recommending a book - Outlaw Platoon

[Jim in CT]

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.