Death Ground: Today's American Infantry in Battle [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Daniel P. Bolger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1999

“An informative and thought-provoking history of recent infantry operations with reasoned glimpses of its possible future.”
–DR. SHAWN WHETSTONE
Military Heritage

“This is [Colonel Bolger’s] most significant work to date, important both for students of the contemporary U.S. Army and for general readers– even those normally uninterested in military affairs. Bolger documents the infantry’s change over the past sixty years from a mass force of citizen soldiers to a small body of elite professionals. He presents each currently existing type of infantry–paratroopers, air assault, mechanized, light, rangers, and marines. . . . In each case study, Bolger emphasizes the quality and preparation, making it quite clear that will without skill and motivation without competence are certain routes to disaster. . . . While praising today’s infantry as the best the country has ever fielded, Bolger raises the prospect that the U.S. military, by emphasizing technology and economy, will leave the country with an elite infantry too small to sustain heavy losses and too specialized to be quickly replaced.”
–Publishers Weekly

DEATH GROUND
Today’s American Infantry in Battle



From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bolger, a serving army colonel, is an established writer of military fiction (Feast of Bones) and military analysis (The Battle for Hunger Hill). This is his most significant work to date, important both for students of the contemporary U.S. Army and for general readers?even those normally uninterested in military matters. Bolger documents the infantry's change, over the past 60 years, from a mass force of citizen soldiers to a small body of elite professionals. He presents each currently existing type of infantry?paratroopers, air assault, mechanized, light, rangers and marines?in recent action. For the paratroops, it's the jump into Panama during Operation Just Cause. The helicopter-borne air assault battalions and the mechanized infantry are showcased, along with the rangers, in Operation Desert Storm. The light infantry's finest hour was in Mogadishu, where its flexibility and fighting power saved a trapped American raiding party. The marines appear as peace enforcers in Liberia. In each case study, Bolger emphasizes the importance of quality and preparation, making it quite clear that will without skill and motivation without competence are certain routes to disaster. His style is colloquial and his tone triumphalist, but his message and his subtext are both clear: the grunt has evolved into a warrior, but the gain in expertise brings its own perils. While praising today's infantry as the best the country has ever fielded, Bolger raises the prospect that the U.S. military, by emphasizing technology and economy, will leave the country with an elite infantry too small to sustain heavy losses and too specialized to be quickly replaced.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A rambling, jingoistic account of the various adventures of Americas ground infantry, by a US army colonel and infantry brigade commander with a doctorate in history from the University of Chicago (Savage Peace: Americans at War in the 1990s, 1995). Bolger uses the various military operations of the recent past (Panama, Somalia, the Gulf War) to look at the forms of infantry and the ways in which they have served in combat. With chapters such as ``Death from Above'' (on paratroopers) and ``Hell on Wheels'' (motorized infantry), each looking at a different form of combat, Bolger fires military jargon so rapidly that few who have not graduated West Point will understand. Worse than the jargon is the fact that not until the very end of the book does the author do much to analyze how each form of combat is relevant to the broader mission of the military. Instead, he glories in the details of various military exploits and cheerleads the American forces (``Colonel John Sylvesters Tigers demonstrated armored warfare at the doctoral level, administering a series of hard lessons to Iraqis on the receiving end''). Bolger does little to look at the less glorious challenges facing todays infantry: challenges like limited pay, health risks (such as Gulf War Syndrome), and cutbacks in the military. Instead, the author offers detailed descriptions of the wide array of weapons available to his ``grunts.'' And he occasionally, but all too rarely, offers an exciting look at battle conditions, as he does for the Gulf War. Too much jargon for the layperson, too trivial for the amateur battlefield historian. (photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (January 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891416714
• ISBN-13: 978-0891416715
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,831,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another excellent work, April 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Death Ground: Today's American Infantry in Battle (Hardcover)

I enjoyed reading this book especially about what this senior Army infantry colonel said about the USMC. I thought that the book was a better review of Marine Corps Planning, capabilities and traditions than "The Making of the Corps". The notes at the end of the chapters are as interesting as the text.I hope TR Fehrenbach who is alive and living in Texas doesn't mind the use of his quote "Infantrymen really have no place in polite civil society" .I am remembering this quote from memory as I can't find my copy of "This Kind of War as It is always being borrowed by friends. But I am sure that TRF who is quoted and epigramed with attribution by Bolger in past books would think this is a wonderful book about the Legions that we would need when he wrote his book back in 1963. I found the book showed how the use of maneuver is no longer just nice but necessary as we must make do with less and do more. The book should certainly be added to the USMC Commandant's reading list .Bravo Zulu to Colonel Bolger

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think your rules on Publicaton are biased, April 29, 1999

By 

"cdrwinslow" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Ground: Today's American Infantry in Battle (Hardcover)

I just read your rules which state that you should not attack another reviewer's opinions but when the review has official status,I think the rule should be Modified. There are people who may be unduly influeced because this was done by an official reviewer- the Kirkus review.I think that the type of person who would like this book who is interested in this subject will realize that this review was biased by a heavy dose of Liberal thought process.The very fact of its publisher- Presidio Press is condemnatory.It is to Army literature what the Naval institute Press is to Navy/Marine Corps Material.I am sure that the military professional will just ignore the reviewer's advice(Kirkus) but I hope that the book will be read by a larger audience.We must not lecture to the choir only especially as the number of influential people (the Congress) continues to have fewer and fewer people who have been to the circus-combat.Also one man's Jingoism is another man's patriotism.Semper Fidelis

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Little to no analysis, April 28, 2002

By 

Mike Kloepper (Fort Benning, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Ground (Paperback)

This book showed great promise...an indepth look at the American Infantry on today's battlefield. As an Infantry officer on active duty I was very disappointed. I have three major complaints with this book. First, it's super cheesy and hard to take seriously. For example,"Like lightning and thunder, hard fliers and hard grunts together bring down the storm." Very colorful language, but not academic in the least.
Second, this book has little to no in-depth analysis. The author had a great opportunity to demonstrate lessons that we continue to learn across the spectrum of Infantry operations. Instead, he simply retold a few fairy tale versions of modern battle. No origional thought!
Third, this book is overly simplistic to the point of being inaccurate. For example, on page 207 the author describes the Ranger action in Mogadishu on 3 Oct 93. He states that MSG Gordon and SFC Shugart were the task force "final reserve." This is so simplified and dumbed down that its really not an accurate portraite of events.
The only reason I finished this book is because I am stuborn. I consider reading it a waste of my time.