Sister In The Band Of Brothers: Embedded With The 101st Airborne In Iraq (Modern War Studies) (Hardcover)

by Katherine M. Skiba (Author)
Key Phrases: survival trenches, battle buddy, embedded journalists, Fourth Battalion, Black Hawk, Saddam Hussein (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
When the Pentagon decided to embed reporters with the troops in Iraq, Skiba knew she had to be there. Having already covered such global hot spots as the Gaza Strip, Kosovo, and the Soviet Union, she didn't need this assignment to round out her resume; but the challenge of being at the forefront of historical developments is hardwired into her journalist's DNA. It wasn't the only challenge she faced. As one of only 60 female reporters to go to Iraq, Skiba, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Washington correspondent, found herself the lone female civilian amid the 2,300 soldiers of the 159th Aviation Brigade. In describing her battles with sandstorms, scorpions, and sexism, Skiba's dramatic and often deeply revealing memoir offers straightforward testimony to the professional and personal sides of both the military and media. Simultaneously making fun of her own fears and limitations while praising the valor and dedication of the soldiers, Skiba's candid, self-deprecating anecdotes artfully balance this no-holds-barred account of war's grim reality. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
When U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, our soldiers weren't the only ones who put their lives on the line: so did 600 "embedded" journalists, including Katherine M. Skiba. Her riveting memoir provides a vivid you-are-there account of her experiences with the Army's legendary 101st Airborne, the division celebrated for its heroism in World War II as the "Band of Brothers."

Skiba, a reporter and photographer, was the sole female civilian among the 2,300 soldiers of the 159th Aviation Brigade, whose pilots flew Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters into the thick of battle. Her dispatches were a vital lifeline between the troops and their families and earned her a grateful national audience. Reporting on the men and women in uniform with journalistic dedication, natural compassion, and an eye for the absurd, she chronicles her experiences from "media boot camp" to the kick-off of Operation Iraqi Freedom to the fall of Baghdad, including a missile attack on the brigade's desert camp.

Taking readers across the wind-blown deserts of Iraq and into cramped seventy-man tents, where personal space barely exists and tempers can flare, she deftly and sympathetically portrays her brothers and sisters-in-arms-rigid commanders, gung-ho warriors, and daring aviators, as well as intelligence officers, mechanics, medics, and cooks, among many others. She details her dealings with the soldiers, her clashes with a battalion commander, and her friendship with a lieutenant colonel who helped keep her sane. Meantime she tells of the journalist-husband she left behind-and the encouragement he gave her when the going got rough.

Whether pounding out a story on her laptop, strapping on a gas mask at a moment's notice, or flying toward the frontlines, Skiba stuck it out despite her own doubts and earned the respect of one grizzled sergeant major, who quipped: "You've got balls." The risks were very real for her and anyone else who covered or fought in the war, even in its early days, long before triumph trailed off into something less than permanent victory. Her story testifies to the courage it took to endure such risks, while acknowledging the inevitable costs of war.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 257 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas (March 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 070061382X
• ISBN-13: 978-0700613823
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #294,658 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a memoir, not war reporting, August 15, 2005

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Memoirs of essentially ordinary people are difficult to critique. These are, after all, average people telling about their lives. They have, unlike some politicians or controversial people, no secrets to hide.

Katherine Skiba comes across as a competent journalist who sort of went to war and was deeply impressed by the process and her experiences. I say "sort of went to war" because she really didn't face the enemy in combat. The only direct threat from enemy action may have been an Iraqi missile headed in the general direction of her camp at that time. This quibble is not intended as a criticism of Skiba because in another sense, she did go to war. She went to a short training camp for embedded journalists and then went through the same experiences every other soldier, sailor and airman went through. They left their families, the familiarities of their home life and went off thousands of miles to possibly fight a war.

These experiences clearly impacted Skiba. She records in great detail the flow of life in a series of temporary camps leading to the invasion of Iraq. All of her visions are sharp, sometimes augmented by memories of her father who had been a soldier in WWII.

Much to her credit, Skiba didn't bring any political bias to her memoir. She is at one with the troops around her, though she didn't personally like everyone around her which leads to part of my ambivalence about Skiba. Skiba is clearly a firm believer in the old cliche that you should never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. She hammers several military people she dislikes over and over again because in one way or another they offended her. My reaction as a reader is that Skiba is intolerant, petty and very, very vindicative. One officer in particular is a repeated target of Skiba's skewering. She ultimately justifies her attacks by claiming virtually everyone else hated this officer as well, which could very well be true. But my impression is that Skiba is doing her best to ruin this man's reputation which might be fair if he had the ability to respond in kind. But like so many crucified by the media, he doesn't.

To Skiba's credit, she does include her impressions of the ordinary men and women who went to war. Her short portraits in her memoir are not the features she wrote for her paper. In fact, I regretted that her dispatches were not included in the book. Even in abbreviated form, Skiba's respect for these soldiers is clear - and admirable. Skiba clearly and justifiably holds herself above the talking heads and others who "report" on the war from the comfort of their air-conditioned New York studios or worse yet, the phonies who filed their dispatches from the Kuwaiti Hilton. Skiba's professional jealousy shows when she talks about turning her back on Geraldo Rivera's visit. Anyone who has ever watched "journalist" Geraldo Rivera can agree with the sentiment. On the other hand, Skiba is apparently easily awed by other journalists. It's an interesting and perhaps puzzling mix.

My overall impression is that Katherine Skiba is very proud of herself for leaving familiar surroundings, her husband and dog to trek off into the uncertainties of war. Through no fault of her own, she is no Ernie Pyle: she wasn't assigned to a unit that had a high probability of seeing intense combat over a protracted period and she declined opportunities to directly expose herself to combat. By the same measure, Skiba does not pretend to be anything but she is: a 46 year old woman in the middle of the desert with thousands of men and women in uniform. She shares their considerable discomforts, the boredom and the fear of missile, gas and chemical attacks. She records, sometimes in boring detail, the small events of day to day life.

Overall, Skiba has produced an interesting memoir and my impression of her is favorable, though I think she tends toward self-aggrandizement. The key thing to remember is that this is a memoir, not truly a war story. Taken as a memoir of a working journalist, it is a worthwhile read.

Jerry

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars grace under pressure, March 21, 2005

By	maccins ingersoll "maccins ingersoll" - See all my reviews

Kathy Skiba must be one of the bravest, toughest women out there, penning countless news stories and shooting and transmitting her own photos under unrelentingly tough wartime conditions.
Her book is a gripping, fast read as she takes you through what it was like in more than seven weeks at the front. I marvel at the wealth of information she collected on the fighting men and women she met, in order to tell their very human stories.
She keeps a stiff upper lip throughout the experience, never complaining about the challenges she faced, including wearing a 22-pound Kevlar vest, a helmet and chemical suit in the desert heat. Having to use 55-gallon drums (out in the open) as a latrine had to be the worst.
Skiba is the epitome of grace under pressure, and this personal account of the war shows it all.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reaction from a Woman Soldier, October 24, 2005

By	Judy A. Moore (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews

As a retired soldier, many of Katherine's experiences (and her responses to them) resonated with me, particularly her relationships with male soldiers and her personal reactions post-deployment. I admire her ability to articulate those experiences to the rest of us who weren't with her in Kuwait (or during her stateside preparation.) Definitely a good read!