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Citizen soldiers have played a unique role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - and their extended deployment and role in the wars battles have changed the towns, cities, and states they hail from as well. The Devil's Sandbox - a nickname for Iraq - is the story of the 2nd Battalion of Oregon's 162nd Infantry Regiment (2/162), and provides readers an intimate look at the reality of National Guardsmen at war. Follow the 2/162 from their call-up in the summer of 2003 to their return home in the spring of 2005.
Witness some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraq War and some of the most rewarding and forward-looking civil affairs projects aimed at rebuilding the broken nation of Iraq. Read how the town in Oregon struggles to do without the people - the accountants, lawyers, mechanics, et. al. - who went to serve in the war.
The Devil's Sandbox offers a rare insight into what this war means for the citizen-soldier at home and abroad, and chronicles a battalion that earned the respect of the regular Army soldiers who fought alongside them in some of the toughest battles in the Iraq war.
- Sales Rank: #749429 in eBooks
- Published on: 2006-10-15
- Released on: 2006-10-15
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
“With a gritty flair for storytelling and blunt style, this work is not just another story about the Iraq War … More than a war story about an infantry battalion, The Devil’s Sandbox represents an intimate reality for thousands of Army National Guard soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan … Bruning does not neglect the sacrifices and bravery families and friends of the deployed soldiers exhibited during the deployment. He explains the hardships and stress on those that remained at home as their loved ones went to war … John Bruning’s work is the best book written about the Army National Guard since 11 September 2001 … The nation’s citizen-soldiers have been an integral part in the War on Terror, and their sacrifice, as well as their families’, is vividly brought to life in this new work.”
On Point: The Journal of Army History
“Beside the fact that we absolutely love the book’s title, The Devil’s Sandbox strikes us as one of the more powerful unit histories from the Iraq War ... One thing's for sure, no one can ever refer to the men and women of the 2/126 as ‘weekend warriors’again.”
Military Book Club
From the Author
Author’s Note
Hello, and welcome! Come on in, we’ve got meat on the grill and enough beer to last us all night. Don’t be shy; have a seat out back. The view of our valley is fabulous. All our guests remark on it. We’ve got every shade of green you can imagine. The lush grass, the tall firs stippling the hills . . . well, nothing beats it in my book.
You’ve got to know up front that our valley isn’t the Silicon Valley. We don’t drive Beamers and Benzes to work. We’re an SUV and pick-up kind of place—the bigger the better. Out here, we’ve got the bedrock types who built this country and made it great. We are Middle America, the heartland in our chunk of Oregon. We’re old school. We don’t judge by job or vehicle. We look into each other’s eyes and measure the man by the content of his character.
Relax—kick your shoes off. I’ve got much to tell you, but first I need to introduce you to my neighbors. Sure, you’ve probably seen them before. Vinni Jacques was on CNN. So was Pete Wood. Chris Bailey made the front page of the New York Times. Sean Davis and Ray Byrne were interviewed on 60 Minutes. Luke Wilson made the cover of Field and Stream in November ’05. Matt Zedwick has his own action figure now. Jim MacMillan’s photo of Shad Thomas won the Pulitzer Prize. In one memorable issue, Pete Salerno’s narrow mug graced the cover of the National Enquirer. You can’t buy that kind of love.
If you’ve been watching the news a lot, you probably saw some of my neighbors die.
Yes, I’m sure you’ve seen them before, but now I want you to really get to know them. Tonight, I’m going to fill you in on a bunch of guys, and one woman, who happened to be the most ribald, feral, loyal, and dedicated humans I’ve ever encountered. I love them like I love my own kin. Don’t ask me to talk trash about them; don’t ask me to get into politics. Neither mean much to them, so they mean nothing to me.
They’re a deceptive bunch. Head into the Wal-Mart, or one of the mills around here and you’ll find them hard at work. Drop by the HP printer factory a ways down the road in Corvallis. You’ll find a handful of them there in button-down shirts stuffed away in cubical land. They look like any other nine-to-five Joe just trying to make ends meet. They don’t stand out, not at first glance, anyway. They pass through their days in average obscurity, raising their families and doing the best they can in this crazy world.
Truth be told, they are a different breed of cat. Once a month and two weeks out of every summer, they strap on their gear and go learn how to kill people. My neighbors, you see, are citizen-soldiers. They call themselves “Joes” or “Pot-bellied steely-eyed killers.” They say the latter half in jest. While some of them are a bit saggy around the midsection, most could make any Bowflex ad look good. They are the infantrymen—Joes—of the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry, Oregon National Guard.
Fate threw them into the middle of the most important battles in the Iraq War during 2004–05, a period the army refers to as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Part II. Now, as we sit on this porch, the army’s up to its fifth sequel and some of my pals are heading back into the fight. You see, they are a committed bunch. They love this country. They’ve seen our enemies firsthand and know the ruthless evil that resides in their cause. They know that should we falter in Iraq, the War on Terror will surely be lost.
During OIF II, the Iraq War morphed into something greater than itself. It became a titanic test of wills between America and the forces of Islamic fascism. The battlefields in Iraq became our generation’s Guadalcanal and Stalingrad. Both sides have invested everything they’ve got. Now, the battle has outgrown its strategic significance into something larger: a crucible of resolve.
My neighbors saw this transformation firsthand. And, if you’ll pardon the bragging, they helped shape it during their time in the Sandbox. These average work-a-day stiffs helped beat down the two Al Sadr uprisings. They fought the Battle of Najaf. They fought the Battle of Fallujah. They called the Sunni Triangle home.
When they returned to a hero’s welcome here in Oregon, they discovered the marines had hogged their glory. Every book, every documentary on the History Channel failed to recognize their achievements. They even got dissed by the local politicos, who during their demobilization ceremony extolled their service without a clue of their accomplishments.
You’re on my back porch tonight to fix all that. Please, sit back and take this in. I’ll tell you about their goofy humor and ridiculous pranks. I can’t help that; I’ve been victimized by their devious plots. You’ve got to watch these neighbors of mine. They’ll tie you to your cot quicker than you can say, “Buddy Fucker.”
We’ll have some fun, and I’ll use foul language. It is their language, and to discard it for propriety’s sake does them an injustice. I want you to get to know them, not some sanitized image the feint of heart can handle. Friend, if you can’t handle the f-bomb, then my porch is not for you tonight. If you can, stick around; we’re going to have a hell of a ride.
Just don’t let the goofy stuff take your eye off the ball. There is a larger, more poignant story beneath their antics that you’ll hear in my tale tonight. That aspect of these men (and one woman) deserves your attention. They earned that with the blood they spilled and the brothers they buried.
In many ways, the National Guard has eaten a shit sandwich since the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Continental soldiers looked down their noses at the Minutemen and their militia brethren. They remarked on all of their defeats and celebrated none of their victories. But who has fought and won America’s wars? Our citizen-soldiers.
Take the Civil War. The regular army was too small and too fractured to win that war on its own. No, the regulars didn’t win it, the farm boys and city folk who flocked to Lincoln’s call for militia levies won that one. And when the flood of volunteers dried up after the bloodbaths of Antietam and Gettysburg, the draftees finished the job in the Wilderness, Atlanta, and Petersburg.
What’s that? Okay, sure, that’s just one example, but the militia gave birth to the National Guard. The Guard units formed the cornerstone of America’s war effort in World War I. In World War II, Guard divisions fought side-by-side with the regular divisions. These weekend warriors had their moments of glory: Tennessee’s 30th Division became the elite infantry outfit in western Europe. The “Blue and Gray” Division from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., stormed Omaha Beach. Oregon’s Sunsetters served as MacArthur’s mailed fist for his island-hopping campaign back to the Philippines.
The National Guard has always been there in the thick of the fight. At key moments, they’ve changed the course of history. They’ve protected all that we find of value in our two-hundred-year experiment in freedom and democracy.
Nobody remembers that. Instead, they remember the slip-shod units, the elected officers, the weekends of drill that were little more than an excuse to binge drink with the boys. Kent State? Yeah, that’s remembered. But who recalls Biak or Palawan or the Crossing of the Roer? Since its inception, the Guard has been stigmatized as “Big Army’s”...
From the Inside Flap
It is well known that substantial numbers of the Army National Guard have been deployed to Iraq for extended tours of duty. Less appreciated is the fact that these National Guardsmen are primarily combat soldiers. The Devil’s Sandbox tells their story.
Specifically, this is the story of the 2nd Battalion of Oregon’s 162nd Infantry Regiment (2-162), who are known as the “Volunteers.” They were called up in the summer of 2003 and moved to Fort Hood, Texas, for training in October. The next spring found them in combat in Iraq. Upon entering the country in April 2004 they saw heavy fighting in Najaf, Fallujah, North Sadr City, and while “trolling for terrorists” in the Sunni Triangle. The occupation of Iraq, as seen through the eyes of these Oregonians, brings the realities of the war home for the reader.
In one battle, a platoon of the Volunteers found itself deep behind the lines of the Mahdi militia in Najaf. In the fighting for the six-story hotel that became known as the “Apache Hilton,” eighteen Oregonians fought a multi-day pitched battle. When the dust settled at the end of a week of combat and the Volunteers withdrew, over three hundred dead enemy militiamen littered the battlefield. And this was just one battle by one platoon.
On average the National Guardsmen are older and more mature than their regular army counterparts. Many of them have years of active-duty military experience. They also bring high-level civilian skills with them to Iraq. With a substantial complement of experienced craftsmen and contractors, the Volunteers of 2-162 were able to engage in direct civic action through the rebuilding of the ancient marketplace in downtown Baghdad as well as constructing roads, rebuilding mosques, repairing sewer and power lines, and establishing schools in the Iraqi communities they served in.
The Volunteers’ year in combat in Iraq is told largely in the words of the soldiers themselves. Author John Bruning interviewed virtually all of the members of the battalion as well as many family members. He even deployed with the Oregonians as an “embedded historian when they were sent to New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. This brings the reader a remarkably intimate and immediate experience of “being there” as the infantrymen of 2-162 go into battle, The Devil’s Sandbox is replete with the valorous stories of these Americans in combat on the mean streets of Iraq.
John R. Bruning has been a professional military historian and writer since 1990. He is the author of Crimson Sky: the Air Battle for Korea; Jungle Ace; Elusive Glory; Ship Strike Pacific; Luck of the Draw; and The Devil’s Sandbox: With the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry at War in Iraq. He served as an embedded civilian historian with the 2-162 Infantry during Operation Southern Comfort, the post-Hurricane Katrina relief operation in New Orleans. Bruning also has numerous articles, documentaries, multi-media CD-Rom programs, flight simulators and museum displays to his credit. He lives in Independence, Oregon, the heart of 2-162 country.
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
The face of Sacrifices of US Armed Forces
By Hung Quoc NGUYEN
It is not only a story about war and peace, but also a story about young Americans facing hardships and the sacrifices in war zones.
The separation with their loved ones and then the journey thru life and death for some and injuries and mutilations for others.
The aftermath of re-adapting to life when back to the US. Re-adapting to family life with anger, guilt, trauma and physical pains is not only part of war consequences but the threat of PTSD is also extremely damaging to the individuals and their immediate surroundings. May God bless these heroes for they are truly heroes. My family and I are indebted to them for the freedom we are enjoying and we are so sad when this same freedom is abused by "anti-war" individuals. God bless America.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
A very good book - almost a front-row seat
By Loribee
Whether or not you agree with the war, and I don't, this is a very well-written book about what these men went through while in Iraq. It really doesn't have any politics in it, it is a story of combat. War is not pretty, and neither is combat.
I got to know the men as human beings first, and then as soldiers. No matter how much I feel they should not have been there in the first place, the book gave me an understanding of why they fought (mostly to protect each other), and I felt their hearts were in the right place. They never seemed to lose their humanity, or their caring for the innocents in Iraq, and took some gambles to spare innocent Iraqi lives.
There is a lot of death and it touches you, because you do feel that you know the guys. It was an easy read, yet a difficult one, because senseless death and destruction is difficult for me to read about, but it is an honest story of combat, and certainly never boring.
There are numerous examples of extreme bravery and courage, there are stupid decisions made from above that the men have to follow, there are a LOT of battles in which they took part, and you almost feel as though you're there watching.
I got angry at times, because of the equipment these guys were forced to use - unarmored trucks, which caused one or two unnecessary deaths, lack of support sometimes from the "regular" army, and just some really bad decisions made by leaders. I hope the guys who made it home alive will be okay - they all have a lot to live with.
I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the realities of what our soldiers go through, on either side of the political fence.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Been There, Done That
By Seth Grant
I was with this unit in OIF-II in the capacity of a Medic. If you want to get a good feel for what Oregon's 2/162 did in Iraq, this is the book to read. I've read a number of military history books and sincerely feel that this is one of the better books I've read. Bruning looks at the overall strategic picture and details the reader from a tactical perspective, as well. Having known the troops in the book, as well as the others, I am extremely grateful to see our efforts noted and appreciated. Thanks John... very well done!
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