In the Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat
by Rick Atkinson
List Price:
Our Price: $7.51
You Save: $17.49 (70%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.55 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Rick AtkinsonEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2004-03-15
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 336
Book Reviews of In the Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat
Book Review: The Pulitzer Prize for Atkinson is Well Deserved
Summary: 5 Stars
Review: "In the Company of Soldiers - A Chronicle of Combat" by Rick Atkinson
I can tell when an author has reached out and grabbed me by the throat when I become so engrossed in reading a book that I miss my stop on the subway! Last evening, while poring over the last few pages of "In the Company of Soldiers," I just barely noticed that the doors of the Orange Line car were about to close at Downtown Crossing - my stop to transfer to the Red Line heading to my home in Quincy. Charles Dickens has the ability to pull me into his stories with that kind of rapt attention; so does Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Atkinson.
My friend, Kevin Kalkwarf, a West Point grad and Black Hawk pilot, suggested that I read "In the Company of Soldiers." Thanks, Kevin, for the recommendation. In 2003, as the U.S. prepared for the invasion of Iraq, Washington Post journalist, Rick Atkinson, was embedded with the Army's 101st Airborne Division. Atkinson was personally assigned to shadow the 101st Commanding General, David Petraeus. The resulting book paints for the reader one of the most vivid and insightful pictures yet of the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The writer not only was able to look over the shoulder of Petraeus as the 101st traveled from Ft. Campbell Kentucky to Kuwait and then on to Baghdad, he was also able to peer into the general's soul. As a result, I found that this book had a dual impact on me. At one level, Atkinson allowed me to grasp some sense of the hardship that our soldiers have endured in fighting in some of the harshest conditions imaginable. In reading some of the passages in this book, I could almost smell the pungent odors of Najaf and Karbala and almost choke on the ubiquitous sand and dust that insinuates itself into every crevice and orifice. At another level, I was glad for the intimate portrait of Petraeus, the man that many of us are counting on to lead us somehow out of the labyrinth that Iraq has become.
Atkinson's writing is so good that I feel compelled to let him speak in his own words. Here he describes the scene at Camp New Jersey, a way station in Kuwait that the 101st called home while awaiting orders to invade Iraq.
"Yet a desolate, edge-of-the-empire beauty obtained. As Dwyer and I walked, dawn spread over the eastern horizon in a molten brew of orange and indigo, silhouetting the wooden guard towers. Platoons ran wind sprints across the desert or jumped about in calisthenic exuberance. The cuffs of the troops' desert boots were indelibly inked with their blood types, a legion of Os and As and A-positives. A soldier ambled past with a grenade launcher on his shoulder, singing in a sweet falsetto: `Sha-na-na-na, good-bye!' I fancied that in its remote, martial spirit this encampment was of a piece with the Roman outposts, perhaps ancient Timgad in North Africa, built by the Third Legion in A.D. 100, where a traveler described the scuffing cadence of Trajan's soldiers helmed in bronze, and `barbarians from the outer desert in paint and feathers flitting along the narrow byways.'" (Pages 79-80)
One of the aspects of this book that I found most compelling was Atkinson artistry in connecting the Iraq of the 21st century to the Mesopotamia of biblical times and of ancient glories. The following passage is an excellent example of his giftedness in bridging these disparate worlds:
"Chickens scattered into the brush as Warlord 457 [Petraeus' helicopter] and our two Kiowa bodyguards carefully threaded the telephone wires and touched down on a two-lane blacktop a few hundred yards from where the car bomb had detonated this morning. Objective Jenkins, as the Army called this place, occupied the western bank of the Euphrates, fourteen miles north of Najaf. The road continued another eight hundred yards, the crossed the last bridge spanning the river before a great south-flowing fork in the Euphrates. Beyond the bridge lay the town of Kifl. In this place the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, humorless and God-besotted, had preached to the Jews during their Babylonian captivity in the sixth century B.C., foretelling the restoration of Israel. The 3rd ID [Infantry Division] recently had battled through Jenkins and into Kifl, and I spotted a couple dozen dead Iraqis in body bags stacked under the palms. Here, at least, the corpse traffic still thrived. . . . At 1:35 P.M., a convoy of five Humvees came down the road, trailed by a Bradley. [Lt. General William Scott] Wallace climbed out with Major General Buford C. Blount III, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. For half an hour they stood on the road with Petraeus and studied their maps. Blount was keen to plunge on toward Baghdad, but Wallace insisted that he wait until all three of the 3rd ID infantry brigades were gathered above Najaf; only today was the 82nd Airborne supplanting Blount's 3rd Brigade at Samawah, where Army intelligence estimated that five hundred entrenched diehards were coercing another fifteen hundred Iraqis to fight through executions and extortion.
I heard the dull crump of a mortar round detonate on our side of the Euphrates. A minute later Army 105mm howitzers barked in reply, dumping fifteen or twenty counterbattery rounds across the river.
Wallace drove off with his entourage. We reboarded the Blackhawk and angled east before swinging south. The lovely green ribbon of the Euphrates scrolled past Kifl, which lay badly smashed on the far bank. Ezekiel's tomb stood somewhere in that desolation. 'There was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to bone.' The prophet had written. `And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.'" (Pages 197-199)
Atkinson shares a poignant litany that became an almost predictable exit line whenever Gen. Petraeus would end a conversation with the journalist. The commanding general would wonder out loud: "How does this end?" His thoughtful query becomes even more significant in light of his promotion and the fact that he now holds in his hands the reins for determining how the U.S. military on the ground in Iraq will extricate itself from the quagmire. He is a significant player in determining how it will end.
Atkinson saw the soldiers of the 101st in all kinds of conditions and under the most extreme of circumstances. He eavesdropped on their decision-making, their laughter, their frustrations and their fears. On the day he flew back to Kuwait to return to the U.S., part of him felt as if he were abandoning comrades in arms. His respect for the leadership of Petraeus is heart-felt and well-earned. "His pragmatism and broad peacekeeping experience in Haiti and Bosnia had prepared him for the thankless work of a proconsul in the American imperium." (Page 294)
The writer's admiration for all the soldiers he had come to know comes through loud and clear in this valedictory: "The division's soldiers had done well, demonstrating competence and professionalism. Capably led - the division's brigade commanders and two assistant division commanders were uncommonly excellent - they took hardship in stride and refused to let bloodlust, cynicism, or other despoilers of good army cheat them of their battle honors. They were better than the cause they served, which would soon be tarnished by revelations that the casus belli - that Iraq posed an immanent, existential danger to America and its allies - was inflated and perhaps fraudulent. If the war's predicate was phony, it cheapened the sacrifices of the dead and living alike. Yet such strategic nuances were beyond the province of soldiering, and I believed it vital not to conflate the warriors with the war." (Page 294)
This fine book brings the non-combatant reader as close as possible to the rigors of the modern battlefield, and leaves one with a renewed sense of admiration for those who fight and serve. Atkinson has handled well the trust that was placed in him, and we are all enriched by his thoughtful response to the time he spent in the company of soldiers.
Al
Summary of In the Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat
For soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division, the road to Baghdad began with a midnight flight out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in late February 2003. For Rick Atkinson, who would spend nearly two months covering the division for The Washington Post, the war in Iraq provided a unique opportunity to observe today's U.S. Army in combat.
Granted complete access to the commanders and troops of the 101st, Atkinson saw their war from the preparations in Kuwait through the occupation of Baghdad. As the war unfolded, he witnessed the division's struggles to overcome a murderous attack by one of its own soldiers, a disastrous Apache helicopter raid, and fierce resistance from guerrilla diehards in Najaf, Karbala, and Hilla.
At the center of Atkinson's drama stands the compelling figure of Major General David H. Petraeus, described by one comrade as "the most competitive man on the planet." Atkinson observes Petraeus as he teaches, goads, and leads his troops and subordinate commanders in several intense battles. All around Petraeus, we watch the men and women of a storied division grapple with the challenges of waging war in an unspeakably harsh environment. But even as the military wins an overwhelming victory, we also see portents of the battles that would haunt the occupation in the long months ahead.
In the Company of Soldiers is a dramatic, utterly fresh view of the modern American soldier in action from the premier military historian of his generation.
The advent of embedded reporters in the opening days of the 2003 US war on Iraq meant a more direct and personal point of view than battlefield coverage has historically offered. Rick Atkinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for An Army at Dawn, an account of combat in North Africa during World War II, traveled with the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army from its deployment out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky through its entry into Baghdad. The result, In the Company of Soldiers, is a thoroughly engrossing look at the strategies, personalities, and struggles of waging modern warfare. Much of Atkinson's focus falls on the division's leader, the hugely competitive and charismatic Major General David Petraeus, who seems to guide his troops through Iraq by sheer force of will. Atkinson devotes most of his time to the senior commanders, but the loss of the G.I. perspective, while disappointing, is outweighed by Atkinson's access to the minds of the brass who must navigate an Iraq whose citizens were not nearly as happy as military planners had hoped and who offered resistance in ways other than what the Americans had prepared for. While plenty has been written about the American military effort in Iraq, Atkinson's perspective, combined with a direct, economical writing style, allows him to present sides to the war not often seen or considered: long periods of waiting punctuated with mad scrambles to apply gas masks, fretting over how to pack all necessary supplies into tiny kits, dealing with dust storms that can ground state of the art attack helicopters, and reading the irreverent yet shrewdly observant graffiti left by American soldiers. In the Company of Soldiers lionizes the American military officers but it neither condemns nor offers unqualified praise to the US effort in Iraq. Indeed, the disturbing omens of chaos hinted at soon after the invasion began in the spring of 2003 would come into sharper relief when the book was published a year later. --John Moe
Iraq Books
- Books > Subjects > History > Middle East
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Iraq Books
Strategy in Vietnam: The Marines and Revolutionary Warfare in I Corps, 1965-1972 (Praeger Studies in Diplomacy and Strategic Thought)by MICHAEL A. HENNESSY
Praeger Publishers; Published: 1997-08-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $108.76
Price in other shops:
Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq Warby Jonathan Pieslak
Indiana University Press; Published: 2009-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Voices from Iraq: A People's History, 2003-2009by Mark Kukis
Columbia University Press; Published: 2011-06-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops:
The Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921Columbia University Press; Published: 2004-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.35
Price in other shops:
Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation-Building and a History Deniedby Toby Dodge
Columbia University Press; Published: 2003-10-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops:
Lethal Warriors: When the New Band of Brothers Came Homeby David Philipps
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2010-11-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.94
Price in other shops:
Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraqby Susan A. Brewer
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2011-03-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.45
Price in other shops:
Britain's Informal Empire in the Middle East: A Case Study of Iraq 1929-1941by Daniel Silverfarb, Majid Khadduri
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1986-06-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $89.99
Price in other shops:
Mayada, Daughter of Iraqby Jean Sasson
Dutton Adult; Published: 2003-10-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraqby Karl Zinsmeister
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 2004-10-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945by Max Hastings
Knopf; Published: 2004-11-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops:
CITIZEN SOLDIERS : The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany -- June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945by Stephen E. Ambrose
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1997-11-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.85
Price in other shops:
American Soldierby General Tommy Franks, Malcolm McConnell
Regan Books/Harper Collins; Published: 2004-08-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops:
Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf Warby Rick Atkinson
Mariner Books; Published: 1994-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.33
Price in other shops:
Crusade : The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf Warby Rick Atkinson
Houghton Mifflin; Published: 1993-11-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.65
Price in other shops:
The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966by Rick Atkinson
Houghton Mifflin Company; Published: 1989-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.87
Price in other shops:
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (The Liberation Trilogy, Vol. 1)by Rick Atkinson
Henry Holt and Co.; Published: 2002-10-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.61
Price in other shops:
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (Volume Two of The Liberation Trilogy)by Rick Atkinson
Henry Holt and Co.; Published: 2007-10-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops:
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogyby Rick Atkinson
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2007-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (Liberation Trilogy)by Rick Atkinson
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2008-09-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.93
Price in other shops: