One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War

Not just a look into the hard battles fought by a storied Marine battalion's grunts but a great commentary on the strategy of the Afghan war as a whole. If you had a hard time figuring out what our strategy was in Vietnam; you'll definitely have a hard time figuring out what our leaders were trying to accomplish in Afghanistan.You have to feel for the hard fought daily battles and losses faced by the Marines in 3/5. The fact that they continued to seek out the enemy and didn't engage those they knew to be enemy fighters (outside of the rules of engagement) makes you respect their mettle even more.What is truly amazing on a larger scale is how we continue to send our men and women into war or other dangerous situations (peacekeeping mission in Beirut-how ignorant we were) with such screwed up ROE and do little to address the enemy's sanctuaries. How can we fail to learn the lessons of Vietnam that haunt us still.Of all our great accomplishments - and there are many - prosecuting a war and leaving the fighting to our war fighters seems to have evaded our great nation since the Korean War.

For nearly 200 pages, the author chronicles that daily battles fought by the 3/5, 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company in the Sangin sectors in Helmand province in Afghanistan. This area borders Pakistan and the Marines there faced Taliban coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan and supplied from there. After reading the daily struggle and horror they faced, I'm glad that I did not come across this book before or while my son later served there with the Marines. If you read this book, you will see why. These dedicated Marines fought a battle for the sake of honor and duty in response to the call of country.The summary of the book puts this in perspective:"The test of success is whether you would fight the war over again with the same strategy. No military commander would repeat ourAfghan strategy."While our generals pursued the quixotic strategy of a benevolent war, our grunts remained loyal, tough and realistic. Third Platoon fought the hardest sustained campaign of the war. One million steps, with death or amputation awaiting each step. Despite knowing the strategy made little sense, they did not falter or pull back." (p. 212)This is a book not just for Marines, their families and friends, but for policy makers to see what the consequences of their decisions can be.

This is a reporter’s view of one battalion who spent time in a hell hole in Afghanistan. These Marines fought for their buddies and their honor despite confusing and changing goals. The majority of the casualties that they sustained, and they took heavy casualties, were traumatic amputations due to IEDs. Their story is told with compassion and depth.I will never understand how the leaders of our country failed to learn the lessons of Vietnam. Once again, commanders and political goals changed frequently and there was no clearly defined end game. These Marines didn’t give a damn. They did their job as they saw it and did it to the best of their ability.

The story of a platoon of Marines in Afghanistan that suffered more casualties during their deployment than any other unit in Afghanistan. From day one when the Marines were assigned a FOB in Sangin they suffered their first causality from an IED. The commitment of these Marines to stay true to their fellow Marines and their mission even though with the overwhelming number of IEDs each step could result in amputation or death is deserving of all our respect and admiration. I recommend this book as these Marines story needs to be known and acknowledged. Hopefully after first Vietnam and now Afghanistan our political leaders will learn to quit handcuffing our military and giving them missions without clear cut goals. Not quite sure why the author kept talking about his service in Vietnam when this book was about Afghanistan, but still a book well worth reading.

I have read books of this type of the World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We, as citizens of these United States, must take action to support our veterans when we bring them home. Even when they look whole, they are still changed. Having seen the things they have seen, having taken lives, and having their brothers killed by their sides has changed them inside, often in ways they cannot recognize.This book draws you closely into the lives of a company of Marines during their seven month tour in the worst location in Afghanistan. At times they fight by day and return to their quarters at night to turn on their computers and communicate with wives or girlfriends back home. At other times they have no real electric power to use, no internet, no hot showers, eat MREs (the current edition of C-rations), just fire pits to sit around and talk. Of course, and its a good thing they did. they shared what they saw and learned that day in combat, their awareness of the situation. In fact, I am using that where I work to improve our industrial safety performance, except we call it situational awareness. And, if we are not as good at it as we could be, we are seldom likely to suffer a serious injury, certainly not deat. For them, being less aware of their situation resulted in amputations, sometimes multiples, traumatic brain injuries, or death.These men were with the 3/5 Marines. They tried to live up to Eugene Sledge's legacy. If you want to know what that means, read "With the Old Breed." It's about WWII, the Pacific part of the war and the actions of the same unit there. Some of the horrors were the same, and so was the esprit.I liked this book. It's not an easy one to read. It will make you think a lot about the war we are in right now. It will make you think even more about getting more involved in other wars in the Middle East. It should make you think about how you should show your support for our warriors. Can you demonstrate against the fighting they are in the middle of and still show them support? That's a tough question. Think hard before you answer it.

A truly disappointing read with the author utterly failing to understand the nature of the conflict in Afghanistan. His clear desire for the Marines to simply "kill them all and let God sort them out" ignores the political reality that ISAF forces are deployed to support the Afghan government in their attempts to rebuild the nation after years of misrule. West, like many ex-military personnel, is clearly frustrated by the rules of engagement. However, like all senior ex-military men, he should understand that soldiers and marines do not get to always fight the wars they would like; sometimes they need to adapt to situations where the bullet is not the solution.If you think war is about John Wayne and zapping inferior beings because they wear "man dresses" then you'll love this testosterone fuelled rant against Obama and his senior Generals who simply cannot see that the solution is to go in with all guns blazing. If you have a serious interest in understanding the conflict in Afghanistan and its nuances and complexities then you really should look elsewhere.

This book gives you a great "feel" for the tactics and realities of the battle for Sangin in Afghanistan between the Marines and the Taliban. It will give you a great appreciation for the incredible courage, sheer determination and sacrifices of the warfighters in the USMC. It also contains a thoughtful analysis of the political and strategic limitations imposed upon the conflict by the politicos and the military leadership and the limitations of Afghan society itself that so diminished the real returns of all this sacrifice. In this respect, it is a heart-wrenching read.