recommending a book - Outlaw Platoon
 

I loved Lone Survivor and American Sniper. Those stories were child's play compared to Outlaw Platoon, written by the 24 year-old officer in charge of a 40-man Ranger platoon in Afghanistan. There were times I couldn't breathe, times I was sweating, and one part where I was uncontrollably sobbing.

Author's name is Sean Parnell, has done many TV interviews you can see on youtube...a most impressive young man. Stupifying story, a great description of the physical and emotional toll taken on these kids.

On your recommendation picked it up the other day and finished it last nite. Good story that shows the horror both physical and mental that warriors have to endure
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Thanks. I thought it was, by far, the most vivid account of war, since All Quiet On The Western Front. I feel like Outlaw Platoon was actually capable of giving post traumatic stress disorder to the reader...

Previously, I thought Black Hawk Down was the mosy vivid account of combat, but you can't compare that to a story being told by the 24 year-old lieutenant who led the platoon.

I thought it was impossibly gripping and vivid. And it really underscores the culutural differences between our country and that country, might as well be another planet.

And when I read the chapter called "Village Of The Damned", I think my soul cracked in a way that can never completely heal.

There is a 25-minute interview that Sean Parnell did on PBS with Tavis Smiley. You can watch it on youtube, you will be impressed with how genuine and humble and well-spoken Parnell is, and th eobvious admiratiuon and affection he has for his men. That interview is a nice compliment to the book.

Have you read "Into Harms Way"? That's the survivor's tale of what happened on the USS Indianappolis, and it's a mystery to me how any of those guys came back with any of their brains intact.

A few years ago one of the big Black Hawk Down stars took my last good beer at a small Oscars party. I was pissed (haha). We made good soon after. I had a bum knee and he was great at getting me beers.

Never seen the movie but I should.

Shameless plug for some of my family history, but there's a book called Faithful Warriors that is the story of my grandfathers company in ww2. He was a captain in the marines during WW2 in the South Pacific. It's a great read.
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Did he survive?

Yes. He passed away 5 years ago, and in his final years worked very closely with the author of the book to get his experience on paper. It was a great read. Wading across the lagoon in Tarawa drove me to tears.
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Holy sh*t, he was a Marine at Tarawa? I know of that battle, which might have been the most ferocious (if you measure that by deaths per hour) in the entire war. Due to a variety of scientific factors, the tides were way lower than expected that day, so all of the Higgins boats bottomed out on the reef hundreds of yards from shore, so all the Marines had to wade in chest deep water, across a lagoon protected by a series of machine gun nests. Shooting fish in a barrel. The assault in was led by Colonel Shoup, who won the medal of honor. Many marines were awarded the medal of honor as a result of that battle, which goes down with Tripoli and the Chosin Reservoir in Marine Corps history.

I'll be getting that book.

Wow.

You should be mighty proud...

Beaming both down to my Kindle as we speak. Will be good reading for the flight to London.

i was very happy to see that P.T.S.D. was said to be
alleviated for Soldiers with the use of Medical Cannabis
on Sanjay Gupta's latest CNN special # 3 on Cannabis.

the thing with stress is that when it gets Internalized
the body must compensate and find an avenue to
rid itself of it ...and that's when it manifests from psychological
brain stress into the physical realm of body ailments....

Same here. Outlaw Platoon should take 7 or 8 hours to read. Safe trip.

I am proud :)

He fought at Guadalcanal, Tarawa and was seriously injured in Saipan. He gave me an officers sword from Tarawa that is riddled with bullet holes. They cut through the blade like a plasma cutter.
His stories in the book are not all about battles... I learned I have an uncle in New Zealand...quite an eye opener to discover that in a book. :hihi:
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Those are 3 of the most ferocious battles in our nation's history. All eventually won by your grandfather and his buddies. He saw some things, boy. Saipan is where all the Japanese civilians, once it was clear the Marines were going to win, jumped to their deaths off a cliff. Women jumped off clutching their infants. Not sure how one witnesses that and ever gets a good night's sleep again.

Can I ask his name, so I'll know who it is in the book?

Was he in the Marines before WWII started?

Thanks for sharing a deeply personal part of your family's contributions to our country.

He was at holy cross and had just graduated when Pearl Harbor happened.. He enlisted right away and was off to South Carolina for training if I remember right. captain John Murdock was his name.
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He has earned a very special place in Heaven. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to read it.