Customer Reviews

Rage Company: A Marine's Baptism By Fire

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Every war produces hundreds of books by those who were there, and those who weren't. Most aren't very good. It's the rare book that combines excellent writing with the honest perspective of someone who was in the thick of it, but that's exactly what Thomas Daly has done with Rage Company." Daly was a Marine Lieutenant involved in Operation Squeeze Play, an operation intended to take back large areas of Al Anbar province from insurgent forces, and to occupy the cities. Working with local tribes who had joined the government side as part of the "Awakening", Daly and his fellow Marines and soldiers fought a house-to-house, street-by-street battle.

This is not a big-picture book about the war in Iraq, although Daly offers a number of observations that apply to the entire war; as a Lieutenant leading a platoon, his perspective rarely goes beyond the company level. He's focused on the actions and the experiences of individual soldiers, and his own education under fire. What makes this work is Daly's remarkable ability to reconstruct, in tremendous detail, the sequence of events in every patrol, and every encounter with the enemy; one assumes he must have written down copious notes after (and perhaps during) every engagement. It doesn't hurt that Daly is obviously a very educated Marine (he's a graduate of the University of Rochester), with a good knowledge of history, first-rate writing skills, and more than a passing familiarity with Arabic.

I suspect that "Rage Company" will become one of the classic first-person narratives of the Iraq war. It's certainly a must read for students of modern warfare, and those who want to know exactly what it means to be a soldier in Iraq.

At a time when the US is involved in combat in two locations (and our footprint in Iraq was still large during the events described in this book...as was our casualty rate), fewer and fewer Americans have served in the armed forces. There are probably fewer still who appreciate the nature of the current engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. The maneuver phases in both Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2001 ended in short order because of our massive advantage in military capability.

What remains for US forces in both places are sustained operations against foes who don't wear uniforms, who don't muster in garrisons, who prefer to avoid direct confrontation with their opponents and whose operational elements are not only spread among a civilian population, but are also often hiding in plain sight.

In "Rage Company", Thomas Daly does yeoman's work in detailing the manifold challenges on the streets where national policy gets interpreted by the armed forces in southwest Asia. Small unit leadership at the platoon and company levels while conducting anti-insurgent warfare in an urban environment requires its practitioners to maintain delicate balances between kinetic engagement and sidewalk diplomacy. This must happen while keeping subordinates informed and measuring the risk you place them in, carrying out the objectives of superiors and staying out the headlines and casualty reports. Part diplomat, part weapons expert, part city planner, part motivational speaker, part carpet merchant...these are the moving parts that company grade officers must grapple. Daly addresses these complexities in vivid detail.

Parts of this book are tape measure home runs in the genre of first person combat narratives. Those unfamiliar with combat operations get insight into the stressors and danger of facing hostile weapons and people. Daly reminds us of the other parts that the Marine on the ground faces; sleep deprivation, primitive sanitary conditions, discrepancies between what is needed to do one's job and what one actually has. His accounting of December 7th, 2006 and the kit he packed for that patrol are very reminiscent of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Strapping on a hundred pounds of stuff just to head to work --and never complaining about it-- is heroic enough.

This book chronicles Daly through four months of combat patrols in and around Ramadi...the eastern gateway to Baghdad in Iraq. It pulls no punches in describing the the challenges they faced; strategic, tactical and logistical. As with his stoic approach to carrying 100 pounds of weapons, ammunition and armor, Daly is never asking for a concession about the goodness (or not) of his mission. He is simply describing a Marine going about his business as honorably as possible under the circumstances; circumstances often complicated by ambiguity and degrees of chaos.

The only shortcoming in this book is the abruptness in which Daly begins the story --already in Ramadi-- and ends it. He makes brief references to the training that preceded his deployment when detailing the muscle memory that's part of proficiency with a weapons (in a potentially disastrous --but quite funny-- shotgun accident) and when describing the "orientation" command to a pre-mission briefing, I was left unsure if he felt properly prepared for his role as a leader in combat; this was a question I really wanted him to answer. Even though he painstakingly provides descriptions of military terms and hardware, the overall tone is surprisingly clinical. He is a skilled and detailed chronicler of events, but I wanted to hear more from Thomas Daly the writer and less from Thomas Daly the Marine. Neither of these detract seriously from the book. If you want a sense of what post-invasion combat operations in Iraq are all about, you'll gain plenty from this book.

And for that, I salute the author.

After reading this book in less than a week, I highly encourage anyone interested in Iraq war history and small unit tactics to read this. It is descriptive of the strategies that failed and those that succeeded. It is about as close as you can get to a modern version of Rommel's 'Attacks' or Swinton's 'The Defense of Duffer's Drift.' It is a little difficult to make out the maps in the kindle version though. Just got the hardback and they are much better.

I got this book thru Amazon's Vine program because I wanted to learn about our troops actions in Iraq during the surge. Rage Company tells the experiences of Captain Thomas Daly and Rage Company in and around Ramadi, Iraq (note: Captain Daly was a Lieutenant when Rage Company was deployed in Ramadi and functioned as Rage Company's air and naval liaison officer. For many of the engagements, Capt Daly functions as an auxiliary officer for Rage Company.). Capt Daly's story is direct and to the point; actions are told from his perspective, focusing on the troops he was working with and the encounters they have to deal with. Descriptions are highly detailed, describing the weapons employed, the tactical environment, and the specific troops involved (often Capt Daly was either leading the equivalent of a fireteam or the company's security section). There are many photographs and maps outlining the Company's are of operation.

For me this was a hard one; parts were interesting but there's a lot to wade thru. Capt Daly's details become rather long and drawn out with many acronyms (some weren't defined and there's no appendix in the back to remind you of them, this makes for a big negative given how prolific Capt Daly was with his use of acronyms). Because of how long some sections are and the use heavy use of acronyms, my interest was a little weaker than it normally might have been. I admire Capt Daly's ability to document his experience with the level of details that he does, but it does it without the heart that I usually look for in personal accounts. Because of this, this is a three star book for me but believe that any one of the chapters (or more) would make a good study for a unit deploying into a similar environment.

This is a great book with an important story to tell. When I first picked it up, I was hoping to learn what was really happening in Iraq and what life was like for members of the U.S. military and Iraqi civilians. I got this and much more. Not only do we learn what happened during the surge and why it was successful, but the author's accounts of officer briefings, patrols, interrogations, battles, and building relationships with Iraqi counterinsurgents makes you feel as though you were there with them. I especially enjoyed learning what the author was thinking as scenarios played out and difficult decisions were made.

Understanding the strategy that caused the surge to to succeed seems to be the preeminent theme of the book, but it is not short on suspense, personalities, human frailties, emotions, or even humor. I feel as though I have personally met various members of Rage Company and the local civilians and want to learn more of them. I have never read a book that gave me a better idea of what it means to "serve" in the military. From a tactical standpoint, it seems clear we cannot win a war against insurgency without the support of the local populace, and the local populace cannot successfully rise up against an oppressive regime like Al Qaeda or the Taliban without assistance on the ground to support them.

The book also tells of the courage and conviction of the marines and soldiers without overstating their heroism or understating their human weaknesses. Rage Company is stationed not on a U.S. base, but in makeshift combat outposts fashioned from former Iraqi homes in neighborhoods surrounded by Al Qaeda insurgents. This is a seemingly no-win scenario for much of the book, but when the marines hook up with locals willing to fight alongside the U.S. things quickly change. Once I met the "general", I couldn't put the book down.

Being very interested in novels about the wars that have shaped our history, Daly's novel caught my attention. What was refreshing was his perspective. Reading from his point of view was an interesting change from similar books;the broad picture is nearly common knowledge whereas Daly gives us a small sliver from an actual experience. The first half of the book left me feeling his frustration, but this only increased its appeal when things turned around.

Iraq is a screwed up place. I have read a few books about the war there and each tells a different story depending on what area of Iraq the Author is talking about. This book tells of the daily grind against a determined enemy that blends in to the population. The marines spend all night clearing IEDs and al Qaeda spends the next day setting up more IEDs, when they are not terrorizing the local population and trying to get them to join al Qaeda.

While reading the book you can feel the authors frustration with the enemy, the Iraqi govt, and with his own chain of command. It is a tough life for these men. I am proud of what they do, but I am also sad because I have four sons, one of which is about to enter college. He chose a military college and is looking to join Navy Spec-ops when he graduates. I am sad because if this war is still raging, there is a good chance he will end up someplace like Iraq. I thought reading books on the topic would help me to better prepare for this, but this book goes into details and you start to realize the incredible sacrifices these Military men and women are making.

This book covers the daily details of marine life for this unit in Iraq. The author does not try to paint a bright, rosy picture, he writes as it happens and talks about the bad things too. There are a few comments about the Marines having to make due with less, and working from a smaller budget which translates into older equipment, or less equipment. There are also a few comments about not being trained properly which is related in a story about an unfortunate shotgun incident. You gotta give these guys credit, they take a crappy job and really work with the cards they are dealt. I am proud and glad that they are on our side!!!

In late 2006 and early 2007 the war in Iraq entered a new phase called "the Surge". This was an effort by the U.S. to turn around what had become a losing effort in the battle against terrorism in Iraq, led primarily by Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). This book shows a ground-level view of what took place in one of the toughest parts of Iraq (The Sunni Triangle) during the surge. This book follows the exploits of one Marine Company that played a major role in the campaign in the Iraqi town of Ramadi. The story is told by one of the Company's Lieutenants. He is the Intelligence Officer in the Company, but also has a good friend who commands one of the platoons and obviously has kept many notes and had many discussions with his mates on what took place - this book tells the stories of that company as they spent almost 5 months in this campaign.

While the story is told mostly from the viewpoint of the junior officers who lead the platoons and the patrols in the area, Forward and Afterword sections put the rest of the book in context. As we learn from those sections, Rage company was a Brigade-level reserve unit, and as the battle for Ramadi proceeded, it was dispatched to different sectors to assist with the planned operations in those area. So, in the first part, the company is assisting the 1st Battalion of the 37th Armor Brigade in its area of operations. Rage Company patrols the streets of Ramadi and tries to figure out who are terrorists and develop leads by conducting night-time patrols and raids. Since this takes place at the height of AQI's power, it is no surprise that Rage Company is continuously under attack and get no support from the Iraqis in the area. As we read the stories of the various raids, what does not become clear is that these raids were actually establishing a rationale for the battles to come, as just the fact that these raids were taking place, was forcing the insurgents to move their bases of operation away from those neighborhoods and towards others - which was the point of the strategy!

Rage company is then move to the jurisdictional area of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines. Again, the overall strategy is to keep harassing AQI and cause them to move to the center of town where they can be isolated, and eventually, wiped out. The author continues to be true to his calling of describing the lives and events that take place at the Company level and the stories that he tells of the various battles and events are very gripping and harrowing. Even more harrowing to me was that the author pulls no punches in discussing the problem areas that his Marines were encountering with their own forces. One issue that is quickly apparent is that the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marines are poorly lead. The Executive Officer of the Battalion is the real power in the area and he is a parade ground soldier who is more concerned with how things look then with winning the war. The atmosphere is poisonous and the poor low-level Marines who are suffering from this poor leadership are consequently demoralized and take unnecessary risks that you can tell will lead to unnecessary casualties. Without naming the officers involved, it is clear that the author does not approve of their leadership and vows not to be like them.

The third and final part of the book sees Rage Company moved yet again. This time they are placed under the command of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Brigade, but essentially, they are flung at the toughest neighborhoods to fight AQI. By this time, the strategy is succeeding and AQI is not only feeling the stress of the Marines and other units harassment tactics, but they are also overplaying their hand with the Iraqi civilian population. AQI is responsible for ongoing terrorism against the civilians and that campaign of terror turns the civilians against them. Iraq is a very tribal society, so once the Sheik of some tribes decide that they've had enough, those tribes come to the aid of the U.S. and offer to help the Marines in identifying who are the active insurgents inside the population. In this portion of the book, Rage Company is patrolling amongst several tribal villages when the Iraqis comes forward to assist. No surprise that initially there is a lot of skepticism among the American troops about the veracity of the help. We are told about the initial visit of 25 "scouts" and how the Marines disarm them and keep them locked up within their compound - and also insult their leader. Luckily, the desire to root out AQI is demonstrated and the combined forces start making significant inroads against AQI leading to arrests of high-level leaders and the killings of their troops.

Rage Company is not a coherent unit by this time and the problems of command show through. There is significant tension amongst the officers with most of the Lieutenants having lost confidence in the Captain commanding the unit. Unfortunately, we are not told what the pressures were on the Captain, nor what information he may have had that lead to several of his decisions that are questioned. I think it would have been interesting to hear his side of the story as several incidents show me that he was operating with a different set of rules which may have been misunderstood by his subordinates. For instance, in one case, a drone is tracking a vehicle that was previously known to contains insurgents. All of the Lieutenants press the Captain to use the airpower to destroy the vehicle. However, because the intelligence assets were not tracking the vehicle continuously, the Captain refuses to condone its destruction. As we learn later, that was an excellent decision as the vehicle was taken over by friendly forces during the interruption in surveillance and was actually carrying out a mission to destroy the AQI leadership at the time that all the Lieutenants were urging its destruction.

Some of these episodes also show the growth the Lt. Daly as a commander. Early on in the book he calls all Iraqis Hajjis - which was used a pejorative slang term. By the middle of the book, he starts expressing grudging admiration for the obvious fighting qualities of some of the Al Qaeda fighters and sees them as human beings. Towards the end of the book, he is actively engaged with Iraqis and expresses some remorse at having to leave Ramadi at the end of the deployment - since he realizes that the trust he and his Company-mates have with the local Iraqis is potentially at risk with the new troops who came to take over. Of course, there are the predictable jabs of inter-service rivalries (the troops who take over Ramadi are Infantry and not Marines), etc.

I found that I could not put this book down once I started reading it. The writing was crisp and vivid. The situations described were incredible and very realistic so that I felt like I was there with the Marines of Rage Company. When the company suffers casualties, the reader feels the pain of the Marines who were with these troops for a long time. We also see very clearly the separation between the fighting Marines and their officers who have different standards of conduct as well as the differences between units. Three Marines die during these operations and the circumstances of each death are described in full. As the author puts it, if you look at each case individually, these deaths seem meaningless. However, in the context of what the battle was trying to achieve, and what it did achieve, these deaths were the price that was paid for the success of the mission and for the success that lead to AQI being eliminated in their most impregnable fortress. As the author states, the biggest part of the mission was in showing up, and in the surge, the U.S. showed up and therefore succeeded! Great book!

For those trying to understand what went right in Iraq, this is the book for you. When you read this straightforward account of an infantry company in combat you will notice two things: that the first half of the book is how not to conduct counter-insurgency and the second half is the turn around which the surge was the catalyst for.

In the first eight chapters the Marines of Rage Company are chasing after the insurgents. All of their operations are complex and focused on their shadow-like enemy. Their ability to understand who the enemy is, where he is hiding, is almost non-existent. In many ways you could say they were fighting the people, because the difference between the two is very difficult to make.

Everything changes when the "scouts" enter the picture. This group of local citizens is able to provide the Marines with crucial information in a low-intensity conflict: the ability to separate citizen from insurgent. Weeks after this happens Ramadi explodes. At this point in the story, the Marines have changed / streamlined their process in hunting their enemies and they are building the confidence of local Iraqis who are watching them kill / capture the real insurgents. This part of the book is a must read.

Clearly Capt Daly does not claim to be principally an author by trade. That said, I found his well-written, very detailed description of a slice of events coincident with what was an important inflection point with respect to the events in the current conflict in Iraq to be a insightful and engaging.

It is not an academic's evaluation of the events in Ramadi which preceded the counterinsurgency strategy. It is a report by a man who gives us detail regarding the facts on the ground. We learn of the intensity of conflict from someone who is there.

We see the challenges of a front-line leader in working within a broader organization. We see his struggles to understand the broader strategy of his superiors. We see his understanding of himself and of the environment in which he is operating evolve. Opinions change, experience sheds light and understanding, conflict sharpens priorities. He does reveal a level of self-importance, but it would stand to reason that this is an important characteristic in those circumstances, especially for survival and success in leading people there.

Thank God for the US Marines, and the other brave men and women of the Armed Forces.