I am not usually one for military history or books about wars. I much prefer to read fiction that happens to have war as a backdrop and generally read to escape my own reality. Sometimes it is difficult to escape into someone else’s reality.
My cousin Jake (ok he’s not really my cousin — my mom and his dad are cousins, so that makes him my second cousin once removed?) is a green beret and is part of the Special Forces team that miraculously came out of Iraq unscathed in April 2003. I remember going out to his house in Southern Ohio when he was in his teens and my brother and I were elementary age. We were fascinated by his dirt bikes, dart board, and all things cool and dangerous and teenager-like. Jake and his sister grew up in the middle of nowhere and my brother and I grew up in postage stamp lawn suburbia — it was quite a treat for us to visit and we have hours of ridiculous home movies to prove it.
I found out a book was written about one of his tours (he’s been on at least 3 that I know of) so I had to read it. Antenori offers a glimpse inside the special forces that is rarely seen because of security issues, and only because of the unique nature of the conflict and outcome was this story able to be published. He wrote it after her retired and current servicemen, most of whom still work in Special Forces, were not able to be interviewed. Still, he is able to describe the events and tell a captivating story.
Previous to reading, I didn’t fully understand the preparations and team building that go into preparing for war, nor did I know about the differences between the Special Forces and other companies.
The story itself is extraordinary, and while Antenori is not a writer in the typical sense, his feeling and emotion come across with minimal what I’d call army starkness and formality. Perhaps the most poignant part for me were the last few pages, which many people may gloss over. I listened to this book on audio, and the narrator read the final entry that details the killed-in-action Special Forces since 2001. The book was over, but I couldn’t turn it off, and even paused to finish before getting out of my car in the grocery store parking lot. Whether or not I agree with the reasoning behind why our troops are abroad, I could stand to support them a little more.
