Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir [Hardcover]

Joel Turnipseed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2003

In early summer of 1990, Joel Turnipseed was homeless -- kicked out of his college's philosophy program, dumped by his girlfriend. He had been AWOL from his Marine Corps Reserve unit for more than three months, spending his days hanging out in coffee shops reading Plato and Thoreau. Then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Turnipseed's unit was activated for service in Operation Desert Shield. By January of '91, he was in Saudi Arabia driving tractor-trailers for the Sixth Motor Transport Battalion -- the legendary 'Baghdad Express'. The greatest logistical operation in Marine Corps history, the Baghdad Express hauled truckloads of explosives and ammunition across hundreds of miles of desert. But on the brink of war, Turnipseed's greatest struggles are still within. Armed with an M-16 and a seabag full of philosophy books, he is a wise-ass misfit, an ironic observer with a keen eye for vivid detail, a rebellious Marine alive to the moral ambiguity of his life and his situation. Developed from Turnipseed's 1997 feature article for GQ Magazine, this innovative memoir -- simultaneously terrifying and hilarious, equal parts Catch-22 and Catcher in the Rye -- explores both the absurdities of war and the necessity of accepting our flawed world of shadows. With expansive humanity and profane grace, Turnipseed finds the real-world answers to his philosophical questions and reaches the hardest peace for any young man to achieve -- with himself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Turnipseed has expanded a 1997 GQ article on his experiences as a reluctant Marine during the first war with Iraq into a compelling memoir that has more than a little in common with Anthony Swofford's Jarhead, which was also an account of the camaraderie, "soul rending boredom" and horror of life on the battlefield by a bookish soldier more comfortable hefting a pen than a gun. In 1990, Turnipseed is a college dropout in Minnesota, spending his days sipping coffee and reading Nietzsche, when his unit is called up for active duty. The first thing he does is decide to start smoking. Armed with a pack of Camels (later a pipe), a journal and a duffel full of philosophy texts, Turnipseed soon finds himself hauling munitions through the Saudi desert. His bunkmates, with their Game Boys and beer parties, at first regard him with suspicion. And no wonder: when his nose isn't buried in a Kierkegaard tome, he's prone to pedantic lectures and generally comes across as sneering and pretentious. For a while, Turnipseed relishes his role as egghead among the meatheads. Offered a warm Old Milwaukee one night by one of his brothers-in-arms, Turnipseed waves him off and turns back to his book. "Get real," the soldier retorts. "We're all in this together now, philosopher. Better make the best of what ya got." And soon, of course, his pompous veneer melts away in the desert sun and he realizes he has more in common with his Marine brothers than he would ever have thought. This is a coming-of-age story with all the right ingredients: self-deprecation, wit, insight, irony and a lucid, enthusiastic writing style. The Marine who emerges at war's end is older and wiser-and liked and accepted by his unit-and a pretty good writer to boot.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This is a wonderfully timely book. Baghdad Express is well-written, very up to date, and in many ways an amazing tour de force."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 203 pages
• Publisher: Borealis Books; 1 edition (May 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873514505
• ISBN-13: 978-0873514507
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,155,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best accounts of the gulf war yet, May 20, 2003

By 

Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir (Hardcover)

Baghdad Express is a memoir of the first Gulf War written by Minnesota native Joel Turnipseed. Since this came out around the same time as Anthony Swofford's Jarhead, there will likely be some comparisons. There shouldn't be. Baghdad Express is much better. On a very basic level, Turnipseed is a better writer than Swofford is. Baghdad Express is well constructed and follows from beginning to end the tour of duty in Desert Storm.

Joel Turnipseed is a different kind of a soldier. More of an intellectual than the prototypical warrior, he would much rather be in a coffeehouse discussing philosophy than in a military caravan. However, Joel Turnipseed is a Marine. He wanted out of the Corps, but never left and now he was called up and activated. When we learn that Turnipseed brings volumes and volumes of philosophy with him to war, we know that we are in for a different kind of war story.

Turnipseed was a driver for the Baghdad Express. The Baghdad Express was the largest supply line in recorded war. He would drive up to 600 miles a day in round trips bringind supplies and material to the front lines where the fighting and flying is going on. So while he wasn't a front line fighting soldier, he had a vital role in the first Gulf War. He relates his experiences in the war. Partially an outcast because of his philosophy, he was also included in a group called the Dog Pound. The Dog Pound was mostly African-American soldiers (Turnipseed is white) who loved to talk. Community was build through trading insults and fast moving conversation. Turnipseed's ability to adapt to this and his inclusion into the group (even spouting philosophy and have it listened to) was probably vital to his experience. However, as the war ends and the Minnesota group came back, Turnipseed finds himself slipping out of the Dog Pound that was his home for the duration of the war.

This was a very different look at a war because of who Joel Turnipseed is. He writes as a disclaimer that this is a memoir of memory and not of journalism so any mistakes is from what he remembers and perhaps not as everything actually happened....and this is a very honest admission. This is his story as he remembers it. He tells it very well and it is the best account I have read of the Gulf War (Thus far).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outcast at war in the gulf, January 29, 2005

By 

Frank L. Greenagel Jr. (New Brunswick, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir (Paperback)

Turnipseed's book is about, in my opinion, the most noble kind of soldier, a reluctant warrior. Turnipseed had been AWOL for a few months before Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1991. He was a philosophy major at the University of Minnesota, and when he went to Saudi Arabia in January, he brought a number of his books with him. He views the war from his own quirky (and yes, liberal) standpoint, but he also does a good job of looking at it through the lens of the works of Plato, Thoreau and a host of other philosphers. During his time in Iraq, he comes across a number of sympathetic and not so sympathetic characters -- they all spring to life from the pages through his descriptions and dialogue. There are a number of really good reviews on this site that do this book more justice than I do...read them.

I really wish they would teach this book at West Point.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars News from somewhere I've never been, March 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir (Hardcover)

Thank you, Joel, for sharing your story. This story may not reflect everybody's experience who was in the Gulf War, but that's OK. Turnipseed doesn't claim to speak for everybody, only himself. Why amazon and other sites continue to allow posts such as the one below, which border on personal character attacks, is truly a mystery to me. Anyone who wants to represent their experience more accurately is welcome to write his/her own book and put his/her real name on it so we can all post our opinions about them on amazon. By the way, I think Joel writes top-notch dialogue!