thedrifter
06-07-08, 02:55 PM
Independent.ie
The Irish grunt in Iraq
The Green Marine
By Graham Dale with Neil Fetherstonhaugh
(Hachette Ireland, €19.75)
By Don Lavery
Saturday June 07 2008
The attacks of 9/11 changed the world and prompted George Bush's War on Terror -- for Dubliner Graham Dale it brought him to the front lines of that war, in Iraq.
Dale, who was in Texas and and had worked as a volunteer with the fire department, took it personally and later that morning decided to join the US Marines to defend his adopted country.
The 23-year-old Raheny man, who had grown up on tales of his relatives fighting in foreign wars and like many boys had his view coloured by John Wayne storming the beaches of Iwo Jima, appealed to the uber macho culture of the Marines, telling the recruiting sergeant he wanted a rifle and someone to shoot.
He also wanted to see if he had what it took to be a Marine.
He joined a reserve infantry unit and, a few months later, he was at the centre of one of the toughest training regimes anywhere, so well portrayed in Stanley Kubrick's movie Full Metal Jacket, before eventually being shipped off to Iraq.
What emerges is a grassroots view of the average Marine "grunt" or infantry soldier; and the endless, mind-numbing 14-hour patrols of the desert in Iraq, interspersed with episodes of terror and heroism.
It also shows how ill-prepared the American military were to deal with a latent insurgency; the lack of interreaction with local people and ignorance of Iraqi culture or history.
Much of his book is taken up with the mundane activities of what became an occupation force, the "hurry up and wait" syndrome, and the lack of preparedness the mightiest military on earth had for a counter-insurgency campaign.
Dale, a turret machine- gunner on a Humvee vehicle, recounts how he had to strap his ammo boxes on with bungee cords; he could see through the holes in the floor, while only one of the four Humvees in his unit was armoured, leaving them extremely vulnerable to attack. The new nature of the conflict, such as suicide bombers in cars, meant the Marines were in a no-win situation; if they delayed opening fire on a suspect car that could leave their comrades in danger; but if they fired on an innocent car they could be accused of murder.
Dale in a five-second incident opened fire on a suspect car as it careered towards his unit; but his rounds went through the windscreen missing a woman in the front passenger seat with a four-year old in her lap, and their teenage daughter sitting behind.
He went to bed that night thanking God that no one was hurt, but still determined to defend his buddies sitting in the vehicle below him. But a real suicide attack forced him to confront the "cruel and horrible truth of war". It happened when a speeding car crashed into a Humvee, and in a gripping description, Dale tells how he used his medical training to try to save the life of a Marine he knew well; giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation as he spat out the soldier's blood and vomit.
Afterwards, he suggested to his sergeant they put the terrorists in the car into a Pringle box, as the "two murdering bastards were now crisps".
The tour left Dale with post traumatic stress syndrome; and a book that is a revealing personal insight into the consequences for one man of the decision to invade Iraq.
Don Lavery is an assistant news editor with the Irish Independent
- Don Lavery
Ellie
The Irish grunt in Iraq
The Green Marine
By Graham Dale with Neil Fetherstonhaugh
(Hachette Ireland, €19.75)
By Don Lavery
Saturday June 07 2008
The attacks of 9/11 changed the world and prompted George Bush's War on Terror -- for Dubliner Graham Dale it brought him to the front lines of that war, in Iraq.
Dale, who was in Texas and and had worked as a volunteer with the fire department, took it personally and later that morning decided to join the US Marines to defend his adopted country.
The 23-year-old Raheny man, who had grown up on tales of his relatives fighting in foreign wars and like many boys had his view coloured by John Wayne storming the beaches of Iwo Jima, appealed to the uber macho culture of the Marines, telling the recruiting sergeant he wanted a rifle and someone to shoot.
He also wanted to see if he had what it took to be a Marine.
He joined a reserve infantry unit and, a few months later, he was at the centre of one of the toughest training regimes anywhere, so well portrayed in Stanley Kubrick's movie Full Metal Jacket, before eventually being shipped off to Iraq.
What emerges is a grassroots view of the average Marine "grunt" or infantry soldier; and the endless, mind-numbing 14-hour patrols of the desert in Iraq, interspersed with episodes of terror and heroism.
It also shows how ill-prepared the American military were to deal with a latent insurgency; the lack of interreaction with local people and ignorance of Iraqi culture or history.
Much of his book is taken up with the mundane activities of what became an occupation force, the "hurry up and wait" syndrome, and the lack of preparedness the mightiest military on earth had for a counter-insurgency campaign.
Dale, a turret machine- gunner on a Humvee vehicle, recounts how he had to strap his ammo boxes on with bungee cords; he could see through the holes in the floor, while only one of the four Humvees in his unit was armoured, leaving them extremely vulnerable to attack. The new nature of the conflict, such as suicide bombers in cars, meant the Marines were in a no-win situation; if they delayed opening fire on a suspect car that could leave their comrades in danger; but if they fired on an innocent car they could be accused of murder.
Dale in a five-second incident opened fire on a suspect car as it careered towards his unit; but his rounds went through the windscreen missing a woman in the front passenger seat with a four-year old in her lap, and their teenage daughter sitting behind.
He went to bed that night thanking God that no one was hurt, but still determined to defend his buddies sitting in the vehicle below him. But a real suicide attack forced him to confront the "cruel and horrible truth of war". It happened when a speeding car crashed into a Humvee, and in a gripping description, Dale tells how he used his medical training to try to save the life of a Marine he knew well; giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation as he spat out the soldier's blood and vomit.
Afterwards, he suggested to his sergeant they put the terrorists in the car into a Pringle box, as the "two murdering bastards were now crisps".
The tour left Dale with post traumatic stress syndrome; and a book that is a revealing personal insight into the consequences for one man of the decision to invade Iraq.
Don Lavery is an assistant news editor with the Irish Independent
- Don Lavery
Ellie