‘Outlaw Platoon’ paints vivid picture of Afghanistan combat
In Outlaw Platoon, Sean Parnell tells of his experiences as a captain in the United States Army in the 10th Mountain division on the northern Afghanistan border.
Many of the insurgents they fought were based in Pakistan among people who had known nothing but violence for years, people who begged to be given guns to deal with the Taliban “and other shadowy organizations” themselves.
Parnell took his leadership status very seriously and built a strong, loyal body of men who, exhausted and tense, often fought on after being wounded – rage and adrenaline overcoming the effects of wounds. Throughout, Parnell questions his own humanity as he makes difficult decisions. Battles are depicted in agonizing detail – one lasts for three chapters.
Paramount to Parnell is the loyalty the troops have for each other and to him. He is not afraid to call it love. He believes that shared emotion – though never spoken out loud – was what made his team so strong and effective: “that’s what loyalty felt like. I’d rather die than lose that.”
By extension the reader has a better understanding as to why soldiers tend not to talk about their war experiences after they return home.
One of his great frustrations was that the enemy often fired on them from Pakistan – indeed it appeared that enemy troops were being defended by Pakistanis (“our enemy’s human shield”), but Parnell’s troops were not allowed to shoot into Pakistan. When that occurred, the attendant feeling of helplessness ruined the group’s morale temporarily. Besides, they were tired and cold.
Parnell’s memory is acute and detailed. He gives the reader a very real sense of each situation he describes and the feelings of the men in it. Sometimes he uses technical terms the reader won’t know, but, in general, this book is a vivid depiction of this war and of the men who are fighting it.
Book info:
Outlaw Platoon
By Sean Parnell with John R. Bruning
William Morrow, $26.99
Posted by Rae Eastman
on October 4, 2012. Filed under Arts and Entertainment,Book Reviews.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry