The Gift of Valor: A War Story [Hardcover]

Michael M. Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2005

Every day ordinary young Americans are fighting in Iraq with the same bravery, honor, and sense of duty that have distinguished American troops throughout history. One of these is Jason Dunham, a twenty-two-year-old Marine corporal from the one-stoplight town of Scio, New York, whose stunning story reporter Michael M. Phillips discovered while he was embedded with a Marine infantry battalion in the Iraqi desert. Corporal Dunham was on patrol near the Syrian border, on April 14, 2004, when a black-clad Iraqi leaped out of a car and grabbed him around his neck. Fighting hand-to-hand in the dirt, Dunham saw his attacker drop a grenade and made the instantaneous decision to place his own helmet over the explosive in the hope of containing the blast and protecting his men. When the smoke cleared, Dunham’s helmet was in shreds, and the corporal lay face down in his own blood. The Marines beside him were seriously wounded. Dunham was subsequently nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for military valor.

Phillips’s minute-by-minute chronicle of the chaotic fighting that raged throughout the area and culminated in Dunham’s injury provides a grunt’s-eye view of war as it’s being fought today—fear, confusion, bravery, and suffering set against a brotherhood forged in combat. His account of Dunham’s eight-day journey home and of his parents’ heartrending reunion with their son powerfully illustrates the cold brutality of war and the fragile humanity of those who fight it. Dunham leaves an indelible mark upon all who know his story, from the doctors and nurses who treat him, to the readers of the original Wall Street Journal article that told of his singular act of valor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

During a hard day of fighting in the Iraqi town of Husaybah in the spring of 2004, Marine Corporal Jason Dunham clamped his Kevlar helmet over a grenade dropped by an insurgent he and two other Marines were struggling to subdue. The story of his split-second of heroism, expanded here from Phillips's original Wall Street Journal article, makes for an absorbing if somewhat distended tearjerker. Working from copious reminiscences by Dunham's comrades and family, the author paints an idealized portrait of a lovable but callow youth who turned into a "natural leader of men" in the Marine Corps. The book picks up when it gets to the action; Phillips's nearly shot-by-shot recap of the day's bloody and chaotic combat is one of the most vivid depictions of the American side of the Iraqi insurgency. The final half of the book is devoted to the aftermath, following Dunham, who sustained fatal head wounds and never regained consciousness, as he winds his way through the military hospital system before finally being taken off life support. Full of grisly medical procedures and details of the Marines' cult of solicitude for the fallen, this part is drenched with maudlin pathos. Phillips's account sometimes feels padded with extraneous factoids and is too embedded in the Marine ethos of gung-ho sentimentality to question it very probingly. It's an often engrossing tribute to the courage of common soldiers but, like much writing about the American war effort, it skirts the troubling issue of the ultimate purpose of their sacrifice. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This expanded retelling of a front-page story that originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal serves as a memorable narrative tribute to the life and death of U.S. Marine Corporal Jason Dunham. At age 22, serving in Iraq near the Syrian border with the Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, Dunham suffered a grievous head injury when he clamped his bullet-resistant Kevlar helmet over a live grenade thrust at him by an insurgent during hand-to-hand combat, in an apparent effort to contain the blast and protect his squadmates. Phillips, an embedded journalist with the Marines, subsequently interviewed the corporal's parents, his childhood friends in Scio, NY, members of his infantry unit, and medical personnel who tended him both in Iraq and during the medevac flights to Germany and Bethesda Naval Hospital. These interviews reconstruct the emotional, significant ways in which the young man's life and plight affected relatives, neighbors, and comrades in arms. The context of his upbringing serves as a backdrop to his developing military leadership style, and the scant number of years that separate his teenage experiences from grimly serious battlefield conditions will undoubtedly catch the attention of readers. He has been nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor. This realistic, gritty portrayal of loss and its aftermath personalizes events behind daily headlines, but remains descriptive rather than political in its point of view.–Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City RegionalLibrary, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; First Edition, Ex-Library edition (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767920376
• ISBN-13: 978-0767920377
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #762,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just another combat story for this Marine Mom, September 3, 2005

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gift of Valor: A War Story (Hardcover)

April 14th, 2004, the world changed for many people. Me included. On patrol in Husaybah, the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Kilo Company Marines were patrolling, securing the area after an attack on a Marine convoy.

At a vehicle check, an Iraqi insurgent burst from his vehicle with a loaded grenade, attacking Corporal Jason Dunham and his squad. Corporal Dunham was mortally wounded in the attack while saving the lives of the Marines who fought the insurgent with him. One of the Marines he saved is a young man I have known for fifteen years, who I watched grow up.

Everybody should read this book. It brings the daily lives and duties of our brave Marines to blinding light, and will show you from an insider's view how ALL of these husbands, sons, and fathers are heroes, every day there are out there. Jason's heroism and tragedy is real, not just a sound-bite on your evening news.

Michael M. Phillips has meticulously detailed this event, using painstaking second-by-second accounts of the convoy, the attack, and the vehicle check. He diligently follows Jason's route home, from medical corpsmen to medevac, hospital to hospital, until he reaches American soil at last. There are some gruesome accounts of the Marine's injuries and the surgeries that followed, so be prepared.

This book is not for the squeamish, but war isn't pretty. Combat is not our men and women wearing their dress blues; combat is our men and women wounded, bleeding, and dying. Michaels details the military medical community, and the dedication these men and women have to the combat soldiers they care for.

Anyone who follows my reviews will see that I am a horror aficionado. 'The Gift Of Valor' is the most horrifying book I have ever read, because it is real, because it hits straight to the heart. I cried all through the book and I'm crying as I write this review.

I say it again: Everybody should read this book. Everyone should know what its like for the men and women we rely on everyday; everyone should feel the pain of losing Jason.

To all my marines at Twenty-nine Palms, to my 'special son' Lance Corporal William Hampton, to PFC Kelly Miller, to each and every one of you who came to my house for a weekend of relaxation...know this: "Mom" loves you!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Giant of a Book, June 3, 2005

By 

J. F. Natuzzi (Amityville, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gift of Valor: A War Story (Hardcover)

Do not let this book's spare 241 pages deceive you. It is a beautifully written, at times raw, elegant telling of one war story from Iraq; a story that should leave you emotionally drained, yet also comforted when you finally put it down.

Throughout the story, a central tenet of the United States Marine Corps, "No Marine left behind", is shown to be true.
From his training through deployment, to battle and injury and medical evacuation leading home to his final resting place, Corporal Jason L. Dunham, USMC and his family were accompanied by, comforted by and protected by his fellow Marines. To a Marine parent, the knowledge that one's child will never be left alone is as reassuring as anything could be under those circumstances.

Mr. Phillips, in my opinion, has equalled Dr. Ronald Glasser's 1971 Vietnam classic "365 Days". His vivid descriptions of battle, medical care, family support and humor left me misty-eyed many times. Well worth reading and passing on to others.

Favorite line (pg. 110)-
Miller assured Ferguson that he was O.K. but added, "My mom is going to be ....ing pissed."

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A future classic book on this war, July 15, 2005

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gift of Valor: A War Story (Hardcover)

During a firefight in Iraq, along the Syrian border, Marine Corporal Jason Dunham sacrificed his own life, to save the lives of his comrades. This is the story of Corporal Dunham: his life, his service and his heroism.

I must admit, that I finished this book some time ago, but it has taken me a long time to actually write this review. Yes, this is a war story, but the author, who has done four tours in Iraq as an embedded journalist, has done an excellent job. This isn't a simple story, instead it is the story of life, good and bad, and war, with its times of fun and comradeship, and times of horror and desperation.

Indeed, that is why this book took me so long to review. This book doesn't just tell you the story of Corporal Dunham, instead it brings you along, into his life and death. And when it's all done, you will also probably feel somewhat wrung out, as if you had been right there for it all.

Overall, I found this to be a great read, no doubt the greatest work to come out of this war so far. If you are at all interested in Iraq and the soldiers there, then I highly recommend this book to you. In the future, this will undoubtedly be seen as a classic book on this war.