Book Review: Wright, Evan. Generation Kill

By: Brian Freeman

Wright, Evan. Generation Kill. Berkley Publishing Group, 2008.

During the second Gulf War for Operation Iraqi Freedom the Pentagon placed over 775 reporters and photographers as embedded journalists. The U.S. invasion of Iraq is the most widely and closely reported wars in military history. Generation Kill tells the uncensored no hold bars story of the First Recon Marine Battalion in the early days of the invasion in Iraq.

The majority of journalists reported on heroic battles, brave men, and respectable soldiers. Rolling Stone writer Evan Wright spent the first two months of the invasion with the First Reconnaissance Marine Battalion‎ and reported on uncensored soldiers who had been desensitized to violence by videogames and Hollywood movies. Wright asked to join a front-line, first-in unit of the Operation Iraqi Freedom during the initial invasion of 2003. He rode into Iraq with the First Reconnaissance Battalion Marines—the Marine Corps' special operations unit whose motto is "Swift, Silent, Deadly."

Wright’s original account of life with the marines, The Killer Elite, was published as a three-part series in the Rolling Stone. The article won Wright a National Magazine Award for Excellence in Reporting in 2004. In the beginning, he was ignored by the Marines, who refused to be interviewed or even speak to the reporter. However, many of the Marine soldiers were familiar with Wright’s previous work with Hustler magazine, and he soon gained popularity among the soldiers.

Wright found that pop culture influenced Marine soldiers, who were focused on killing as many Hajji’s as possible. (Hajji is the Marine slang term for Iraqi military or insurgent personnel.) The Marines quickly explain to Wright the First Marine Recon objective which is to drive ahead and create chaos on the battlefield ahead of the main force. The Marines know Wright is terrified, so they made him ride in the lead vehicle.

Much to the dismay of the Marines and Wright, the commander of First Recon nicknamed Stephen “Godfather” Ferrando, was anxious to earn his battle stripes. Ferrando often volunteered the entire unit for various tasks, even if they were not specially trained or equipped for the mission. Stephen “Godfather” Ferrando earned the nickname because his vocal chords were removed after a bout with cancer, causing him to speak like Marlon Brando in the noted film.

Wright depicts First Recon Marines once being volunteered by Ferrando to invade entire villages with open top hummers, and another time to capture heavily fortified airfield that luckily had been deserted before operation started.

Many of the Marines of First Recon do not even have Hummer licenses, and the vehicles themselves lack not only armor, but roofs, doors and windscreens. Also a majority of Hummers battle turrets do not turn and often jam on firing. Before every military action the Marines are forced to pillage villages for parts or steal from other units to keep the vehicles running.

The entire command leadership would be criticized throughout the entire book by Wright and the Marines. They often complain to Wright about certain officers and about decisions made at the higher levels. According to Wright, the soldiers had the right to complain about the often incompetent command leadership.

Most notably, the soldiers complained of any command from Captain Craig “Encino Man” Schwetje, whose orders were ignored on numerous occasions. Two of the most critical mistakes Schwetje makes were attempting to call an airstrike on his location and leaving a supply truck filled with thousands of pounds C4 explosive and food unguarded. Schwetje assumed the Iraqis would be happy for the Marines liberating the country and that they would have no need for thousands of pounds of C4.

Wright not only shows writes about Schwetje’s ineptitude, but he quotes him saying, “Check it out, I taped my windows so I could turn my laptop on without enemies seeing the light. Cool, huh?” This action causes his Humvee driver to run off the road several times and miss important roads junctions. It is only a brief description of the number of mistakes by commanders of the recon unit, all of which are well documented throughout the book.

Despite the problems the Marines did their job, and did it well, with a strange kind of cynical patriotism. They suffer minor injuries while killing hundreds of Iraqis, and few enemy soldiers survive their attacks. Those who survive the Marines’ attack often stumble out of ruined buildings to surrender, some crying and defecating with fear. The elite Marines leave a trail of destruction and death in their tracks. They face almost no challenge they can not handle and as Wright shows the Marines main problem was trying to sort out civilians from enemy fighters.

While the author is clearly against the war, this does not interfere with his sympathy for and portrayal of the troops and his ear for brilliant quotes. Wright captures a number conversation and quotes which helps the reader bond and understand each man of the unit. Wright captures one of the best quotes from Cpl. Ray Person saying,

“Look at this shit. How come we can't ever invade a cool country, like chicks in bikinis, you know? How come counties like that don't ever need Marines? I'll tell you why, it's lack of pussy that fucks countries up, lack of pussy is the root fucking cause of all global instability. If more Hajis were getting quality pussy, there'd be no reason for us to come over and fuck em up like this, cause a nut-busting Haji, is a happy Haji…. No, Saddam is just part of the problem, if Saddam invested more in the pussy infrastructure of Iraq than he did in his fucking gay ass army, then this country would be no more fucked up than say, Mexico.”

Uncensored quotes like this, memorable and important, are found many times throughout Generation Kill give the reader a better understanding of each solider.

This book is not is a comprehensive overview of the run-up to the war or of the overall strategy employed by the U.S. military. Wright’s Generation Kill is about first hand experience of war and soldiers that fight it. Reading like a fiction book, he chronicles not just battlefield experiences, but each man both as an individual and as a part of the battalion.

Generation Kill is not for the faint of heart. Wright doesn't shy away from showing the sheer horror of war, such as the case of the civilian Iraqi driver who had been accidental shot by 50 caliber machine gun at road block. The Iraqi driver had the top of his head scooped out by a bullet, leaving him brain dead but technically alive, with a beating heart and working lungs as he sat at the wheel of his vehicle. He does not paper over Saddam's brutal regime, and there are several scenes in which he depicts cheering crowds lined the streets to joyously welcome the Marines.
Generation Kill reveals raw truth about how Operation Iraqi Freedom was fought and takes reader and places them on the streets with force that paved the way. The book is not a comprehensive study of the war but a personal experience. Because of the personal experience, it forces us to consider America's overall strategy and possibly self-defeating strategy.

Overall Generation Kill is a great a tale of the battle-forged camaraderie and brutality of war. Wright’s focus is on the elite group of highly trained troops, who were raised on hip-hop, violent video games, and often offensive and racist cartoons, such as South Park. They are a completely different generation of soldiers from the men who fought in World War II and Vietnam.

Write wrote in his prologue: “Culturally, these marines would be virtually unrecognizable to their forebears in the ‘Greatest Generation.”