We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah by Patrick K. O'Donnell, Paperback

From the Publisher

Lieutenant Jeff Sommers
“We Were One captures every action, every thought, but most importantly every emotion that goes with victory, and the loss of friends in battle.”

Sergeant James Conner
“We Were One describes the hardships that our band of warriors endured as a family, and the sacrifices we were willing to make for each other when put to the ultimate test.”

Corporal Bill Sojda
“We Were One is a perfect, no-shit, first-hand story about a group of brave young boys, strangers to each other, molded into Marines, and the war that made us men. A unique bond made us brothers—we fought for each other to stay alive. Feel the heartache, the glory, and the agonizing pain of each Marine as we tell our story of the brutal bloody battle for Fallujah. It is war at its worst fought by young men at their finest.”

New York Post
“A real-time, eyewitness history …. The author’s most important accomplishment among many is to put a human face on the troops who are fighting against some of the fiercest enemies America has ever encountered …. Read O’Donnell’s excellent book and you will know that they are indeed, as were each preceding generation, “The Greatest.”

Marine Corps Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times, and Army Times
First-rate reading…Admirably depicts the brutal realities of street-to-street, house-to-house fighting…Captures the sensory details and emotional drama of good men killing and dying for one another and their country.”

Military Illustrated
“One of the best books to come out of the recent conflict in the Middle East is this blistering account of fighting the toughest of Iraq’s insurgents…Riveting and frightening…In many ways this has the same intensity of experience as Mark Bowden’s classic Black Hawk Down. An exhilarating and instructive read.”

Air & Space Power Journal
“A blue-collar, in-your-face, real-life depiction of marines fighting an ingenious, determined, and radical mujahideen insurgency…This book’s perspective makes it stand out among others that deal with such battles. The author’s decision to write about Fallujah through the eyes and experiences of those who fought it—and to draw on his own observations—brings credibility and a real sense of truth to a compelling story of bravery, courage, and commitment to something greater than oneself.”

Military Heritage
“O’Donnell depicts in graphic detail the sights and smells of urban combat and the bravery of young leathernecks, whom he describes, with some justice, as the ‘next greatest generation.’”

Leatherneck
“O’Donnell takes the reader into the private world of a Marine infantry platoon…His descriptions of the Marines clearing houses, fighting the heavily doped-up insurgents, as well as the physical, mental, and emotional toll it takes on the Marines are among the most descriptive and heart-breaking accounts to come back from the Iraqi front…For those who want to begin to understand the deadly nature of fighting in an urban environment, the determination of the enemy, as well as the inherent problems in 4th Generation Warfare—as well to begin to understand the determination and dedication to their fellow Marines of those young men who are doing the fighting—then this is the book for you.”

Roanoke Times
“This is, being real, a more than harrowing tale…A graphic account…portraying in the starkest terms the infantryman’s war.”

H-Net.org
“Superbly captures the human dimension of war that is missing in so many books of this genre…It is an extremely powerful and personal volume that will dramatically impact both those who have experienced combat and those who have not.”

Military.com
“Cover[s] the war that the mainstream media neglects: the story of countless acts of courage and sacrifice among the young soldiers and Marines who tend to remain anonymous unless they make a mistake.”

“Politics & Patriotism Show” blog, 6/26/12
“The combat history that I’ve always wanted. It’s hot, sweaty, stinky, and honest without pandering. This author has documented the nuts and bolts of modern war, and the men who live through it. It’s one thing to do your homework and write a well-rounded after-action account of recent events. We Were One goes one step further in that it’s the culmination of research and observation that was done by the author, as it happened, in a fast moving war zone…O’Donnell is a keen observer and a skilled chronicler…We’re going to be dissecting what went on in Iraq for a long time. We Were One provides some badly needed clarification.

Midwest Book Review

Capture[s] vivid encounters between soldiers and civilians and re-create[s] loss and combat conditions.

Military Illustrated

An exhilarating and instructive read.

Marine Corps Gazette

Destined to be a classic of urban close combat and honors the memory of all who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Publishers Weekly

Military historian O'Donnell (Into the Rising Sun) embedded himself in the 1st Platoon of Lima Company, 1st Marine Regiment. His book describes its training and deployment to Iraq in 2004, where the platoon patrolled, fended off guerrilla attacks and finally "fought bravely and died in the Iraq War's fiercest battle" in Fallujah. Most of the book is a detailed, blow-by-blow description of the brutal street fighting, during which nearly the entire unit became casualties. As the author portrays them, these Marines were heroes and warriors with only macho flaws, such as heavy drinking or practical joking, while their enemies are simply terrorists. Maintaining that our troops fight because they love America and their buddies, but their opponents fight because they are drug-addled, suicidal maniacs, the author forgets what every military buff knows: one cannot be a great warrior without a worthy opponent. Like many embedded reporters, O'Donnell appears to have fallen in love with his subjects, adding to the growing genre of worshipful, jingoistic battle narratives about Iraq. Though these Marines fought with great courage and the details of their battle make gripping reading, the author's uncritical cheerleading reduces their accomplishment to fantasy heroics. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT - Raymond Puffer

Military writing has changed much over the years. In the WW II and Cold War eras, the tone was stridently good guys vs. the bad guys, and the real-life John Waynes usually triumphed in the end. Vietnam brought a complete reversal, where the antihero warrior suffered great angst and the enemy, likely as not, was his own high command. With Iraq and the emergence of a clear-cut villain, however, the pendulum has swung about halfway back. Today, warriors are depicted as grittily real, the enemy both evil and horribly dangerous, and the orders that filter down to the soldiers seem contradictory and out of touch with their reality. We Were One, in short, introduces the reader to the real world of today's combat. Patrick O'Donnell is a military writer who embedded himself with the Marines of the 1st Platoon, Lima Company, while they fought a bitter days-long battle to clear the city of Fallujah of a well-armed enemy. Called "insurgents" by the media and "terrorists" by the forces on the ground, the Marines found that the men shooting at them were a mixed lot of hardcore Al Queda, local Sunnis, mercenary Syrians and even Chechens. The house-by-house city fighting was as intense, and the violence as random, as any that took place at Stalingrad or in Berlin during WW II. O'Donnell was accepted into the brotherhood of warriors, and his fierce joy at a successful action and deep grief at the Marine casualties come through to the reader in vivid form. This is one of the finest accounts of infantry combat action that has been published in a very long time. A book like this is especially useful at a time when many returning troops are struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); thereader learns where it comes from. The book is also useful now that our ex-military people find themselves liable to be tried in civilian courts for "war crimes" they might have committed while in combat. Face-to-face combat does not excuse atrocities, of course, but one wonders if civilian jurors can ever fully understand what a defendant has gone through. Neither war crimes nor dubious combat actions were recorded in this book, and any conclusions readers might draw from this are strictly their own. What does come across, however, is the extraordinary stresses experienced by each individual soldier each time he eases into a room where a suicidal fanatic might be waiting, whenever a sniper shot brushes his sleeve, or when he discovers a fiendishly clever booby-trap silently waiting for him. Combat veterans have always known that civilian family and friends can never understand nor appreciate the experiences they have gone through. This unforgettable book, however, goes a long way toward helping. Reviewer: Raymond Puffer, Ph.D.

Kirkus Reviews

Recollections of action by U.S. Marines who fought in the Iraq War's fiercest battle. Military writer O'Donnell joined up partway through the battle for Fallujah with a unit from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and accompanied them through several days until the notorious Iraqi city, with its denizens of insurgent fighters, was pulverized. The bulk of the book, the author explains, is based on "corroborated oral history interviews which have been vetted." They were gleaned principally from surviving members of the 1st Platoon, Lima Company, nominated by O'Donnell as the troops having "seen the worst" of what was obviously a horrendous experience for anyone involved-some 14 of its original 45 members were left standing at the close of hostilities. Given those definitive circumstances, it is clear that he writes for no purpose other than to reflect the fullest possible credit on the individuals he happened to be embedded with. They are portrayed as uniformly dedicated and patriotic, bonded by a hatred of the enemy mujahadin and the overriding desire to protect one another and do the Corps proud. Some "love combat," while others have been able to overcome fear through indoctrination. The descriptions of urban warfare are graphic and grisly; most encounters result in at least one disfigured corpse (sometimes that of a Marine). A redundant line of justification reminds the reader that insurgents fight dirty, don't follow any of the rules of war and use civilians as shields, and that Marines in Iraq are often handicapped by engagement rules stemming from biased or inaccurate media coverage, etc. Clearly reflects valor and courage, but this is hardly "history" as most understand it.

We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah

Paperback

Customer Reviews

What People are Saying About This

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Recently Viewed