nerdgirl 0 #1 October 22, 2009 Anyone else reading Jon Krakauer’s latest, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman? Like most of Krakauer’s previous works, e.g., Into Thin Air, it’s exceedingly readable and not overly scholarly, i.e., it's Stairmaster reading. C-SPAN’s Book TV program featured an hour-long interview with Krakauer in September, which is also available as a podcast. In the book & the interview, Krakauer makes some assertion that depending on your perspective one might call revelatory or incendiary. Most (?) of us are familiar with the Tillman’s death. Krakauer suggests that there were similar friendly fire incidents related to the deaths of 18 Marines in the battle of Nasirayah (~24min on the interview/Chapter 24 of the book). Krakauer is not the first to write about it, e.g., BBC article from 2003. Nasirayah may be better known as the battle during which Jessica Lynch was captured. Overall, the book is incredibly complimentary to Tillman and to the other soldiers with whom he trained and served. Less so w/r/t the institutional Army, which at its poorest might also be called the bureaucracy. (At its best, it's a highly effective organization.) Parts of it seem to resonate with LTC Paul Yingling’s 2007 Armed Forces Journal article, “A Failure of Generalship,” which has been cited/discussed here previously. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfriverjoe 1,523 #2 October 22, 2009 I haven't read it, but NPR interviewed Krakauer a month or so ago. The assertions are pretty strong. Not the fact that it was friendly fire, but the depth of the coverup. The one that got me is that soldiers who knew the truth were under direct orders not to tell Tillman's brother. The brother was in the immediate area, and had a soldier who knew the truth accompany him home for the funeral. But there were direct orders to conceal the truth. The incident itself is a tragedy, but those things happen in battle. Unfortunately, the instinct to cover up also happens."There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skyrad 0 #3 October 22, 2009 No but will keep an eye out for it. ThanksWhen an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy. Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kelpdiver 2 #4 October 22, 2009 Does it read more like Into Thin Air, or the Mormon diatribe (Under the Banner of Heaver). The latter was perfectly readable on a page by page basis, but half way through I was exhaused by the flood of different anecdotal stories to build up the overall case: mormons bad. Couldn't read any further after that. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nerdgirl 0 #5 October 22, 2009 QuoteDoes it read more like Into Thin Air, or the Mormon diatribe (Under the Banner of Heaver). More like Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, imo. It's 100 pages longer than Into Thin Air too. Have not read Under the Banner of Heaven. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 2,150 #6 October 22, 2009 QuoteI haven't read it, but NPR interviewed Krakauer a month or so ago. The assertions are pretty strong. Not the fact that it was friendly fire, but the depth of the coverup. The one that got me is that soldiers who knew the truth were under direct orders not to tell Tillman's brother. The brother was in the immediate area, and had a soldier who knew the truth accompany him home for the funeral. But there were direct orders to conceal the truth. The incident itself is a tragedy, but those things happen in battle. Unfortunately, the instinct to cover up also happens. Funny, it was only 11 days ago that I was criticized on this forum for observing that official reports are often whitewash jobs.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
