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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
terrific timely look at the modern army, May 12, 2009
This review is from: No Warriors, No Glory (Hardcover)
US Army Captain Nathan Dixon is still limping from his war injuries and suffering nightmares as he does a tour at the pentagon. Colonel Kaplan reminds him that the army runs on Vince Lombardi Standard time, which means "if you're on time, you're late" before Dixon meets with the Chief of Staff General Stevens, who adds him on to his staff at a time when the army struggles with two brutal wars and radical transformation.
Nathan is assigned to review a friendly fire incident. Having been in combat, he understands the harrowing chaotic fog of war leads to mistakes in spite of the military emphasis to eliminate these deadly errors; he also knows his probe is not to pin accountability in order to punish someone, but to determine the cause, ascertain if it is systemic, and come up with CALL lessons learned to remove any future errors. The incident was caused by an unmanned ground combat vehicle (UGV) during a test; a type of war machine he does not know anything about. He obtains an education on vested interests as the C.O. knows his career is teetering; the manufacturer contractor does not want production on hold as he will be unemployed; and the victim's peers prefer to conceal the truth mostly Dixon assumes out of fear of retaliatory ends to their careers. Dixon understands his mission is to uncover the truth, but no one cooperates.
This is a terrific timely look at the modern army through the eyes of a career officer still suffering from PTSD whose current assignment is more difficult in many ways than combat because his brothers and sisters in arms do not want to talk. Fans will make comparisons to the Pat Tillman tragedy that raised awareness of friendly fire incidents, but Dixon's case is different as this inquiry is into a training event involving drones. This super military investigative thriller provides a powerful glimpse at the modern military in which increasingly means NO WARRIORS, NO GLORY or salutes to Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.
Harriet Klausner
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Where was Coyle's proofreader ??, March 9, 2010
A good example of a military techno-thriller. Coyle's strong points are his understanding of military society and the mind-set of the men and women that inhabit it, and his ability to put that understanding into words. The plot is straightforward: a career officer, newly reassigned from combat operations to a staff position, is tasked with investigating a friendly-fire incident in Iraq involving a prototype unmanned combat vehicle. Careers and contracts hang in the balance, and everyone involved has their own reasons for helping or hindering his investigation. Like most books in this genre, the plot moves from one massive information dump to the next. This tends to slow the action somewhat, but at the end the reader is left with a pretty fair understanding of the complexities of modern, technological warfare in general and the emerging discipline of unmanned combat vehicles in particular.
Unfortunately, it appears that Mr. Coyle's proofreader was on vacation when the book went to press. The narrative is marred by punctuation errors, omitted words, and uses of the wrong word - balled instead of bawled, for example. To an old English major like me, that's akin to fingernails on a blackboard. It interfered with my enjoyment of the book, since I found myself spending almost as much time looking for the next error as I did paying attention to the story line.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better Late Than Never!, January 31, 2011
This review is from: No Warriors, No Glory (Hardcover)
I was very surprised that H.C. had another book out. I was not sure if he was having the old writers block.
In "NO WARRIORS, NO GLORY," H.C. has fallen back on his military experience. Anyone who has served knows what I am talking about. I am looking forward to the continuation of the characters lives unfolding with the twins, the wife, and grandmother's strong willed and take no prisoners attitude at her job.
Mostly, the hardest job is the duty that every military man & women face when they go to work every day. When a tanker replaces broken track or a Cav Scout is out front on convoy patrol. It is the unknown that brings the moment of a nao second to that person whom by listening, learning and leading. Will give them the experience they need to do their duty. To protect their brothers & sisters when they are put into harms way.
H. C. shows us that an Infantryman is still the best resource, when hi tech has that hiccup, at the wrong time, & the wrong place on the battle field.
I hope we do not have to wait to long for H.C. to crank it up and ride brother, ride, into the next installment of the Dixon's lives. And yes H.C. I am old tanker too.
Blackhorse, Second to None.
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