JUNE 2009

Book Review

A Lieutenant and His Platoon’s Journey

Reviewed by LtCol Michael D. Grice

>LtCol Grice is currently the Head, Fires Section, Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific, and a frequent contributor to the Gazette.

The Marine Corps needs privates and second lieutenants; they are the raw materials that form the keenly honed tip of the spear that is the Nation’s force in readiness. Donovan Campbell, in his thoughtful and provocative account of his experience as an infantry platoon commander, presents an insightful view into how a young leader and his band of noncommissioned officers (NCOs) and newly minted Marines enter combat as neophytes and exit Iraq as hardened veterans. The book is a heartfelt narrative that chronicles Campbell’s personal journey through the magnificent highs and wretched lows that are part and parcel to leadership in combat. It is not simply a memoir of one man’s experiences, but instead it is a peek into the soul of a leader, his Marines, and the living organism that their platoon was to become. It is, in fact, a compelling case study in leadership.

As a budding platoon commander, Campbell dwells at the critical juncture between experience and expectation. As an infantry leader he is trained in the theory of war but lacks the savvy of one who has seen the elephant, and as an officer he is expected to lead and meet the expectations of his Marines despite his lack of practical expertise. It is the pivotal dilemma that every young officer faces: how do you inspire those NCOs who have worn the cloth of the Nation much longer than you and simultaneously lead those Marines who are fresh from the recruit depot? How can you bring 40-odd individual Marines into a cohesive fighting unit that becomes so much more than the additive sum of its constituent parts? This is the story that the author so eloquently tells.

In the fall of 2003, after a brief stint as a staff intelligence officer with the 1st Marine Division headquarters in Iraq, 1stLt Campbell took charge of 1st Platoon, Company G, 2d Battalion, 4th Marines (2/4). He reported into an outfit that had the dubious distinction of being one of the few infantry units from I Marine Expeditionary Force to miss the invasion of Iraq, and they collectively suffered the indignation as members of the unblooded minority of Marines who did not participate in the march up to the liberation of Baghdad. This disappointment didn’t last long, however, as 2/4 received orders for imminent deployment to Iraq.

The receipt of those orders set the battalion on a course that would find it in the most desperate urban combat since Hue, and with a level of casualties that had not been seen in over 30 years. Campbell, a keen observer, records what it was like to be at the lowest level of command as the battalion frenetically prepared for war. He shares the confusion that reigns supreme in every unit before deployment, and he honestly presents his hopes and bares his doubts as he builds a team of Marines from the ground up.

He recognized early on that many of his subordinates were more knowledgeable than he on many aspects of being a Marine infantryman, but as an officer and a leader, he also recognized that he had to take advantage of their experience without compromising his authority. He also learned that first impressions can be wrong, and that a big part of being a leader is being able to recognize when such an error occurs. His early take on one of his sergeants, whom he observed to be “[a] round, out-of-shape sergeant with no experience who can barely speak English” was completely wrong. Campbell realized his error when the sergeant walked into the office and recommended that the lieutenant study up on counterinsurgency. The sergeant handed Campbell his personal copy of Che Guevara’s Guerrilla Warfare, complete with underlined passages and handwritten notes in the margins—notes written in both English and Spanish. Far from unfit, that same NCO performed well on a physical fitness test a few days later. Campbell received much more than just a treatise on guerrilla warfare; he learned the important lesson in leadership that you cannot judge a book by its cover, nor should you condemn a Marine with your first impression.

Learning more about leadership with each passing day, he warily watches his platoon fill up with mostly brand-new Marines from the School of Infantry and wonders how he can mold them into a fighting unit. He learns to rely on his NCOs and their abilities to lead and train their squads, and he also learns that not all Marines are created equal when he is assigned a platoon sergeant who lamented his fate of being assigned back to the infantry after a lengthy stint on the rifle team. He finds himself alternatively learning from his senior leaders and being mystified by their actions and quickly finds his place as the quintessential buffer between those to whom he reports and those for whom he is responsible. By the time they arrive in Iraq, Campbell has blossomed from his hesitant beginnings to a caring and thoughtful leader whose sole thought is how to bring his whole platoon, renamed Joker One, home alive.

Upon arrival in Ramadi the lessons of leadership exponentially increase. Thrust into a foreign environment with an ambiguous mission, the platoon finds itself rapidly changing from seeking to stabilize the city to relentless combat operations. Campbell’s concern for his men becomes all encompassing and all consuming, and the platoon likewise bonds into a single cohesive entity. Every casualty is an agonizing loss to the platoon, but together they overcome the trauma and tragedy as their ranks are thinned by combat losses. The nadir of their existence comes with the death of a Marine who is lost as they try to save children who were savagely injured by a callous insurgent’s attack. Faced with abandoning the bleeding little ones or staying to try to save them, Campbell opts to stay and help. This decision to stay saved children’s lives, but at the cost of a Marine when minutes later a rocket propelled grenade mortally wounded a member of Joker One.

Campbell suffers a personal damnation for failing in his fervent need to bring them all home, and he selflessly bares his soul to the reader as he loses confidence in himself. His Marines and sailors recognize that their leader has given them his all and is cracking under the often overwhelming strain of responsibility. They pick up the reigns that slipped from their platoon commander’s grasp and gingerly place them back in his hands. Cathartically, Joker One healed itself and rescued its leader from the abyss of despairing self-doubt. Such an act was possible only through the indefinable love that those who live through the most arduous of circumstances will ever experience—unconditional love that transcends conscious and rational perception and yields men who will gladly lay down their lives for their brothers in arms. Such was Joker One.

This book, with its lessons in leadership, humility, and human nature, is one that should be read by every young officer who craves the opportunity to lead Marines in combat. The author is not perfect, and he does not gloss over those things that are unflattering to him and others. Instead, Donovan Campbell’s honesty provides an unfiltered view of what it is to lead Marines to the brink of chaos and how leadership and brotherly love provides the nobility and purity of purpose to bring them back.