 In
the Company of Soldiers
A Chronicle Combat
Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson provides an eyewitness
account of the war against Iraq -- and a vivid portrait of a remarkable group of
soldiers.
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. Now, in this extraordinary account of his odyssey
with the 101st, Atkinson presents an intimate, wry, and revealing portrait of
the soldiers who fight the expeditionary conflicts that have become the hallmark
of our age.
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.
He sat in on the daily briefings as the division's attacks were planned, and
then watched from the front lines as the battles were fought. 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. Throughout,
Atkinson saw that no matter how much the military stressed "stand-off" killing
power -- the ability to inflict great damage from a relatively safe distance --
the Army's success ultimately depended on the courage of soldiers who engage the
enemy directly.
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 spent much of his time in Iraq at Petraeus's elbow,
where he had an unobstructed view of the stresses, anxieties, and large joys of
commanding 17,000 soldiers in combat. Atkinson observes Petraeus wrestle with
innumerable tactical conundrums; he sees him teach, goad, and lead 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.
With the eye of a master storyteller, the premier military historian of his
generation puts us on the battlefield and inside the U.S. Army. In the
Company of Soldiers is a dramatic, utterly fresh view of the modern American
soldier in action.
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