Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War
Evan Wright. New York: Putnam, 2004. 354 pp. Photos. $24.95.
Reviewed by First Lieutenant Eric Olson, U.S. Marine Corps
Countless books are being published about Operation Iraqi Freedom. Some have covered the strategic level and some have covered the tactical level of a single battle. Still other books have been written about individuals and their specific roles or experiences during the conflict. In Generation Kill, author Evan Wright focuses on an individual unit. As an embedded reporter with the Marine First Reconnaissance Battalion, Wright tells his story and that of the men of First Recon through the members of Bravo Company's second and third platoons. The book takes the reader through numerous battles, some waged on and around the streets of small Iraqi towns and An Nasiriyah and Baghdad. Other battles are fought alone in the individual and collective minds of the men assigned to First Recon.
Wright has produced an excellent book for all those interested in the story of Operation Iraqi Freedom away from the hype of network television. Covering only a small portion of the overall operation, Generation Kill gives the reader an authentic glimpse of the actions and emotions the men and women in our fighting forces endured prior to the transition to security and stability operations. Those unfamiliar with life as a Marine serving in the ground combat element get a good taste of daily living, personal interactions among Marines and Iraqi citizens, and the Marines' unique support system as Wright takes his time developing the reader's understanding of terminology, equipment, and organization. He avoids the overuse of buzzwords and acronyms so common in military writing and strikes a good balance between textbook definitions and firsthand accounts of actions or maneuvers. In addition, Wright provides the reader with colorful descriptions of the handful of men he uses as conduits for telling the story of First Recon. He does not set out to vilify anyone, but presents situations within the context of a neutral observer.
While reading Generation Kill, I continually found myself comparing it to Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999). Wright's clear-cut writing style seizes the reader and persuades him to participate, firsthand, in every engagement, regardless of whether it is an exchange of fire with Iraqi and Fedayeen forces or a casual conversation among Marines in a Humvee. As Bowden's book has done, Generation Kill brings countless issues about fighting in and around an urban environment to the surface. In addition, Wright vividly presents the Marines' personal conflicts with the morality of their individual and unit's actions, as well as with the collateral damage caused by the U.S. war machine. His book could be an excellent catalyst for small-unit leaders to engage those in their charge with the tactics, techniques, and procedures for fighting or operating in built-up areas. More important, Generation Kill would be a great tool in promoting discussion about the intangibles of combat, especially for those deploying to operational areas for the first time. As a platoon commander, I would encourage my squad or section leaders to read Generation Kill to help them deal with issues of operating in an unstable, urban environment where information and the justification for our presence are not always readily available or evident.
I thoroughly recommend this book, especially to small-unit leaders in the operating forces. It is an engaging and stimulating read for all readers, military or civilian. Wright has effectively used a handful of Marines to tell an engaging story, and in doing so has revealed numerous physical, emotional, and moral issues many young men encountered and dealt with on a daily basis. As the nation's global war on terrorism continues, the challenge of interpreting rules of engagement, justifying the presence of our military forces and their cost, and helping individual Marines and soldiers cope with the battles that will rage in their hearts and minds long after the shooting has ceased also will continue. This book will help everyone gain a better understanding of the challenges these issues present to the generation thai is serving in the armed forces and fighting our nation's battles.
Lieutenant Olson is assistant operations officer for the Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico, Virginia, He served as the combined antiarmor platoon commander for 3d Battalion, 2d Marines, as part of Task Force Tarawa during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spare Parts: A Marine Reservist's Journey from Campus to Combat in 38 Days
Buzz Williams. New York: Gotham, 2004. 304 pp. Photos. Map. $26.00.
Reviewed by Major Bruce Bell, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve
I read Buzz Williams's Spare Parts with great interest. As a fellow Marine, reservist, and war veteran, his story was one of common ground, eerie similarities, and distinct contrasts from my own experiences. I also fought with a reserve Marine Corps light armored reconnaissance company as its commanding officer. I feel privileged to comment on this book, especially in light of having just returned with my company from a combat tour last year in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Buzz has written an excellent book that details much of his six-year enlistment in the Marine Corps Reserve, especially his participation in a light armored infantry company (as referred to then) during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The book's content and Buzz's writing style are direct, distinct, and insightful. He tells this narrative through the idealism and youthfulness of a junior enlisted man, remaining mostly unencumbered from military politics. His thoughts are human, poignant, and often brutally humorous. He highlights important lessons of leadership, small unit tactics, and common-sense training.
The book begins with the author's calling to the Marine Corps. Buzz initially "loses" his older brother to the Corps, but revels in the letters he receives from him as he attends boot camp. During their all too infrequent times together after boot camp, the author worships his brother Lenny, aspiring to become just like him. Tragedy strikes when Lenny is killed after falling asleep at the wheel after a night of partying. Buzz's father dies shortly thereafter following a bout with cancer. The young author, with so much awe for the strength and perceived invincibility of his father and brother, awkwardly stumbles into early manhood. As he enters a tailspin of self-doubt and adolescent wandering, the "yellow footprints" of Parris Island begin to call his name.
Boot camp is an experience of conflicting values and emotions for the young recruit. In a way, it is a microcosm of his entire Marine Corps experience. He is fair and accurate in pointing out the necessity and effectiveness of the drill instructor's methods, enduring the so-called psychology of stripping-the process of transformation from socialized civilian to emotionally hardened Marine warrior. It is a tough and demanding change, but Buzz makes the psychological shift. In doing so, he initiates what will be his most difficult challenge of being a reservist when he graduates from boot camp: maintaining his warrior edge in the midst of a civilian lifestyle. Therein lays another battle, and the point of the title of the book. After being derided at boot camp for being a "spare part," or reservist, by a drill instructor, Buzz is obsessed with holding on to his hard-won title of Marine.
Prior to the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990, Buzz gets his indoctrination into the reserve Marine Corps. The author is very candid about his perceptions of the leadership, quality of training, and support his unit receives. Given the fact that he is constantly torn between his desire to be a toughened Marine and the softening of that edge he believes civilian life causes, Buzz is largely unsatisfied with his unit's preparation for combat. Fate descends on Buzz and his fellow Marines of Delta Company as they are deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of the U.S response to Iraq's invasion. In his 38-day journey from college campus to combat in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Buzz fully transforms back to his boot camp persona. His unit faces a mixed bag of training, preparation, and direction from its leaders prior to the kickoff of the war, but ultimately they prevail in combat. Are there many things Buzz and his Marines would have done differently before and during combat? Absolutely, and he is quite frank in describing them.
The individual reservist still faces incredibly demanding and competing interests when living in "two worlds," yet these Marines fought and succeeded in Operation Iraqi Freedom and continue to do so today around the world. My experience from Iraq proved to me that my reserve Marines and I faced a large learning curve initially, and we did not have a perfect mobilization, deployment, and training timeline. There certainly was some curiosity and concern on the part of our active-duty brethren and some uneasiness on our part as we prepared for the war. Any doubts about the reserve, however, were quickly erased by its performance in combat during Iraqi Freedom and other recent deployments.
Major Bell commanded a Marine Corps Reserve light armored reconnaissance battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Air Power: The Men, Machines, and Ideas that Revolutionized War, from Kitty Hawk to Gulf War II
Stephen Budiansky. New York: Viking, 2004. 498 pp. Photos. Notes. Index. $29.95.
Reviewed by Major General Dave Richwine, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
Stephen Budiansky has written a solid book that should be read by anyone with an interest in the evolution of the art of war in the 20th century. His objective was not to provide a complete history of air power, but rather to tell the story of the people, technology, machines, and institutions that shaped the way we deter, fight, and win wars. Though Budiansky does briefly discuss the ascendancy of the aircraft carrier in World War II, his path generally follows the evolution of technology and doctrine of land-based air power. Nonetheless, naval aviators and others with an interest in the use of aviation as an instrument of national power will find this an interesting read.
In a well-written and meticulously documented work, Budiansky takes readers from the 1901 science-fiction-like ruminations of H. G. Wells to the 2003 successes in Operation Iraqi Freedom that made fact of Wells's fiction. The author reports not only what happened, but also how it happened, and he introduces key figures in the operational and organizational battles encountered along the way. Beyond technology, equipment, and tactics, he explores the fundamental debates spawned among aviators and ground officers; between pilots and the scientists and analysts who supported and harangued them; and between proponents of strategic and tactical air power. Most important, he shows how obstinacy, political maneuvering, and adherence to outmoded theory, doctrine, and tactics can win arguments but waste lives and treasure.
After a quick review of the Wright Brothers' trials, tribulations, and triumphs, Budiansky picks up the air power story leading to Operation Iraqi Freedom with the earliest use of aircraft-delivered ordnance in combat. On 1 November 1911, during a colonial war between Italy and Turkey in Libya, an Italian pilot, Lieutenant Gavotti, dropped four small five-pound Cipelli bombs on Turkish forces. The Turks were hardly affected by this act, but it nonetheless inspired an exaggerated Italian newspaper headline proclaiming, "Terrorized Turks Scatter Upon Unexpected Celestial Assault." It is not surprising to learn the Turks responded in like manner, claiming that the bombs struck a hospital.
The newspaper exchange was telling. It foretold not only the experimentation and daring in the face of danger that was to come, but also the predictable and unfortunate pattern of exaggerated claims that would accompany the development of air power. Some of the latter were international, some interservice, and some intraservice, but categorically they would dog the development of tactics and doctrine as well as help define service identities and their all-important "roles and missions." Whether from offensive and defensive forces in combat or from proponents and opponents of various concepts and theories on the proper employment of air power, exaggerations, embellishments, and "spin" were constant companions to the evolution of combat aviation.
Fueled both by the unprecedented availability of information at appropriate levels and by effective preconflict coordination, ordnance delivered by aircraft was a principal element of the artfully integrated fires coalition forces used to topple Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. Flexible, adaptable, and effective air power was integrated successfully into the operational scheme of maneuver. Fixed-and rotary-winged aircraft and manned and unmanned platforms not only delivered preplanned, pinpoint strikes on key infrastructure and leadership targets, but also provided near-instantaneous support to ground units of all sizes in contact with the enemy.
Far from Lieutenant Gavotti's "eye-balled" and hand-launched delivery, 68% of the more than 29,000 bombs and missiles employed in Operation Iraqi Freedom were precision guided, but like those first targets in the Libyan desert, 79% of Iraqi targets in 2003 were enemy troops and vehicles. This cycle in the evolution of operational art marked the achievement of better-coordinated, effective delivery of ordnance in support of the campaign objectives and improved direct support for the seemingly indefatigably valorous ground combat element across a range of opportunities. That was a significant milestone in the turbulent evolution of the use of air power in combat over the past 93 years. Budiansky believes the strategic aims of Oiulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell have been met, but in a way likely never imagined by the powerful early proponents of strategic air power.
The most recent manifestations of air power stem from the collective intellect, curiosity, vision, knowledge, determination, bravery, and sacrifice of those who led along the way. It is those dominant personalities around whom this tortuous story is wound. Rich with information, this book should be a dog-eared staple in the libraries of military professionals and others who study military topics.
General Richwine led infantry Marines in Vietnam in 1966-67 prior to earning his wings through the U.S. Air Force undergraduate pilot training program. He later commanded Marine Fighter-Attack Squadron 251, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and Marine Corps Air Bases, Eastern Area.