Generation Kill

[Cavguy]

Great review and perspective. Thanks for the insight on key issues, it's what this thread has been missing. If you don't mind, head over to the "Introduce yourself" thread and give a post for the rest of us.

Agree on the perspective of the series (enlisted centric, bottom up) and how for a viewer not immersed in the military the rants/conclusions could lead to misguided perceptions of the plan and their leadership. A constant is that whatever echelon I have worked at, the next higher level is SNAFU, and their higher is FUBAR. Whether we thought they were actively trying to get us killed depended on the situation. Of course, whenever I worked at that echelon, our/my decisions were spot on and beyond reproach. Those who have served understand this. So I too am uneasy at the impression a civilian would get from the series in this area, although it is probably the most accurate "Joe" perspective depiction of a combat unit I have seen. Like you said, the details down to the skittles on the defroster vent and the Charms in the MRE add an authenticity rarely seen on any show.

The show still raises some serious LOW/ROE issues in my mind, but again, I don't think we're getting the whole perspective. As I stated before, I wondered how guys like "Captain America" were allowed to lead in such a unit. From the book Captain America does get relieved later but is cleared in the incident. Other things, like the supply failures, can be explained (leaving Kuwait without adequate LSAT and NVG batterieswould be one of my war stoppers - your weapon is your life). All the Marine "if you wanted supply join the army" struck me as endorsement of logistical incompetence. I was not in the invasion but in the early part (May 03) of OIF 1, so I know the shortages that were in theater once into it, but Kuwait had lots, even if you had to scrounge. Just puzzing to me that a lead unit would cross berm short of mission critical supplies.

Another (larger) observation was that as the book stated, this unit was formed ad hoc from a different structure to perform a mission it never trained for in garrison - really a cav role (screen, recon, not armed enough for guard), so I was also perplexed that they didn't *gasp* borrow some army 19D-series doctrine and TTP's.

Thanks again for the perspective. There's always two sides to a story.

Niel