Gaining Insights From Modern Warfare

Boots on the Ground: Modern Land Warfare from Iraq to Ukraine. Leigh Neville. Osprey Publishing. 288 pages. $40

By Gen. David Perkins, U.S. Army retired

Military planners usually are great students of military history. They look back at previous wars to discern what the next war or conflict will be like. While there is benefit in understanding lessons learned from previous conflicts, there also is the constant tension to avoid fighting the “last war.”

In Boots on the Ground: Modern Land Warfare from Iraq to Ukraine, Leigh Neville—who has written extensively on conventional and special operations in Iraq and Afghanistan—analyzes case studies and examples of 21st-century warfare through the current fight in Ukraine. He then puts them into context of what they might mean for future conflicts with current and future threats from Iran, Russia and China. His discussions constantly balance learning from past fights with using those insights to extrapolate what they may mean for the future.

Before getting into some of the observations of recent conflicts, Neville does a good job of succinctly discussing current tensions around the world and showing how they could develop into larger and more extensive wars or conflicts. They are described in a way that doesn’t require a large background in geopolitical history or strategic experience, yet they give the reader a good understanding about the world we live in. This introduction is a critical scene-setter for the remainder of topics.

The book then thoroughly discusses, chapter by chapter, the elements of ground combat.

Neville covers the recent changes, contributions and challenges of combined-arms fighting, from tanks and armored fighting vehicles to infantry, uncrewed platforms and special operations. The chapters highlight examples and case studies from Afghanistan and Iraq to Syria, Ukraine and Gaza. The chapters are full of a wide array of tactics, techniques and procedures, and they also contain a large number of color photos to show military technology and the results of recent battles. He explains, using examples, how the rate of innovation of using current technology or developing new technology at the speed of war is happening at a pace without historical precedence.

Discussing future war in the last chapter, Neville details many of the recent and future technological innovations such as unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics, antitank guided missiles and long-range artillery.

Perhaps the most important point in the book, though, is on the last page. While he notes the character of war is constantly changing with technology, the nature of war remains the same. In the end, it is about boots on the ground—the ability for the infantry to seize and hold terrain. Everything else is an enabler.

I recommend this book as a way to understand recent events and the innovations they produced, as well as to gain some clarity about developing trends. As Neville states, the book is meant to be a quick read and a nontechnical overview of recent land warfare and what the near future may hold. Boots on the Ground accomplishes both goals.

Gen. David Perkins, U.S. Army retired, was the 15th commander of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. He commanded at every level of the Army, including an armor brigade and later an infantry division in Iraq.

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Vietnam Veteran’s Valor Finally Recognized

Every Weapon I Had: A Vietnam Vet’s Long Road to the Medal of Honor. Paris Davis. St. Martin’s Press. 272 pages. $30

By Lt. Col. James Willbanks, U.S. Army retired

On March 3, 2023, President Joe Biden presented the Medal of Honor to retired Col. Paris Davis in front of family, friends and soldiers who had served with him. The medal was presented for action in 1965 during the Vietnam War. In Every Weapon I Had: A Vietnam Vet’s Long Road to the Medal of Honor, Davis writes about his long and distinguished career and describes the action that ultimately resulted in him receiving America’s highest award for valor, albeit decades after the fact.

Davis attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he participated in the ROTC program. After graduation, he was commissioned and attended Airborne and Ranger Schools before becoming one of the few African American Special Forces officers.

On his second tour in Vietnam, Davis joined the 5th Special Forces Group and took command of Team A-321 at Camp Bong Son in Binh Dinh Province. On June 17, 1965, Davis led three members of his A-team and a group of inexperienced local troops in a nighttime attack on a Viet Cong base. The attackers were met by a numerically superior force and a pitched battle ensued that raged for 19 hours. During the fighting, Davis was all over the battlefield, directing his troops, engaging the enemy with small-arms and mortar fire, calling in air support and, at times, fighting hand-to-hand with the enemy. He was wounded several times, but refused medical evacuation until he had dragged three wounded Green Berets off the battlefield to safety, the enemy had been forced to withdraw and his troops evacuated.

Davis was originally awarded the Silver Star as an interim award; his commander, Maj. Billy Cole, nominated him for the Medal of Honor. However, the paperwork was inexplicably lost. A second nomination also was lost. After leaving Vietnam, Davis continued in the service, training Thai soldiers in unconventional warfare and counterinsurgency. He went on to numerous assignments and commanded the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, before retiring as a colonel in 1985.

Davis eventually received the Medal of Honor after a team of fellow veterans took on the Pentagon bureaucracy to get Davis’ nomination packet approved. Some in the group thought that racism had played a factor in the lost nominations. The push for Davis to receive the medal took nine years, but the group never gave up.

Every Weapon I Had is the remarkable story of an uncommon man who performed almost superhuman feats of valor in heavy combat with a determined enemy. It is also the story of dogged perseverance to right a long-standing wrong and recognize a true American hero. This book is recommended to all who want to understand that rare breed of American servicemen who wear the nation’s highest award for valor.

Lt. Col. James Willbanks, U.S. Army retired, is professor emeritus of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Leavenworth, Kansas. Prior to joining the CGSC faculty, he served 23 years as an infantry officer, including a tour in Vietnam. He holds a doctorate from the University of Kansas and is the author or editor of 20 books, including Abandoning Vietnam and A Raid Too Far.

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Telling the Story of a Guard Unit’s Role in Iraq War

Dogwood: A National Guard Unit’s War in Iraq. Andrew Wiest. Osprey Publishing. 336 pages. $30

By Col. Kevin Farrell, U.S. Army retired

One of the challenges for ARMY readers regarding scholarship on Operation Iraqi Freedom is that so many of us have first-hand experience of the war and therefore strong, personal memories of it, making objective analyses difficult. Furthermore, most accounts tend to focus on the experiences of the active force at the division level or higher. The role of the Army National Guard, especially at the small-unit level, largely is absent from works addressing the recent war in Iraq. A new book by Andrew Wiest seeks to correct this.

From Sept. 11, 2001, through the end of the global war on terror, National Guard soldiers deployed more than 750,000 times to Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations related to the conflict. As Wiest explains, “Dogwood takes a microscope to but one Guard unit and its deployment to Iraq in 2005.” Through personal interviews with veterans and family members, newspaper articles, government publications and individual memoirs, Dogwood: A National Guard Unit’s War in Iraq gives the reader a keen understanding of the soldiers and families of the 150th Combat Engineer Battalion, part of the 155th Brigade Combat Team of the Mississippi National Guard.

The book begins with a concise and effective overview of the history of the Army National Guard, but the purpose of Dogwood is to survey the lives and experiences of select members of the 155th before, during and after their deployment to Iraq. In the process, the reader gets to know the soldiers, their backgrounds, families, dreams and disappointments prior to, during and after the deployment. The shock and excitement over the notification for deployment, the hurried and intensive training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and Fort Irwin, California, and then the experiences of deploying and arriving at Camp New York in Kuwait are all covered in engaging detail. 

As far as operations in Iraq, in Anbar province and the “Triangle of Death,” Wiest brings to life the experience of combat patrols, the threat of improvised explosive devices, mortar attacks and the awful realities of casualties during one of the deadliest—and least remembered—phases of the war. A telling example is the account of the unit’s first combat death, that of Sgt. 1st Class Sean Cooley, killed by an IED blast. The attack is described vividly by a soldier who witnessed it: “A wave of heat, a massive flash that made his eyes burn like looking at an eclipse. The acrid burning of smoke. Smells. Gunpowder, burning rubber, boiling radiator fluid—blood.” The frantic actions of the soldiers and the subsequent impact on the battalion are grippingly recounted.

By the time the 155th withdrew from Iraq in December 2005, it had conducted over 1,500 combat patrols and captured over 377 “insurgent detainees,” bringing “peace to its corner of the Triangle of Death against all odds.” Unfortunately, it was not to last—following the departure of the 155th, Forward Operating Base Dogwood, the namesake of the book, was shut down.

This book is recommended for anyone interested in learning about the experiences of National Guard soldiers or the reality of combat operations during one of the most challenging periods of the American involvement in Iraq. Although it is not an operational history or tactical study, Dogwood provides great insight into the high human cost, tremendous dedication and courage of the men and women of the Mississippi National Guard, and their families.

Col. Kevin Farrell, U.S. Army retired, is the former chief of military history at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. He commanded a combined arms battalion in Iraq. He is the author of The Military and the Monarchy and holds a doctorate in history from Columbia University, New York.

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McChrystal Reflects on Cultivating Character

On Character: Choices that Define a Life. General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Army retired. Portfolio. 304 pages. $27

By Lt. Col. Pete Kilner, U.S. Army retired

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s military career ended abruptly and dramatically 15 years ago. That searing experience impelled him to reflect deeply on his character—to examine who he was and to explore who he wanted to be. He read philosophy and scrutinized his values, beliefs and behaviors. From this “late-in-the-game exploration” of his character, McChrystal believes he has arrived at a set of refined convictions that guide his choices and infuse his life with richer meaning.

In On Character: Choices that Define a Life, McChrystal shares with readers his own quest for excellent character and encourages them to make a similar journey. Good character, he believes, is the measure of a good life. The book is descriptive, not prescriptive.

McChrystal uses stories and reflections to explain why he has reached certain convictions and what he has learned about the discipline required to live up to those convictions. He does not tell readers what their convictions should be. Instead, he encourages them to use the book as a springboard to “think about what you believe and who you decide to be.”

The book is organized around McChrystal’s equation for character: Convictions x Discipline = Character. Part 1 features his reflections on identifying and clarifying convictions worth living for—and even dying for. Part 2 shares his experiences of developing the discipline—the habits—required to reliably put his convictions into practice. Part 3’s reflections convey how character forms “the essential structure of our lives.” In all, the book contains some 70 short personal reflections on his life’s experiences. Some of the reflections address matters that are well-known to the public; others are deeply personal.

As an example, one of the reflections is titled “They.” McChrystal explains how “few concepts are as powerful or as fraught with danger as the idea of They,” that impersonal mass of people who are against Us. Referring to historical examples such as Germany in the 1930s, Rwanda in the 1990s, Iraq in the 2000s and the protest at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, he notes how easy it is for neighbors and friends to become split into groups where they—the other group—are feared and demonized.

McChrystal humbly admits that this process of dehumanizing our enemies occurred in the wars he waged. He concludes the reflection by noting that although it may be human nature to generalize people into groups of us and them, we have a huge responsibility to recognize that people in the other groups are human and worthy of respect.

Despite its title, few of On Character’s reflections are overtly about character. The book’s introduction and epilogue explicitly address character, but the topics of McChrystal’s reflections in the book’s body vary widely. An index of the topics he contemplates would include leadership, citizenship, the military profession, critical thinking, pursuing excellence, social justice, family life and personal well-being. What becomes clear to the reader is that good character is the foundation for flourishing in all these important aspects of life.

On Character succeeds spectacularly at its goal of prompting its readers to examine their own lives. I often had to step away from reading the book to spend time reflecting on my own character before I could return to its next reflection. I recommend On Character to everyone who seeks to become a better version of themselves—more confident in their convictions, more determined in their discipline. Its author is an excellent role model, and its content challenging and inspiring.

Lt. Col. Pete Kilner, U.S. Army retired, is a former Hottell Chair for Character Development at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. He served 27 years in the Army as an infantry officer and West Point professor, teaching philosophy and officership. He holds a doctorate in instructional systems and master’s degrees in philosophy and character education.