Sometimes one of the best ways to study something like leadership is to look closely at instances that lacked it, to look at what happens when there is a vacuum of leadership. Unfortunately, that is what happened to this platoon and the results were a textbook worst case scenario. This difficult story is chronicled with great care and integrity. There is no blaming, no conclusive reason given for the events that took place - the story is simply told.
For anyone interested in military history this is a must read. For anyone interested in questions of why human beings do horrible actions it is a must read. For anyone who lives in our great, free country knowing the difficulties suffered by those who serve is essential and this book is a must read.
"Troop numbers, however, made this strategy untenable. US troops did the clearing, but there weren't enough soldiers to occupy recently purged areas. Iraqi forces were supposed to do the holding, but there were even fewer of them who were competent." Pg 18
Explaining the stress of patrolling areas with IED's:
"'It's like someone has a gun to your head and you don't know whether they're going to kill you or let you live.' remembered one soldier. Even in a firefight , as scary as those can be, at least you feel like you have some control over your destiny, which is why, let's be honest, they can also be exhilarating. You can fight back, there are people to engage, and even though some Americans might get shot or even die, an undeniable confidence remains because you seriously doubt that a bunch of insurgents, even a large group of them, will beat a group of Americans in a straight-up firefight. But IED's? They are inescapbable, they are frightening in an almost unimaginable way and they begin to weigh on you.
Every ride in a Humvee, every one, is an exercise in terror. You're riding with your butt cheeks and fists clenched, doing deep breathing to get control of your heart rate and your nausea the whole time, waiting for it, waiting for it, waiting for it." Pg 84
"By far the biggest complaint the men had with the Sportster TCP's was the way they were forced to look for IED's. Every morning around dawn, soldiers had to conduct 'dismounted IED sweeps.' essentially walking from their post to the next TCP and back looking for makeshift bombs . . . 'Every morning before conducting an IED sweep, you truly felt that this was the day that you were going to die.'" "The fear and the mental stress were cumulative. It was not so much that the men were asked to do something hazardous, it was the daily, grinding awareness that tomorrow they would have to do it all over again." Pg 114
Book 15
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