GENERATION KILL
Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain American
and the New Face of American War
Evan Wright
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket.
(Penguin Group, 2004). 368 pp.
"Generation Kill follows the twenty-three Marines of First Recon, in a
platoon that spearheaded the blitzkrieg on Iraq. This elite unit, nicknamed
'First Suicide Battalion,' took the fight directly to the enemy by racing ahead
of American battle forces, literally driving into suspected ambush points from
the opening days of the invasion until after the fall of Baghdad. Author Evan
Wright was embedded for two months with this group and saw frequent action,
never leaving the side of the battle-hardened team. In one thirty-day stretch
they participated in violent engagement nearly every day. He was welcomed into
their ranks - even offered a weapon. From this bird's-eye perspective Wright
tells the unsettling story of young men trained by their country to become
ruthless killers. He chronicles all the triumph and horror - physical, moral,
emotional and spiritual - that these Marines endured." Like such works as
Michael Herr's Dispatches and Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers,
Wright's book is a portrait of a generation. There is Sergeant Colbert, the icy
professional who somehow manages to keep this ragged fraternity together;
Corporal Trombley, the shy one who develops a taste for killing; Lieutenant
Fick, the Ivy League graduate who would challenge his commander but never break
faith with his men; and Captain America, the swaggering, out-of-control
commander who is later investigated for war crimes.
From Publishers
Weekly: "Wright rode into Iraq on March 20, 2003, with a platoon of First
Reconnaissance Battalion Marines-the Marine Corps' special operations unit whose
motto is 'Swift, Silent, Deadly.' These highly trained and highly motivated
First Recon Marines were the leading unit of the American-led invasion force.
Wright wrote about that experience in a three-part series in Rolling Stone that
was hailed for its evocative, accurate war reporting. This book, a greatly
expanded version of that series, matches its accomplishment. Wright is a
perceptive reporter and a facile writer. His account is a personality-driven,
readable and insightful look at the Iraq War's first month from the Marine
grunt's point of view. It jibes with other firsthand reports of the first phase
of the Iraqi invasion (including David Zucchino's Thunder Run), showing the
unsettling combination of feeble and vicious resistance put up by the Iraqi
army, the Fedayeen militiamen and their Syrian allies against American forces
bulldozing through towns and cities and into Baghdad. Wright paints compelling
portraits of a handful of Marines, most of whom are young, street-smart and
dedicated to the business of killing the enemy. As he shows them, the Marines'
main problem was trying to sort out civilians from enemy fighters. Wright does
not shy away from detailing what happened when the fog of war resulted in the
deaths and maimings of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Nor does he
hesitate to describe intimately the few instances in which Marines were killed
and wounded. Fortunately, Wright is not exposing the strengths and weaknesses of
a new generation of American fighting men, as the misleadingly hyped-up title
and subtitle indicate. Instead, he presents a vivid, well-drawn picture of those
fighters in action on the front lines in the blitzkrieg-like opening round of
the Iraq War."
~~~ Hardcover currently OUT OF PRINT.
$25.00
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