After having read a high-level account of the first 2+ years of the Iraq War in the form of Thomas Ricks' Fiasco, I turned to Evan Wright's Generation Kill for a closer look at those boots on the ground.
Wright is a journalist who spent about two months with Bravo Second Platoon of the Marines' First Reconnaissance Battalion. First Recon are the elite Marines. They're trained to travel on foot in small groups to infiltrate enemy positions and, as the name implies, do recon. But in Iraq they would be traveling in Humvees and racing through cities taking fire and letting those behind them clean up the mess. Wright met up with them at Camp Mathilda in Kuwait and then rode with them through Iraq. He earned their trust by riding in the lead vehicle, which is the first to get shot at, and sticking with them until they setup base at Ad Diwaniyah.
Second Platoon was lead by Sgt. Brad Colbert whose nickname was "The Iceman" for his ability to stay cool under pressure. Wright rode in the back of Colbert's vehicle. We get to know a host of other Marines as the platoon traverses the Iraqi desert and goes through various cities and towns. In their civilian lives, they are probably just ordinary average guys. But here, they become real characters – almost archetypes. For instance, there's Colbert's driver, Corporal Josh Person, who liked to take any all manner of stimulants which causes him to ramble on. Captain Dave McGraw is nicknamed "Captain America" and his behavior alternates between the weird and sheer panic. At one point he charges an Iraqi with bayonet and at other times his voice trembles over the radio in terror. Needless to say, he does not inspire his troops. Sgt. Antonio Espera, a Hispanic, goes on constantly about how the “White man’s gotta rule the world".
Wright notes, "Culturally, these Marines would be virtually unrecognizable to their forebears in the 'Greatest Generation.'" Indeed, Lance Cpl. Harold James Trombley says after surviving an ambush, "I was think one thing when we drove into that ambush – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I felt like I was living it when I seen the flames coming out of windows, the blown-up car in the street, guys crawling around shooting at us. It was fucking cool."
At the beginning of the mission, most of the Marines are excited about killing. Hell, some even express disappointment when they miss out on the chance to kill. The glaring exception at this point is Sgt. Ken Sutherby. Ostensibly a family man, out in the desert he's a deadly sniper. He is 39 which makes him much older than most of his fellow Marines in then platoon. Unlike the "kids" whining about not being able to shoot at someone, Sutherby is stoic about his job. "Sutherby doesn’t think about much in the way of philosophical or spiritual matters when he’s killing people. The only things going through his mind are 'shot geometry, yardage, wind.'"
But as the mission wears on, many become less sanguine. One incident which sticks in my mind involves Charlie Company. They opened up on a car which finally comes to a halt. Two men run out with their arms in the air. The Marines approach the car.
Graves sees a little girl curled up in the backseat. She looks to be about three, the same age as his daughter at home in California. There’s a small amount of blood on the upholstery, but the girl’s eyes are open. She seems to be cowering. Graves reaches in to pick her up— thinking about what medical supplies he might need to treat her, he later says—when the top of her head slides off and her brains fall out. When Graves steps back, he nearly falls over when his boot slips in the girl’s brains.
Later on Cpl. Graves would say, “This is the event that is going to get to me when I go home."
In addition to getting to know the Marines, Wright does a great job of describing combat. I found the sections when the Humvees were under fire to be engrossing. His descriptions are absolutely harrowing and I couldn't stop reading them until the fire of guns abated. At times they drove through towns are breakneck pace with gunfire coming from buildings nearby while at others the Marines were holding a position and struggled to determine where the enemy was. The chaos was palpable.
For me, Generation Kill makes a nice complement to Michael Herr's Dispatches in that the reader gets a sense of war from the perspective of the boots on the ground. They are, to be sure, different books, but they both move beyond hagiography to give portraits of our fighting men that perhaps mirrors war itself. There's lots of confusion, rage, compassion, fear, joy – the full spectrum of emotions. Unlike Herr's book, Wright's is very focused and linear. He sticks with the same people for a couple months and we get some sense of how they change over time.
The book is truly a lot of things and I suppose you'll get out of it what you want. If you're looking for combat stories, they are here. But it's also a story about men from disparate backgrounds coming together and fighting for a common cause. And I think Generation Kill also says a lot about early manhood. You've got these guys who are in their late teens or early 20s who are brash, cocky, and use insults as terms of endearment. They learn first-hand that Sherman's maxim "War is hell" is true. It's like multiple coming of age stories happen at once. The macho posturing remains but bravado matures into bravery; indiscriminate actions I suppose I chose to look out for this theme because, as a stepfather, I am watching two boys inch their way towards manhood.
Generation Kill is alternately thrilling and funny and always engaging. It gives you a brief glimpse into the lives of several men but also into war. Considering we're fighting two wars at the moment, most of us Americans hear very little about them. Sure, there are always headlines when a bomb goes off but these conflicts are very much abstractions for most of us. It was great to read something which went deeper, which went beyond press conferences and numbers. Generation Kill is simply a fascinating glimpse into the lives of soldiers fighting our wars on terrorism.
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