Entertainment, Books - Marine Corps Times

The Things They Wrote

Among the latest batch of memoirs to come from Iraq and Afghanistan are a few that may become classics:

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership and Brotherhood

By Donovan Campbell.

This “sweat-soaked, blood-soaked” tale of Iraq by an Ivy League graduate is about managing warriors — and yourself — in war.

The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier’s Account of the War in Iraq

By John Crawford

One of the best Iraq memoirs, this spare but powerful story of a National Guard soldier called to active duty while on his honeymoon makes you hope Crawford will relent and tell more.

Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq

By Jason Christopher Hartley

Soldiering and shooting in a nonchalant voice that recognizes humor and humanity.

Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital

By Heidi Squier Kraft

The Navy clinical psychologist, wife of a Marine and mother of twins, deploys to Iraq with a Marine surgical company and offers a look at her patients who were “ashamed to feel afraid.”

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education

By Craig Mullaney

Mullaney’s tours, from the U.S. Military Academy, Oxford University (as a Rhodes Scholar), Ranger School and Afghanistan, are emotional, educational and enlightening.

Soft Spots: A Marine’s Memoir of Combat and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

By Clint Van Winkle

Evidently painful to write and sometimes painful to read but recommended for its portrayal of the effects of PTSD on a former Marine sergeant, who tells all about insanity and inanity.