons concerning adjacent unit coordination, prevention of fratricide, and the impact of rumors on men in combat. The authors assert that Regimental Combat Team 1's fight up Route 7 "was not an easy passage." After reading the second and third chapters, readers certainly will agree.
A recurrent and noteworthy theme in the book centers on the "family" of Marine small units. In these families, "jobs—staying alive—determined a Marine's family on the march up, not rank or ethnic background. Those you lived with were those you fought with and who would keep you alive." The book explores the human dimension of war and the panoply of emotions surrounding young men in combat. It skillfully explores Marines' aggressiveness and enthusiasm, and portrays their responses—sorrow, frustration, and anger—when a comrade is killed. These colorful vignettes enrich the book's appeal for a wide audience.
As the subtitle suggests, this book is as much about the authors' journey as it is about the Marines with whom they traveled. Because the authors recorded the episodes they witnessed while accompanying the leading units of the division, readers may not get a full appreciation for what was going in other units. Then again, and much to the authors' credit, the book links these episodes with researched material and interviews collected after the fact. The result is a work that, while not as comprehensive and detailed as the division's own after-action report, still offers a well-written and condensed description of the overall operation.
On balance, The March Up delivers an excellent documentation of Marines fighting in our nation's most recent conflict. The strengths of the book—a gripping narrative, an insightful tapestry of strategic, operational, and tactical issues, and realistic descriptions of life with young Marines in combat—add up to an authentic account of modern warfare that will satisfy readers with any level of interest in the subject.
Lieutenant Colonel Mundy was commander of 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, during the advance on Baghdad. He currently is a Commandant of the Marine Corps Fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
The Marine: A Novel of War from Guadalcanal to Korea
James Brady. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2003. 303 pp. $24.95.
Reviewed by Colonel John G. Miller, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
T. R. Fehrenbach's name does not appear on the solid list of Marine Corps historians who provided source material for James Brady's new novel, but The Marine adds dramatic emphasis to Fehrenbach's thesis that Marine Corps training and leadership saved the day in Korea when things were darkest in 1950. Twothirds of the Marines who made up the "Fire Brigade" that led the attack on the Naktong Salient and later stormed ashore at Inchon were green reservists, but they had survived tough recruit training and were led by a cadre of World War II veterans who knew how to survive, in Fehrenbach's terms, "the rough blows of war" and still know what to do.
Brady traces the transition from World War II island hopping in the Pacific to the bitter fighting in Korean cities and mountains through the spectacular 13-year career of James T. "Ollie" Cromwell. Commissioned in 1937, Ollie parlays his Notre Dame and Olympic boxing experiences into a prewar interservice championship. Early in World War II, he hooks up with Carlson's Raiders for the Makin Island raid, then moves on to the battles for Guadalcanal and Saipan and occupation duty in North China after the war's end.
All this, however, merely sets the stage for the first desperate months of the Korean War. Brady, once a Marine rifle platoon leader who received the Bronze Star for valor in Korea, is on his home turf here. He recaptures the confusion, anguish, and utter disbelief that swept through General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters when not only South Korean troops but also the Americans sent to reinforce them broke and ran before the North Korean onslaught. Ollie Cromwell, barely in country on State Department duty before the invasion, absorbs the early "rough blows of war" and manages to rejoin his beloved Marines in time for the Inchon landing and the recapture of Seoul.
Ollie Cromwell is the Marine Corps' answer to Pug Henry—Herman Wouk's protagonist in The Winds of War—who rubbed elbows with many of the giants of World War II history in the course of his fictional naval career. Ollie arrives at Notre Dame two years too late to know Knute Rockne, but is introduced to boxing by a cousin of Stanley Ketchel, "The Michigan Assassin"—arguably one of the best pound-for-pound fighters ever to enter the squared circle. During the 1936 Olympics, Ollie even gets a glimpse of Adolf Hitler (albeit at a distance), which becomes a running gag through the book. Most of the others are Marines of legendary and near-Legendary proportions, ranging from Evans Carlson and "Red Mike" Edson to O. P. Smith, as well as junior officers who later rose to prominence (such as Robert Barrow, a fearless company commander at Seoul who became the 27th Commandant of the Marine Corps).
This is a book for Marines, who will revel in familiar names and places—as well as familiar attitudes that have hardened into certainties over the years. Brady also does not sugarcoat the failures (such as the Makin raid—a public-relations triumph in mid-1942, but close to a tactical failure). This is not a book for the U.S. Army (especially fans of Mac Arthur), Koreans (from either North or South), employees of the State Department, or General Alexander Haig (son-in-law of Lieutenant General Ned Almond, universally despised by the 1st Marine Division veterans of Korea).
Brady moves deftly through the historical minefields, with a couple of minor exceptions that might be corrected in later printings. Cromwell, for instance, purportedly attends the Marine officers' Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, in 1937 (it was located in the Philadelphia Navy Yard through the 1930s). And a distinguished World War II Marine general, Graves B. Erskine ("the Flamethrower"), somehow appears as "Erskine B. Graves" (an error caused perhaps by an overzealous editor who decided no one could be first-named "Graves"?).
Marines will love this book. Others mentioned might not love it as much—but they might learn something.
Colonel Miller, former managing editor of Proceedings and Naval History, is the author of The Bridge at Dong Ha and The Co-Vans (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989 and 2000) and was the Naval Institute's Book Author of the Year in 1990. He is the 2002 recipient of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement from the Navy League of the United States.
In the Company of Heroes: A True Story
Michael J. Durant with Steven Hartov. New York: O.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003. 375 pp. Photos. Maps. $24.95.
Reviewed by Richard W. Stewart
This is a well-written and compelling true story about MH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Durant's shoot down and capture in Somalia in October 1993 during Task Force Ranger's attempt to capture Somali strongman Mohammed Farah Aideed. By telling the story of his wounding and 11-day imprisonment, Durant not only gives his perspective on what happened to him, but also describes his emotional rollercoaster ride as he went through hope, terror, anguish, remorse, hopelessness, and then to final joy. In addition, he uses the story of his time in captivity to flashback to talk about his career in the Army, his training as a helicopter pilot, and how he joined the special operations world. He also includes stories of his role in the classified missions in which he and his 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) comrades participated during the 1980s and early 1990s. It is an intensely personal tale of an incredibly brave man surrounded by other brave men who formed an elite brotherhood of arms. The members of the various special operations organizations have changed over the years, but it is clear this brotherhood is alive and well today.
It is perhaps Durant's understated and modest words that impress the most. I have interviewed dozens of 160th pilots about their missions and each time came away in awe of their modesty, cool professionalism, and matter-of-fact retelling of the stories of their dangerous missions. Since 1980, the pilots of the 160th have risked their lives on a regular basis to push the flying envelope to the limit and beyond to support their "customers" in the special operations community. Throughout this book one can sense the mutual respect, comradeship, and even love that members of this close-knit community have for each other. Civilians cannot understand the intensity of these feelings-feelings that include the absolute knowledge that special operators will do anything to accomplish the mission and anything to rescue a comrade. Other soldiers know something of this feeling, but its power is amplified within the small special operations community. The fact that the 160th flew similar missions in Afghanistan, and continue to do so in Iraq, should not escape readers of this book.
Durant has not written a book about the glamour of such special missions, although one can sense the excitement he and others shared during them. He has not tried to make himself into a bigger hero than he was—yet his heroism shines through regardless. He writes instead about the pain, suffering, and despair he felt during his capture and, at the same time, his absolute certainty he would not be left behind. In such men burns a heroism that cannot be hidden.
This book probably will not be made into a movie, unlike Mark Bowden's novelistic Black Hawk Down (New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1999)—though it should. It is an important book that shows the dark side of when military operationsfor a variety of political reasons-fail and the human pain and suffering that result. Durant clearly demonstrates that heroism and honor come from the struggle within to adjust to this new reality. He also recalls the extraordinary courage of two special operations soldiers—Randall Shughart and Gary Gordon, posthumous recipients of the Medal of Honor—who gave their lives so that Durant might live, as well as those other brave men of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and other units who died that day in Mogadishu. It is to his credit that he entitled the book in the Company of Heroes, for he was, and is, in such company. So are we, briefly, when we read this book. It is a must read for soldiers and civilians alike, because all of us need to be reminded more often of those who have pledged, and given, their lives for us all.
Dr. Stewart is Chief of the Histories Division at the Center of Military History at Ft. McNair. He also was the command historian for eight years at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, and recently retired as a colonel from the U.S. Army Reserve after 30 years of commissioned service.