In This Mans Army

My Colour Sargent at Sandhurst would probably disagree. Life in the Forces is very regimented, as this instructional poster for trainee Marines shows. It should come a no surprise that a culture so obsessed with spit, polish and shine uses "gleaming" to describe something as good, desirable or brilliant.

A particular favourite of Guards, who enjoy their shiny boots and buttons more than most. Rarely applied when doing something you enjoy, it could be seen as gentle encouragement but is most often met with resentment and annoyance — especially when the person saying it isn't chipping in! A special term of contempt reserved for those who are looking out for themselves and not their mates.

Kept in reserve in case the stores run out though you have to wonder if the store would have run out if the kit was in it in the first place. The kit carried by a close-support sapper in the Royal Engineers while on tour of Helmland Province in For those of you who didn't do quite so well, Bloody Well Done Anyway! Communication over the radio comes with all manner of unique turns of phrase designed to keep communication short and understandable. A quote from General MacArthur.

You probably won't hear it verbatim in its full glory, but the sentiment is shared by most of the Army and it crops up in various different linguistic forms. We can all pretend otherwise, but trust me, that whole talking about your feelings crap is overrated, and yes, I don't expect my man to be able to run twelve miles with an pound pack and look good afterwards, but it still turns me on if he does. There's also some useful information, like TNT being better for breaking rock than C You never know when you are going to need that.

Now I just need to think of a reason why I would ever need to blow up any rocks. Another interesting subject are Exum's observations about his faith. Exum decides that rather than him being in Afghanistan killing people being God's wish, it is " outside of God's will, and rather one of life's ugly realities ". Is that how Christian faith works?

I mean, I find Exum's approach quite sympathic, because I hate nothing more than those believers who kill "in the name of whichever God they believe in ". But Exum actually says that there's faith, and then there's reality, and, well, as an atheist, I certainly agree with the part of reality.

Again, Exum doesn't make this a pilosophical debate, it's just another one of those things he mentions, but I found it particularly interesting because of my interest in religion and atheism. Exum gives us in impression of what coming back feels like, suddenly having to pay for things again, being without his weapon. Feeling like a stranger in one's own country.

Again, his unpretentious writing style makes these feeling very vivid and comprehensible. I feel with him, and I felt for him.

Exum raises many interesting and valid points about life in the army and people in the army. He's thoughtful, but not self-important. I liked his writing and his story a lot there is a reason why I finished the book within two days. I highly recommend this book. Oct 08, Joshua rated it liked it. This rating is really an average of various aspects of the book. There were parts that were worthy of four or maybe five stars: Also, the book concluded in a satisfyingly reflective way.

But there were problems, too. The first issue was that the book felt more like a chronicle than a narrative. That is, the various chapters didn't really This rating is really an average of various aspects of the book. That is, the various chapters didn't really cohere with one another, which is inexcusable for a book as short as this. Second, the writing often felt flat. I applaud Exum for not using needless verbal flourishes, a hallmark of a bad writer, but he adopted a tone which I think he viewed as conversational and accessible but came off sometimes as half-assed.

Thirdly, the book's tone was gratingly self-righteous. Exum acknowledges this explicitly at several points in the book, but his post-hoc admonishment doesn't feel like enough, almost like he feels like he deserves more credit because he recognized that he was being self-righteous.

The last problem I had, and one which may have been exacerbated by the self-righteousness, was that his worldview pervaded the book, but was never explicitly stated or defended. His ideology is one that is probably fairly similar to my own, but the fact that he almost never acknowledged it felt to me to cheapen many of his observations. As an example, he talks about a pacifist friend of his, and their disagreements with each other. He adopts the Serious and Fair Position of saying that he understands pacifism but his experiences would not allow him to endorse it.

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This felt like a cop-out, and belittling to his pacifist friend. At many times during the book there are similar moments, and they would have been better had he committed to a position and defended it he is clearly a smart guy, and capable of mounting a persuasive argument. This may have been for space reasons though at pages, I doubt it , but it felt as though Exum thought he was being polite and not excoriating someone who disagrees with him when he is so clearly right.

This review seems lopsidedly negative, I realize, which does not square with my rating. But the good parts were very good, and were so self-evidently good I didn't feel the need to say much about them. Exum is indisputably a hero, and his commitment to his men and his mission was exceptional. He displayed a level of courage that I can't say I could match, and he deserves every bit of praise for his service that he gets. There were just parts of the book that left something to be desired.

Sep 02, Davidklee3 rated it it was ok Shelves: I didn't love this book, though I appreciate the author's honesty in telling his story. At the risk of sounding petty, I think the major reason I didn't enjoy reading this book is because I thought the author sounded arrogant throughout his narrative. Instead, Exum often goes out of his way to not so subtly boast of his physical and I didn't love this book, though I appreciate the author's honesty in telling his story. Instead, Exum often goes out of his way to not so subtly boast of his physical and intellectual accomplishments.

I was perhaps most surprised by his treatment of killing. I have certainly read more thoughtful and mature reflections on what it means to take another life in war and was let down by Exum's casual dismissal of what would seem to be a hugely important component of "a soldier's story from the front lines of the war on terrorism.

Mar 06, Mary rated it really liked it. The thing that struck me the most was the very Theory Y approach that Exum himself took to leadership - he describes this extensively, especially on page , middle paragraph. I think this may be because of his own personality, and because he is clearly pretty bright - but I also think that prior to the army he had only ever been in institutions that would strive for consensus, get buy-in from all parties, etc.

This is despite the fact that he has been through basic training and Ranger School, which if anything are designed to reduce one to numbness and then build one back up in an army unit. The army, necessarily, is one of the basic Theory X organizations - one is to obey immediately without thinking about it.

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The bit on page 35 "Surrender is not a Ranger word" is interesting - and certainly appropriately coincides with a Theory X immediate objective outlook. What a pity that the Bush administration seemed to think that "Failure is not an option" was actually a strategy - straight out of Ranger school, and only intended to get one to the next hill, through the next night, etc. The take on religion was particularly interesting. Certainly this was a great, unexpected challenge to him, and ultimately a much bigger, more complex issue than his attitude for instance towards Ranger school.

The line on page , bottom, is quite telling on this re having killed the Al Qaida soldier - "I preferred to think that what I was doing was outside of God's will, and rather one of life's ugly realities. I think the end of the book is happenstance - most interesting to see that he has gone to Lebanon, and I admire him for pursuing new ends that he never foresaw. I was a bit annoyed with the level of burden that he comes off with after coming back from Afghanistan - he was only there for 7 months, nothing compared to his enemy there or American servicemen from prior wars, especially WW2, when coming home would only occur when the war was over.

Also, yes, in a way the civilian deaths are more tragic - it is the job of soldiers to fight wars, and to be crass about it, they are well-compensated to do so - Exum, after all, got a full Ivy League education, and this was all his own choice. Having said this, his thinking on this seems to be random, as though he has not really thought it all out yet. Apr 22, Ensiform rated it really liked it Shelves: Exum, a deep, educated, and introspective writer, muses thoughtfully on the dedication to serve; his need to forget God while on patrol and his disdain for those who try to graft war and Christianity; what it means to kill in combat; and the bonds between soldiers formed by combat.

Apr 09, Jess rated it really liked it Shelves: I've been learning more about Iraq and Afghanistan on a policy and military level, but not many memoirs about the actual experience. Exum's memoir is clearly written with a strong yet humbled voice. He explains his background and his collegiate experiences before discussing wartime conflict. His writing is not fettered with overly jargonistic terms or curses ran wild, which is a big departure from Jarhead which I hated.

Exum today is no longer in the Army, due to a bad knee, but he is still well-known and well-respected in the areas of foreign policy and commentary as an intellectual and critic.

Not long after we arrived the re-supply choppers came in carrying ballot boxes as well. All the diggers were given voting papers to complete and place in the boxes. After I'd voted I lay back against a tree and thought to myself, what a great country Australia is, democracy at it's best. Here we are, fighting a war out in the jungle somewhere in a foreign land, and the system gives us an opportunity to vote. Sutherland wrote of a Platoon Commander that had been killed with a hand grenade placed on his mosquito net while he slept.

Called "fragging" by Americans, Sutherland had the following to say about this incident: Ultimately, Stan Sutherland realized that regardless of Australian pride and digger unity, the Vietnam War was an exercise in futility for all involved. After witnessing a U. B air strike and thinking he was going to find countless dead enemy soldiers, Mr. Sutherland came to a strikingly different conclusion. To that, he wrote: The depth of the crater seemed to be approximately 20 feet and it strikes me that you could easily lower a house of average suburban size into the hole and the top of the roof will still be below ground level.

We clambered over the jungle debris and found another crater and then another, and so on. The bombs have peeled back the jungle from around each crater and stacked it up in tight circular walls, making movement through the area difficult. We patrolled the area for 3 days and found nothing with the exception of a couple of contacts with the enemy, resulting in 2 enemy dead and another wounded.

The whole exercise has just been one great expensive waste of time and effort. The cost of the B strike alone must have been enormous. Sutherland wrote a small story where his platoon had to search the entire Vietnamese town of "Cape St. Jacques" for the presence of Viet Cong. Searching from house to house, he truly captured the futility of trying to teach democracy to a group of people over years back in time.

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As such, he tellingly wrote the following: After daybreak, the townspeople were instructed by megaphone to assemble at the eastern edge of the village. Once the townspeople had all assembled under armed control, 6 platoon was given the task of searching all the houses.

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Going into each house with our rifles in one hand and bayonets in the other, we methodically searched for weapons, ammunition or stores, which looked as though they could be of use to the enemy. Most of the houses are single room dwellings, but some have two rooms.

Definitely no running conveniences like running water or power though. Vietnamese village people live a life of hardship that we can scarcely imagine. After I searched 3 or 4 houses I entered the next to find an old lady with no teeth confined to her bad.



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Dressed totally in the standard black pajama style of dress, she looked to be a hundred years old. A smile crossed her face revealing a lifetime of blackened betel nut gums. I wondered what was behind the smile. Placing myself in her position, I thought about how I would feel hack home in Australia if an armed foreign soldier with total control over me simply walked in to search my home and basically do anything he wanted. I concluded that I would have an enemy for life, and no doubt it is the same here How can it be otherwise?

How can we win a war when we're compelled to search the houses of ordinary people? Sutherland wrote about his impression working side by side with our ally during the conflict, the South Vietnamese Army. It this case, it was the "Regional Forces. Recruited locally, they fell into two broad groups - Regional Forces "R.

During the early 's the Regional Forces manned the country-wide outpost system and defended critical points, such as bridges and ferries. There were some 9, such positions, half of them in the Mekong Delta region. After Vietnamization when U. However, Stan's memoir portends the eventual communist victory in his description of attempting to train the "R. For the first day of Australian training of their Vietnamese counter-part, Stan recorded the following observations: One can liken it to teaching 13 and 14 year olds back home. It seems strange to teach such serious matters as the art of warfare in an environment where every man, woman and child is affected by the war and they're like kids.

They're aware that the average Australian soldier is far more capable and more highly trained than most of their senior officers. He continued about the ARVN: They much prefer to be friends, than to actually lead them.