Writings from The Sandbox
So, for the last year or so I've been working my way through combat narratives and milblogs of those deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan. I hear many people say "I don't support the war, but I support the troops!" and I've said that a time or twenty myself. But if that is your position, then you owe it to the troops to *listen* to them. *Remember* where they are and what they are doing. *Understand* what it means to be deployed - to them and to their families. And then *support* them, with more than words, while they are deployed and when, please God, they come home.
Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families
Edited by Andrew Carroll
If you only read one of the books that I list here, pick this one. This book stems from an initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to inspire U.S. Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and their families to write down and share their personal wartime experiences. The initiative started with the idea that some American authors (including Tom Clancy, Jeff Shaara, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Mark Bowdenrun) would conduct writing workshops at several different military installations (I think they originally planned to do 10 workshops). Response was so overwhelming that they ended up conducting 50 workshops in 25 domestic and overseas military installations. Over 1200 submissions were made, with a range of genres such as memoirs, short stories, poems, letters, and email correspondence. Over 50,000 pages of text. The collection was then edited down by Andrew Carroll (editor of Letters of a Nation, Behind the Lines, and War Letters) to just over 100 writings. The voices are poignant, funny, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.
***
The Sandbox: Dispatches from the Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
Edited by David Stanford, Duty Officer, Doonesbury Town Hall
This collection of stories comes from the The Sandbox military blog launched by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau in October 2006. An *excellent* collection - stories from about 35 different people, from different service branches (though it doesn't say who is what), and different ranks, and even a couple civilians. The milblog is still going (I get the feed on my LJ Friends page), but what's nice about the book is that they picked some great writers, great storytellers. And there's a good representation from Afghanistan, which really is a completely different animal than Iraq. A couple of the stories are tear-jerkers, but most of them are on the humorous side, or the WTF? side, and it's a very quick read. I highly recommend this one.
***
Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq
By Jason Hartley
This is a single blog-to-book account from an NY National Guardsman. This one is interesting because he served towards the beginning of the war, and I don't think the Army had yet come to terms with milblogs. In fact, Hartley's blogging got him demoted and threatened with Courts Martial at the end of his tour, as he clashed with Army leadership over the difference between mission confidential and honest observation. It's a quick read, not overly poetic or profound, but an interesting account.
***
My War: Killing Time in Iraq
By Colby Buzzell
This is the first book I read in this genre, and it was eye-opening to say the least. This kid is totally the opposite of military material: He's a San Fran, pot-brownie eating, punk-rock, skateboarding Nader-supporter. So, um, yeah. Add that to one rigid and conservative organization (the Army), a war zone, and stir. I should put a language warning on, hmm, all of these, but this one is especially foul. My War is another blog-to-book, and ends with another clash with the Army over blogging. But it's *really* a different perspective from any of the other same-genre books.
***
One Bullet Away: Making of a Marine Officer
By Nathanial C. Fick
OK, Marines are different from any other type of people on this earth. Marines are not soldiers; they are Marines, and this book is a very well written account of the type of personality it takes to be a Marine. This guy was a classics major at Dartmouth when he signed up in 1998, and he takes you all the way through basic, Officer Candidate School, his first deployment (he was in Australia during 9/11), to being part of some of the first US troops in Afghanistan, to being some of the first deployed to Iraq. Oh, and somewhere in there he goes to Recon school too (Marines don't have Special Forces - but a Recon Marine would have the training equivalent of a Navy SEAL or Army Airborne.) He can be a little dry at times, but for the most part, it's eloquent and insightful. I recommend this one, if nothing else, for the insight into the USMC.
***
Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War
By Evan Wright
This is the companion book to One Bullet Away. Wright is a Rolling Stone journalist who embedded with Fick's First Recon Marine battalion in Iraq. Fick has to be somewhat restrained about his fellow officers and sometimes illogical military policy, but Wright has no such compunction. Fick has an officer's perspective (which is *seriously* different from enlisted), and his narrative focuses mainly on *his* squad, his company. Wright was embedded with the battalion, can give a broader picture, and move from enlisted Marine up to the battalion commander. Read One Bullet Away first, then read this book, without the "Marine lens" to fill out the stories.
***
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10,
By by Marcus Luttrell, with Patrick Robinson
Four SEALs go into Afghanistan, and 5 days later, only one comes out. In addition, an entire flight crew and additional SEAL team (16 men) sent in for rescue are shot down and killed. The single worst loss of US Special Forces in history. Luttrell's account of the firefight and survival for days after are really unimaginable. He literally *fell* down mountainsides. Got shot. Broke bones. Nearly died of dehydration. Lost something like 40 pounds in a week.
If the book was *just* this retelling of a mission gone bad, I'd give it a higher recommendation. But, the whole first part of the book is just back story on Luttrell growing up in Texas, always wanting to be a SEAL, going through SEAL training... I have nothing against Texas or Texans. I just was a little put off by Luttrell's love of Dubya and his use of the phrase "the liberal media" one too many times. He's very gung-ho military. What's nice about the other books is while the authors may like their particular branch of the military, they aren't afraid to point out the flaws. Anyway, read this one only if you are *really* into military stories.
And, here are a couple of unique ways you can show your support, should you feel compelled.
Books For Soldiers - I think in every one of the aforementioned books, the author complains about boredom and/or waiting around. Evidently, it's not all shoot 'em ups, all the time when you are deployed. Who knew? ;) This cool non-profit helps get books, DVDs, music, tube socks, and more to US military personnel stationed all over the globe.
Soldiers' Angels - this non-profit's mission is to provide aid and comfort to the military and its families, provide immediate response to hard situations, and make sure no soldier feels unloved. Aw! What I really like about them is their special projects, especially Project Valor-IT, which provides voice-activated laptops for injured troops.
Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families
Edited by Andrew Carroll
If you only read one of the books that I list here, pick this one. This book stems from an initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to inspire U.S. Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and their families to write down and share their personal wartime experiences. The initiative started with the idea that some American authors (including Tom Clancy, Jeff Shaara, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Mark Bowdenrun) would conduct writing workshops at several different military installations (I think they originally planned to do 10 workshops). Response was so overwhelming that they ended up conducting 50 workshops in 25 domestic and overseas military installations. Over 1200 submissions were made, with a range of genres such as memoirs, short stories, poems, letters, and email correspondence. Over 50,000 pages of text. The collection was then edited down by Andrew Carroll (editor of Letters of a Nation, Behind the Lines, and War Letters) to just over 100 writings. The voices are poignant, funny, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.
***
The Sandbox: Dispatches from the Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
Edited by David Stanford, Duty Officer, Doonesbury Town Hall
This collection of stories comes from the The Sandbox military blog launched by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau in October 2006. An *excellent* collection - stories from about 35 different people, from different service branches (though it doesn't say who is what), and different ranks, and even a couple civilians. The milblog is still going (I get the feed on my LJ Friends page), but what's nice about the book is that they picked some great writers, great storytellers. And there's a good representation from Afghanistan, which really is a completely different animal than Iraq. A couple of the stories are tear-jerkers, but most of them are on the humorous side, or the WTF? side, and it's a very quick read. I highly recommend this one.
***
Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq
By Jason Hartley
This is a single blog-to-book account from an NY National Guardsman. This one is interesting because he served towards the beginning of the war, and I don't think the Army had yet come to terms with milblogs. In fact, Hartley's blogging got him demoted and threatened with Courts Martial at the end of his tour, as he clashed with Army leadership over the difference between mission confidential and honest observation. It's a quick read, not overly poetic or profound, but an interesting account.
***
My War: Killing Time in Iraq
By Colby Buzzell
This is the first book I read in this genre, and it was eye-opening to say the least. This kid is totally the opposite of military material: He's a San Fran, pot-brownie eating, punk-rock, skateboarding Nader-supporter. So, um, yeah. Add that to one rigid and conservative organization (the Army), a war zone, and stir. I should put a language warning on, hmm, all of these, but this one is especially foul. My War is another blog-to-book, and ends with another clash with the Army over blogging. But it's *really* a different perspective from any of the other same-genre books.
***
One Bullet Away: Making of a Marine Officer
By Nathanial C. Fick
OK, Marines are different from any other type of people on this earth. Marines are not soldiers; they are Marines, and this book is a very well written account of the type of personality it takes to be a Marine. This guy was a classics major at Dartmouth when he signed up in 1998, and he takes you all the way through basic, Officer Candidate School, his first deployment (he was in Australia during 9/11), to being part of some of the first US troops in Afghanistan, to being some of the first deployed to Iraq. Oh, and somewhere in there he goes to Recon school too (Marines don't have Special Forces - but a Recon Marine would have the training equivalent of a Navy SEAL or Army Airborne.) He can be a little dry at times, but for the most part, it's eloquent and insightful. I recommend this one, if nothing else, for the insight into the USMC.
***
Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War
By Evan Wright
This is the companion book to One Bullet Away. Wright is a Rolling Stone journalist who embedded with Fick's First Recon Marine battalion in Iraq. Fick has to be somewhat restrained about his fellow officers and sometimes illogical military policy, but Wright has no such compunction. Fick has an officer's perspective (which is *seriously* different from enlisted), and his narrative focuses mainly on *his* squad, his company. Wright was embedded with the battalion, can give a broader picture, and move from enlisted Marine up to the battalion commander. Read One Bullet Away first, then read this book, without the "Marine lens" to fill out the stories.
***
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10,
By by Marcus Luttrell, with Patrick Robinson
Four SEALs go into Afghanistan, and 5 days later, only one comes out. In addition, an entire flight crew and additional SEAL team (16 men) sent in for rescue are shot down and killed. The single worst loss of US Special Forces in history. Luttrell's account of the firefight and survival for days after are really unimaginable. He literally *fell* down mountainsides. Got shot. Broke bones. Nearly died of dehydration. Lost something like 40 pounds in a week.
If the book was *just* this retelling of a mission gone bad, I'd give it a higher recommendation. But, the whole first part of the book is just back story on Luttrell growing up in Texas, always wanting to be a SEAL, going through SEAL training... I have nothing against Texas or Texans. I just was a little put off by Luttrell's love of Dubya and his use of the phrase "the liberal media" one too many times. He's very gung-ho military. What's nice about the other books is while the authors may like their particular branch of the military, they aren't afraid to point out the flaws. Anyway, read this one only if you are *really* into military stories.
And, here are a couple of unique ways you can show your support, should you feel compelled.
Books For Soldiers - I think in every one of the aforementioned books, the author complains about boredom and/or waiting around. Evidently, it's not all shoot 'em ups, all the time when you are deployed. Who knew? ;) This cool non-profit helps get books, DVDs, music, tube socks, and more to US military personnel stationed all over the globe.
Soldiers' Angels - this non-profit's mission is to provide aid and comfort to the military and its families, provide immediate response to hard situations, and make sure no soldier feels unloved. Aw! What I really like about them is their special projects, especially Project Valor-IT, which provides voice-activated laptops for injured troops.