Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story Of Courage, Leadership, And Brotherhood (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
JOKER ONE is a book about a Marine officer, author Donovan Campbell, who's goal was to lead a platoon of Marines into battle. When he finally got this wish, he was given a skeleton platoon. Just before their first deployment the platoon was given many untrained and unexperienced Marines to fill their ranks. When they were deployed into Ramadi, Iraq it was a very quiet city with a history of low violence. This image, however, quickly changed. The young leader of this platoon, Donovan Campbell, struggled throughout the memoir with learning how to lead men by example and by showing them love. When things got difficult, whether during combat or quiet time, he was always learning more about how to be a leader.I really liked this book. I thought it was a breath of fresh air to read an account of war experience from someone who was actually there instead of someone who sat behind a desk and heard all of their information secondhand. I liked the amount of detail that the author used, it helped you to immerse yourself in the story and feel like you were actually there.There was nothing that I disliked in the book. In my opinion it was an all around good book. Way to start off the year with something light, Sarah. Nothing more comforting and hopeful to ring in the new year than a memoir about war and violent, bloody death, right? Luckily, January 3rd feels not so different than December 31st in my world, so all this morbid seems par for the course.Without fail, the first thing that always boggles my mind in reading books like this is how incredibly, insanely, ridiculously young our soldiers are. Most of them are fresh out of high school; innocent(ish), baby-faced, and stupidly fearless. Even the leaders and higher-ups are generally in the 24 and 25 year old range (you know, that time in life when the human brain is STILL FINISHING DEVELOPMENT). It never seems to take too long for reality to sink in, but the long-term mental and physical consequences of battle seem a terrible price to pay for naivete.I can’t help but think that whatever sinister person invented all of this nonsense knew that there would be a whole lot less fighting if you tried to convince 40-and-50-somethings to pick up a gun, strap on some Kevlar, and take to the battlefield. War requires youth. And the youth it doesn’t exterminate, becomes instantaneously old. The other piece that never fails to surprise and anger is the utter lack of communication and understanding between the different hierarchical levels of the military. Not a few soldiers have lost their lives needlessly because the Commander of the Captain of the Lieutenant of the Squad Leader (or however that goes) has absolutely no fucking idea what is actually happening on the ground and cannot pull his/her shit together for five seconds in order to a) make an informed decision, or b) lacking enough information to make said informed decision, relinquish decision-making power to the person who is ACTUALLY IN THE SITUATION.Those observations aside, the most profound thing that struck me about Joker One was that the true point of the book was less about fighting and more about love and loyalty and what it means to lead. Of course there were blood-and-guts moments and plenty of tactic-talk, but Campbell’s struggles throughout the story were more fundamental: what it means and what it takes to be a good leader, what love and loyalty really are, and what humanity looks like underneath the ugliness and brutality of war. Good writing, important story. Maybe not such a bad way to kick off 2014, eh?
What do You think about Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story Of Courage, Leadership, And Brotherhood (2009)?
It was a very thrilling and action packed book.
—lewig93
