The real thing: “A Platoon Leader’s Tour”

I’ve been reading a compilation of accounts by Army platoon leaders about serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is structured chronologically, taking the reader from deployment through first combat, first loss of a soldier, through other significant events, and eventually going back home.

Because it consists of selected memories of 92 moments experienced by scores of young officers, it amounts to a pretty relentless memoir, with a nightmarish quality. In “Month Three,” for example, a well-liked sergeant is blown to bits by a bomb on a hot day. His comrades put the pieces in a body bag and prepare to head back to base, but then are ordered to remain in place until another unit arrives on the scene. The remains lie in the back of a Humvee, getting hotter and hotter.

“Sir,” [Lt. Craig] Arnold’s driver said with a glance at the body bag, his voice cracking. “it isn’t right for him to be out in the heat like this.”

“It’s not respectful,” added his gunner.

“I don’t like it either, guys,” Arnold replied. “But we need to do our mission. Sergeant W’s in a better place than us now anyway.”

Later in the same month, a lieutenant whose real name isn’t given heard smacking sounds behind a closed door in a house members of his platoon were searching.

Opening the door, he saw one of his squad leaders punching a civilian in the head and stomach. At that moment, it reminded the PL [platoon leader] of old film clips he’d watched of Joe Frazier punching Mohammed Ali when Ali had done his rope-a-dope routine. The Iraqi man was leaning back against a wall, crouching forward with his elbows held high to his ears to protect himself.

… “Get in the truck, sergeant,” [the lieutenant] told him. “You’re done for today.”

Episode 44 in the book, about a firefight while in a gunboat on the Tigris, reminded me of the scene in Apocalypse Now when the saucier runs into a tiger.

The book, compiled by Lt. Col. Pete Kilner, Lt. Col. Nate Allen, and Nate Self, is published by West Point’s Center for the Advancement of Leader Development and Organizational Learning. If you’re in the Army you should be able to find it online at http://proreading.army.mil.

This collection would be a great book to read as a companion volume to Burgoyne and Marckwardt’s wonderful The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa.

Here’s another spur-of-the moment Best Defense contest: I have two copies of The Platoon Leader’s Tour, so the best comment on this post will receive the second, unmarked one. I will make the selection and announce it.

Speaking of contests, in yesterday’s, about whether I should stop bashing Bush, a few of youse who sent good comments by e-mail need to post them to be eligible. Don’t be shy guys. 

U.S. Army