Iraq Chronicle

Jeff Dahlin wrote Iraq Chronicle while he served as a medical platoon sergeant with l battalion 278 Regimental Combat Team. Beginning with departing from Tennessee with the cheers from hundreds of roadside onlookers to arriving in the sweltering humidity of southern Mississippi for training, Dahlin introduces members of his platoon and as training continues, witnesses the transformation of weekend warriors to full time professional soldiers. Training cumulates at the national training center in southern California with a simulated attack on an Iraqi village followed up by a fruit loop race in a rain swollen ditch during a freak desert storm. Tensions within the platoon begin to arise when the regiment is shipped to Kuwait to prepare for a road march into Iraq. Long lines and a shortage of ammunition, sand storms and civilian contractors add to the stress. Scrap metal salvaged from a landfill to provide “Hillbilly Armor,” for the units vehicles was responsible for the Defense Secretary’s statement that, “You go to war with the Army you have not the Army you want.” Entering Iraq, Dahlin presents vivid first impressions of an alien land and culture.A “welcome to Iraq” roadside bomb hit his convoy only two miles from its destination FOB (forward operating base) Caldwell in Diyala Province. Recounting mounted and foot patrols from a medics point of view, he gives a unique prospective of infantry operations. A night ambush gone bad or Iraqi civilians pleading for medical attention; Dahlin’s account is funny, sad, intriguing and doggedly brings into focus the ongoing tragedy in Iraq.