Embedded: A Marine Corps Adviser Inside the Iraqi Army by Wesley Gray

Have you wondered what it would be like to be in Iraq working with the Iraqi Army? Have you thought what it would like to get to know, work with the people in Iraq, and live with them? United States Marine Corps First Lieutenant Wesley Gray paints an insightful and sobering picture that answers these questions.

In 2006, 1st Lt. Wesley Gray was deployed as an U.S. Marine Corps military adviser to an Iraqi Army battalion in the Haditha Triad. For 210 days, he lived and fought beside Iraqi soldiers in the most dangerous and ruthless province of western Iraq. The province of Al-Anbar was filled with an insurgent population upset by a recent massacre of twenty-four men, women, and children shot at close range by U.S. Marines. They had been shot in retaliation for the death of one of their comrades in a roadside bombing.

In spite of the high tensions created by the shootings, Gray was able to form a bond with the Iraqis because he had an edge that very few U.S. service members possess - the ability to communicate in Iraqi Arabic. His language skills and his understanding of the culture led the Iraqi soldiers to call him a brother and fondly name him Jamal.

Gray draws on the brutally honest and detailed record he kept during his tour, including extensive interviews with Iraqi soldiers and citizens. He offers an all-inclusive portrait of the struggles of the Iraqi people to make their country a nation once again and includes a compelling report on the status and prospects of the U.S. government's strategy for success in Iraq.

1st Lt. Gray’s stories range from hilarious to tear inducing. I have two favorites. First, the story about getting information on who plants improvised explosive devices (IED) is chilling. Here the Iraqis tell Gray we are going about getting information in the wrong way. We should give them 24 hours to tell us who planted the IED. He is told we should demolish a house if we fail to get info. If that doesn’t work we should then demolish a block of houses. Then we will have the information. Second is the story of Major Gaines using the bathroom outdoors with a “toilet kit” at night and his getting upset as the spotlights are turned on him.

Gray also outlines Iraqi history, attitudes about leadership, and the outlook for the future of a unified State in the absence of American troops. Most of his forecast is grim.

The book is a good read and would be a valuable addition to all community libraries. It gives a realistic insight into what the USA is still confronting. The book gives answers about Iraqi culture, military culture, and is filled with a war stories and some exciting activity.

A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam, 1965-1972 by James R. Ebert

This review contains spoilers.

Wisconsin high school teacher James R. Ebert does a masterful job as he combines interviews and printed primary sources in this remarkable telling of the infantryman's experience during the Vietnam War. Ebert tells the story of the US Army and a few US Marine infantrymen during the Vietnam War. 

He takes the infantryman's story from induction into the service through basic and advanced individual training, arrival in Vietnam, their first combat experiences, the first killed in action they experience, in some cases the soldier's death, and the freedom birds that take them back to the world. Ebert points out while infantryman accounted for less than 10% of the American troops in Vietnam, the infantry suffered more than 80% of the losses.

Ebert uses an interesting technique starting every chapter with a letter by Leonard Dutcher to his parents. Dutcher just wanted to do his part for God and country and go home at the end of his 12-month tour (13 for Marines). In the last chapter, we find out that Dutcher was killed. It caught me off guard and really added to the impact of the book. Ebert takes many of the soldiers and Marines experiences word for word from the individual himself through interviews or letters. It is a collective look at similarities of the many infantry soldiers and Marines in the war. It is a very personal account from many points of view.

This is an important book in Vietnam War literature. This is what the grunts really went through. I was left with somewhat of feeling of guilt from reading the book. Why? I graduated high school in 1971. Some of my high classmates went to Vietnam and fought. Everett Maxwell was killed in action. I thought of him recently as his mother passed away just this month at the age of 87. I went to college and was ultimately commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry, went through airborne school and served three years active duty. My becoming an officer deferred my entry on active duty from 1971 to 1975. This is the reason for my reflective thoughts. 

On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam by Joyce Hoffmann

For female reporters who wanted to cover the long, brutal war in Vietnam, the challenge began before they even left home, when – in the words of one former Saigon bureau chief – they had to “fight like hell to get the assignment.”

On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam focuses on a few of the approximately 70 women who worked as journalists during the Vietnam War, spanning from its earliest days as a “not-so-secret war” in the late 1950s to the fall of Saigon nearly two decades later. Each traveled a different path to get the assignment, and each arrived at different conclusions about what they saw. Dickey Chapelle, a grizzled anti-Communist hawk, lived at the front lines with the Marines for more than four years; she would become the first American woman to be killed while covering a war. Gloria Emerson, on the other hand, the first woman to report from Vietnam in 1956, would later earn some of President Nixon’s angriest epithets on the White House tapes for her award-winning work about the war’s effect on South Vietnamese civilians. And for Laura Palmer, among the last reporters to leave Saigon in 1975, the faces below her departing helicopter were “sacred, because it was beyond words; you stand in the mystery, you stand with humility, and you stand with awe.”

Researched and written over the course of ten years, On Their Own is the story of a fundamental shift in journalism, the point at which the “boy’s club” of war reporting in World War II and Korea gave way to the modern press corps of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a more vivid perspective on the causes and casualties of war. At the outset, they had to fight for the assignment; after they got it, the women profiled in On Their Own produced work that led one critic to suggest, in 1986, that Vietnam had been the first war recorded better by women than by men.

Joyce Hoffmann has written for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and several other publications over the course of her twenty-five year career. She is currently a professor of journalism at Old Dominion University and public editor of the Virginian-Pilot.

http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events/2008-10-30-joyce-hoffmann.jsp

"Valor in Vietnam 1963 - 1977: Chronicles of Honor, Courage and Sacrifice" by Allen B. Clark

I enjoyed reading “Valor in Vietnam 1963 - 1977: Chronicles of Honor, Courage and Sacrifice" by Allen B. Clark. I can easily recommend the book. In the vast literature on Vietnam that is too often  memoirs full of hubris or tomes that bore you with action killing details, Mr. Clarke has given us a wonderful, fresh look at one of the most seminal events in the life of those who experienced the 1960s and 1970s. You experience the Vietnam War from the personal point of view of  some of the men and women who were there. You get both a unique boots on the ground and narrative perspective.   

I need to give a spoiler warning. I was left wondering if the actions Colonel Clyde R. Russell was the catalyst that started the war. It was interesting to see his son in high school in Saigon in 1964. Later, we learn of his son, Lieutenant Chris Russell – the reluctant warrior as the author called him. We see how his dad got his college student deferment pulled where he had to go in the Army. We see when he is in Vietnam he returns to the halls he walked as a ten grader. The building is now used for a very different purpose.

The book is full of wonderful, well told stories that sequentially take us through the war. The stories of men and women of various branches of service and ranks, both officer and enlisted gives a you were there feel.

I especially enjoyed the combat leadership lessons that were shared as we made our way through the years of the war. I would hope that such venues as the Infantry School, Command and General Staff College, and War College would include this insightful work in their required or recommended reading. I pray these are lessons that will not have to be learned over and over, but can be taught through case studies from this book.

While every chapter was well written and action packed, a couple of chapters especially touched me. They were the chapters on The Real Horrors of War covering Captain Wendy Weller's tour as a nurse in 1969-1970 and the chapter titled Ranger's Ranger covering the 1965 – 1970 tours of duty of Staff Sergeant Patrick Tadina. I was amazed at how low the casualty rate was for the units/missions he led and how long he was in Vietnam.

The book's title caught my attention when it had the date range going to 1977 instead of stopping in 1973 or 1975. Spoiler alert – the last chapter covers 1975 to 1977 and a couple who were left behind when the last Americans fled. It is intriguing.

Congratulations to author Allen B. Clark and Casemate Publishing.  You have published a special book.

"Valor in Vietnam 1963 - 1977: Chronicles of Honor, Courage and Sacrifice" by Allen B. Clark. The publisher is Casemate Publishing. 

"Valor in Vietnam 1963 - 1977: Chronicles of Honor, Courage and Sacrifice" by Allen B. Clark

I enjoyed reading “Valor in Vietnam 1963 - 1977: Chronicles of Honor, Courage and Sacrifice" by Allen B. Clark. I can easily recommend the book. In the vast literature on Vietnam that is too often  memoirs full of hubris or tomes that bore you with action killing details, Mr. Clarke has given us a wonderful, fresh look at one of the most seminal events in the life of those who experienced the 1960s and 1970s. You experience the Vietnam War from the personal point of view of  some of the men and women who were there. You get both a unique boots on the ground and narrative perspective.

I need to give a spoiler warning. I was left wondering if the actions Colonel Clyde R. Russell was the catalyst that started the war. It was interesting to see his son in high school in Saigon in 1964. Later, we learn of his son, Lieutenant Chris Russell – the reluctant warrior as the author called him. We see how his dad got his college student deferment pulled where he had to go in the Army. We see when he is in Vietnam he returns to the halls he walked as a ten grader. The building is now used for a very different purpose.

The book is full of wonderful, well told stories that sequentially take us through the war. The stories of men and women of various branches of service and ranks, both officer and enlisted gives a you were there feel.

I especially enjoyed the combat leadership lessons that were shared as we made our way through the years of the war. I would hope that such venues as the Infantry School, Command and General Staff College, and War College would include this insightful work in their required or recommended reading. I pray these are lessons that will not have to be learned over and over, but can be taught through case studies from this book.

While every chapter was well written and action packed, a couple of chapters especially touched me. They were the chapters on The Real Horrors of War covering Captain Wendy Weller's tour as a nurse in 1969-1970 and the chapter titled Ranger's Ranger covering the 1965 – 1970 tours of duty of Staff Sergeant Patrick Tadina. I was amazed at how low the casualty rate was for the units/missions he led and how long he was in Vietnam.

The book's title caught my attention when it had the date range going to 1977 instead of stopping in 1973 or 1975. Spoiler alert – the last chapter covers 1975 to 1977 and a couple who were left behind when the last Americans fled. It is intriguing.

Congratulations to author Allen B. Clark and Casemate Publishing.  You have published a special book.

"Valor in Vietnam 1963 - 1977: Chronicles of Honor, Courage and Sacrifice" by Allen B. Clark. The publisher is Casemate Publishing.

"The Battle For Tinian: Vital Stepping Stone in America's War Against Japan" by Nathan N. Prefer from Casemate Publishers.

Mr. Prefer has written an outstanding book on the battle for Tinian.  While only 240 pages, it is an excellence examination of the battle and planning. Persons interested in World War Two in the Pacific will enjoy its direct and easily understood style. The author is a master communicator. I highly recommend the book. Not only is it the tale of how to plan and execute a battle, it is a model on how to write the history of a battle.

The author starts the book with an historical overview of the Mariana Islands giving the background by placing in context why we are the based on the whereabouts, topography, and military significance. We learn why this location is so important to both the Japanese and the United States.

We look at the Battle for Tinian through the scope of the Battle for Saipan. The planning of the battle, the lessons learned, and the future implications of the education received are enduring.  

The author does an excellent job of describing the Japanese stronghold on Tinian down to both their defenses and leadership issues. The unfolding of the decision-making process of the US in selecting the landing sites is a lesson in leadership by itself.

The photographs and simple maps added to the book. Sometimes simple is better. I found myself repeatedly referring back to the maps to locate landing sites and follow the action. The way Mr. Prefer narrated the daily actions and events on landings, attacks, counterattacks had me feeling as if I were there. It was able to touch my emotion through his writing.

He does an extraordinary job pulling it all together and summarizing the campaign. The inclusion of the appendixes with key leadership, causality information, information of the ships, citations, battle orders add significant value to the work. The bibliography will help the serious student or scholar in their further study as will the excellent indexing of the book.

Nathan N. Prefer and Casemate Publishers have hit a home run with the book. Like the order of battler for Tinian, they both have set the example of how book on a battle should be written. 

"The Battle For Tinian: Vital Stepping Stone in America's War Against Japan" by Nathan N. Prefer from Casemate Publishers.

Mr. Prefer has written an outstanding book on the battle for Tinian. While only 240 pages, it is an excellence examination of the battle and planning. Persons interested in World War Two in the Pacific will enjoy its direct and easily understood style. The author is a master communicator. I highly recommend the book. Not only is it the tale of how to plan and execute a battle, it is a model on how to write the history of a battle.

The author starts the book with an historical overview of the Mariana Islands giving the background by placing in context why we are the based on the whereabouts, topography, and military significance. We learn why this location is so important to both the Japanese and the United States.

We look at the Battle for Tinian through the scope of the Battle for Saipan. The planning of the battle, the lessons learned, and the future implications of the education received are enduring.

The author does an excellent job of describing the Japanese stronghold on Tinian down to both their defenses and leadership issues. The unfolding of the decision-making process of the US in selecting the landing sites is a lesson in leadership by itself.

The photographs and simple maps added to the book. Sometimes simple is better. I found myself repeatedly referring back to the maps to locate landing sites and follow the action. The way Mr. Prefer narrated the daily actions and events on landings, attacks, counterattacks had me feeling as if I were there. It was able to touch my emotion through his writing.

He does an extraordinary job pulling it all together and summarizing the campaign. The inclusion of the appendixes with key leadership, causality information, information of the ships, citations, battle orders add significant value to the work. The bibliography will help the serious student or scholar in their further study as will the excellent indexing of the book.

Nathan N. Prefer and Casemate Publishers have hit a home run with the book. Like the order of battler for Tinian, they both have set the example of how book on a battle should be written.

Battle for the City of the Dead: In the Shadow of the Golden Dome, Najaf, August 2004 by Dick Camp

The year was 2004. During the spring and summer the Iraqi nation was overwhelmed with violence. The nation's Shiites and Sunnis headlined the sectarian fighting. The Army of Iraq had been disbanded by the United States Proconsul. The results of his actions were infusing a large number of angry young men into the streets of the population centers in Iraq. These men had no jobs skills, no jobs, and no prospects for employment. These men were literally angry in the streets. The clergy fueled their anger which developed into a rage and campaign for jihad against the United States and all "occupation forces". 

By August 2004, Muqtada Al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric, called upon thousands of Mahdi Militia, his armed followers and de facto private army, to resist the occupation. Fighting would break out in several locations. The holy city of Najaf, the site of the largest Moslem cemetery in the world, and the Imam Ali Mosque were major sites of fighting. U.S. forces found themselves fighting in 120-degree heat. The battleground was through a tangle of crypts, mausoleums, and crumbling graves. The fight was rough. It had the religious zealots against the motivated and disciplined United States Army and Marine Corps troopers. It makes for a spellbinding account of Americans in battle.

The book itself is excellent. Dick Camp tells an excellent story. The quality of the book is remarkable. I am referring to everything from the writing, the large amount of high quality color pictures, and even quality of the paper the book on which the book is printed.

Noble Warrior: The Life and Times of Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston, USMC (Ret.), Medal of Honor by James E. Livingston, Colin D. Heaton, and Anne-Marie Lewis

Noble Warrior: The Life and Times of Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston, USMC (Ret.), Medal of Honor by James E. Livingston, Colin D. Heaton, and Anne-Marie Lewis is more than the story of Maj. Gen. James Livingston and how he earned the Medal of Honor. It is an excellent book on leadership that uses his story to convey the lessons.

We learn how he went from North Georgia College and Auburn University to joining the United States Marine Corps, getting his commission and his journey to fighting in Vietnam to his post-combat career. The book is excellent. It is well written and well documented. It helps us understand the life of a Marine and his leadership.

Livingston makes clear his motivation for the unlimited and occasionally ruthless training programs for which he was known. He had his Marines doing physical training in the combat zone. He maintained discipline – personal hygiene (including shaving), weapons maintenance, and personal equipment. He was a leader by example. I have no doubt his leadership saved many lives. His men were physically fit, their equipment well maintained and in good repair, and he had earned their follow-up by providing leadership.

Livingston recounts how their under strength battalion landing team found itself in a three-day life and death battle against 7,000 experienced North Vietnamese regulars.

I found myself wondering how bad it really was as I turned the pages of the account. The narrative was captivating. He clearly painted the picture where you felt like you were there with them. I was amazed when the men left the steaks and soft drinks behind to dash to the aid of the fellow Marines. It told me a lot about how he had trained and prepared his men to be Marines. How they put the good of the mission and the unit above individual needs.

Lance Cpl. Valdez’s account of Captain Livingstone never taking a step back or flinching got my attention. It reminded me of how our actions speak louder than our words. His men saw him lead out front.

His having them fix bayonets and then a movement where he used “the tested and tried edict of penetrating and then widening the hole. We had practiced these types of small-unit maneuvers and were good at it.” Again I see the leadership. This is more than just doing your job.

These are the things you have to do to be ready. These are the types of preparation than save lives and win battles. When you do what you should do you are viewed as hard. From reading the book I am convinced that only because he had paid the price in preparation, maintained the discipline having them stay fit, sharp, and their weapons maintained allowed them to overcome such a huge force.

Livingston returned to Vietnam and was involved in the frantic mass departure of Americans and Vietnamese as Saigon fell in 1975. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1995. He went on to a successful public service career where he advised on the recovery from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. He does not hold back where he thinks the responsibility lay for that catastrophe.

The book is excellent. It would be a good addition to any military history or Vietnam War library. I see the book also as a good case study on how to do it right in the midst of a very bad situation – an outstanding resource for junior officers of all branches. The emphasis on physical training, weapons maintenance, and the basics of being a good Marine (or soldier) should inspire all junior leaders to do their job as it should be done. The use of the sidebar and the stories was excellent. It was like an in-depth look at the main event I was reading.

Major General Livingston for your service and leadership to the United States, thank you. To Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis for allowing the story to be told where you get a since for the personality and grit of Major General Livingstone, thank you. To all three authors – well done.

A Nightmare's Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot's War in Afghanistan by USMC Lt.Col (Ret) Mike Franzak

I highly recommend "A Nightmare's Prayer" by Mike Franzak. It is a wonderful memoir of the early days of the Afghanistan campaign. You get the feeling you are with him as you go through the deployment from Yuma, AZ to Bagram.

I was shocked to learn that the Harrier cannot take off vertically about 5,000 feet elevation. His description of the scary take off from Cherry Point, North Carolina had the hair standing up on the back of my neck. I loved the Blues Brothers call signs of Jake, Elwood, Blues, and Joilet. I was floored at how they aircraft struggled to stay above 400 KPH with a load and at altitude. It will provide a profound reminder of how lethal mines are ... and how they don't know who they are killing.

I shook my head at the policy makers since that speed is the maneuver speed needed to avoid the Surface to Air Missiles (SAM). When reading the book I jotted down a couple of things that caught my attention. First was "The generals and policy makers had grown so risk-averse, they tied the hands of those charged with enforcing the policies". The second was when he was landing at night and wrote, "I saw the base, but not the runway..." That was pretty profound. The tiny IR lights had been obscured by the generator powered lights of Bagram Air Base. So much for night light security.

The chapter Prayers and Promises is riveting, heart-pounding and action-packed. And you too will see after reading that chapter that "This time God had answered a Nightmare's Prayer."

The book is wonderful. It will making a lasting contribution of the literature and history of the Afghanistan War. You get Mike Franzak's story. And the story is gripping. It will have you cheering the Nightmare's actions and shaking your head at the big picture decision makers. Mike Franzak's memoir will grip you and hold your interest. It will have you turning page after page. You get a nice picture of the soldier on the ground form the pilots point of view. Bravo Lt.Col (Ret) Mike Franzak for a telling you story. Recommended for all military history buffs and aviation buffs.  Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler.

Embedded: A Marine Corps Adviser Inside the Iraqi Army

Have you wondered what it would be like to be in Iraq working with the Iraqi Army? Have you thought what it would like to get to know, work with the people in Iraq, and live with them? United States Marine Corps First Lieutenant Wesley Gray paints an insightful and sobering picture that answers these questions.

In 2006, 1st Lt. Wesley Gray was deployed as an U.S. Marine Corps military adviser to an Iraqi Army battalion in the Haditha Triad. For 210 days, he lived and fought beside Iraqi soldiers in the most dangerous and ruthless province of western Iraq. The province of Al-Anbar was filled with an insurgent population upset by a recent massacre of twenty-four men, women, and children shot at close range by U.S. Marines. They had been shot in retaliation for the death of one of their comrades in a roadside bombing.

In spite of the high tensions created by the shootings, Gray was able to form a bond with the Iraqis because he had an edge that very few U.S. service members possess - the ability to communicate in Iraqi Arabic. His language skills and his understanding of the culture led the Iraqi soldiers to call him a brother and fondly name him Jamal.

Gray draws on the brutally honest and detailed record he kept during his tour, including extensive interviews with Iraqi soldiers and citizens. He offers an all-inclusive portrait of the struggles of the Iraqi people to make their country a nation once again and includes a compelling report on the status and prospects of the U.S. government's strategy for success in Iraq.

1st Lt. Gray’s stories range from hilarious to tear inducing. I have two favorites. First, the story about getting information on who plants improvised explosive devices (IED) is chilling. Here the Iraqis tell Gray we are going about getting information in the wrong way. We should give them 24 hours to tell us who planted the IED. He is told we should demolish a house if we fail to get info. If that doesn’t work we should then demolish a block of houses. Then we will have the information. Second is the story of Major Gaines using the bathroom outdoors with a “toilet kit” at night and his getting upset as the spotlights are turned on him.

Gray also outlines Iraqi history, attitudes about leadership, and the outlook for the future of a unified State in the absence of American troops. Most of his forecast is grim.

The book is a good read and would be a valuable addition to all community libraries. It gives a realistic insight into what the USA is still confronting. The book gives answers about Iraqi culture, military culture, and is filled with a war stories and some exciting activity.

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley is one of the best World War II books I have ever read and I have read many books on World War II. The book takes you past the split second that picture was taken and puts you into the lives of the men. You learn about more than just the few moments surrounding that infamous moment in Marine history, you learn about romance in the U.S., and you learn about their families, you learn about the men who served along side the flag raisers and you learn of the impact that one picture had on their lives, and its not quite what you thought.

I strongly recommend this book. It brought a whole new found respect for those who fought to preserve my freedom. It is about more than just the flag raisers, it is about all the wonderful servicemen who gave me the country I have today. I recently saw the movie based on the book. The book is much better than the movie. Skip the movie, read the book. Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler