When Donovan Campbell's platoon deployed to Ramadi in the spring of 2004, they believed they'd be spending most of their time building schools, training police, and making friends with the citizens. But shortly after arriving, when Campbell awoke to the chilling cry of "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad!" echoing from minaret to minaret across the city, he knew they had an altogether different situation on their hands.
For nearly the entire day, Joker-One—the forty-man infantry platoon that Campbell was charged with leading—fought house-to-house to rescue other units, sometimes trading grenades with their enemies from just a few feet away. In the days and months that followed, hundreds of hard-core insurgents launched simultaneous attacks on the Marine forces in Ramadi, their ranks swelled by thousands of local volunteers drawn from the citizens of a city whose primary export was officers in Saddam Hussein's army. By the fall of 2004, nearly half the men in Campbell's platoon had been wounded in some of the fiercest urban fighting since Vietnam; less than a month after they withdrew, the forces in Ramadi were doubled, then tripled.
Although Joker One is set in Iraq, the book's themes—brotherhood, honor, and sacrifice—are universal. Campbell shows us how his Marines' patience, discipline, and love for one another created a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts, and how the essential goodness of these men remains unchanged by all of the pain and the terror surrounding them. His sharp-eyed, evocative, and unflinching account of his deployment is just as impressive as the man himself—a man who chose to enter the military because of his patriotism, sense of privilege, and deep religious faith when most of his Princeton classmates were cashing in their ivy league educations for lucrative careers among the financial elite. The vivid and gripping battle scenes will satisfy fans of military memoirs, but it's Campbell's sense of duty, faith, and love for his men that makes Joker One a truly extraordinary account of a war that has touched us all.
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"I saw Donovan Campbell speak at an FEI meeting last fall. Campbell related the incredibly powerful and heartfelt story of leading his Marine platoon into combat in Ramadi, one the most brutal areas of the Iraq war. You could have heard a pin drop during his presentation, which was one of the best I've ever seen at a business function. Eager to read Campbell's book, I found it no less compelling. Campbell's gripping story, filled with the gritty realities of war, is chock-full of the heroic and tragic stories that naturally result from leading young men into combat. The book is a page-turner that left a lump in my throat and gave me a better appreciation for the trying conditions of the Iraq war as well as the incredible sacrifices made by the brave men and women fighting for the Iraqis' freedom."
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Stuart (4 out of 5 stars)