We Were One.

We Were One

Patrick O'Donnell 

DaCapo Press

c/o Perseus Books Group

Eleven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142

0306814692 $ 25.00 www.decapopress.com 1-800-242-7737

Author Patrick O'Donnell has written the story of 1st Platoon, Lima Company, 3/1 as they fought their way through the worst part of Fallujah in November 2004. This is a well-written book whose low-key and personable style belies the intensity and strength that these Marines personified in taking the city.

Fallujah was the worst urban combat the Marine Corps has seen since the battle of Hue City in Vietnam, and was the most difficult and bloodiest single battle of the war in Iraq (An-Nasiriyah being the second). While Bing West's book "No True Glory" provides the reader with a better overview of the battle for Fallujah, "We Were One" is the best snapshot written to date that details the ferocity of the house-to-house fighting that took place that week.

Starting from their MOUT training in Camp Pendleton, the author focuses on the personal relations within the platoon, and how the Marines come to trust and rely on each other. O'Donnell takes the reader into the private world of a Marine infantry platoon, where the young Marines work to build the trust and confidence in- and from--their mates that is so necessary in combat. He offers vivid descriptions both of their training and their liberty, and succeeds in setting the tone of trust and apprehension in each Marine as 1st Pltn Lima Company leaves in June 2004 for Iraq.

Shifting to the AO, 1st Pltn loses it's first member within the month, and O'Donnell's prose reflects the rising tensions and stresses that the Marines encounter. He also discusses the ROE's in effect, and how the Marines are hamstrung by the rather naive ROE's as promulgated by MNFI-West. O'Donnell clearly and accurately describes the Coalition and Iraqi Government's inept political machinations of September and October that led to RCT-1's finally being tasked to clear the city.

In the early days of the battle, author O'Donnell was embedded with another unit, but is eventually shifted to 1st Platoon. He covers the final days of the fight as an embed with 1st Pltn, and gets right up in combat with them; 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 amongst the most descriptive and heart-breaking accounts to come back from the Iraqi front.

O'Donnell succeeds in personalizing each of the Marines. The reader gets to know each one; how he thinks, who is his buddy, what is his role in the daily fighting. His description of each individual lets us mourn the loss of each Marine also, as his prose is sufficiently vivid to let the reader walk the streets with 1st Pltn.

For those readers who think that an embedded reporter has his own agenda, this book may well change their minds. For those readers who want to begin to understand just how deadly is 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.

Andrew Lubin, Reviewer

www.andrewlubin.com