Reviews for Sinking of the Merrimac

The average rating for Sinking of the Merrimac based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-02-18 00:00:00 Christopher Mccoin I loved the book. I was In D company 3/502INF 101st and I can tell you it is correct in every way. From those cold nights at Campbell loading trains to the hot hell of Karbala, it is those little details that civilians see as boring that saves our lives. Moving the 101st from Ft Campbell to Kuwait in a month and then invading a country is no easy task. 99% of what we do is boring, but it is that 1% that they write books about. We sit in that hot seat and make those life and death commands when others do not or will not. I can tell you it is safer to read the book than live it. It was one hell of a ride and I do miss being in the company of those soldiers.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-11-20 00:00:00 Tracy Gray The author shadows David Petraeus during the invasion of Iraq, and after each recounted episode contrasts the competence and integrity of the soldiers with that of the Bush administration. Lots of minutiae about somewhat random things, like discussions over whether to tape or paint helicopter blades to protect them from the sand. Those particular details weren't completely random, the vulnerability of helicopters to ground fire and sand is mentioned repeatedly. The story of the looting is interesting - in another book it is mentioned that U.S. soldiers were authorized to shoot looters while in Haiti (or another country?) in the 90's, and there was therefore no looting. In Iraq no authorization existed, and there was a high level acceptance of the looting of Baath party buildings which degenerated into the looting of anything by the time that filtered to the street level. The author talks about painstaking attention made by the military to not damaging city infrastructure (the more they damage the longer they have to stay around afterward to see it rebuilt), but then the looters ended up destroying it in the anarchy following the invasion.