One of the best things about this book is that Pritchard incorporates multiple points of view into the narrative (for example, the decision to attack the north bridge without tank support). Some thought it was necessary, others thought it was foolhardy. Pritchard just gives the information and lets the reader decide.

But the "omniscient narrator" style rubbed me the wrong way. I realize that when Pritchard writes about what the Marines were thinking, he's taking that information directly from interviews he had with them after-the-fact. But sometimes it comes across like a football game where the camera shows the coach on the sidelines and the announcer says what (he presumes) the coach is thinking. I think I would have preferred to either have the individual Marines' accounts told in the first-person, or to have had Pritchard write in the first-person about what the soldiers told him in their interviews.

But other than that minor complaint the book is excellent.

I couldn't put this book down. I know very little about the Iarq war and found Tim Pritchards book to be informative and eye opening to the horrors of war. Excellent reading.

This book should be read by anyone interested in the current situation in Iraq. I have read many books on the Middle East, but this one was exceptional.
Civilians will benefit from the intensely personal accounts and the accurate portrayal of the "fog of war."
I only hope the military will closely review the aspects of this battle that went so terribly wrong.
I strongly urge everyone to read this book.

I picked this up to read on a month long travel trip. I ended up reading it in one sitting! Consequently, Im very glad I had also purchased a few other titles on the same topic. I really good read, disturbing and terrifying at times with a great deal of insight, but a great read.

A friend gave me this book after a lengthly conversation about the Iraq war. I am not a typical reader of war history, so the book stayed on the bottom of my bedside pile. Then one day, I picked it up to check out a few pages. Two days later, after completing the book, I called my friend to thank him for sharing this extraordinary and unfortunate story of battle and of what these soldiers face. My heart goes out to our courageous troops during these tremendously difficult and conflicting times.
Thanks, Tim Pritchard, for telling this story.

I loved Mr. Pritchard's account of an extraordinary time in Iraq. Mr. Pritchard manages to capture his audience by providing details and unique insights on how life in Iraq was for American troops in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.



His account of the soldiers in this conflict is remarkable and I highly recommend this book to historians, war buffs and others who are just interested in learning more about a war that is often only understood in political terms.



I give this book a big thumbs up and five stars and I look forward to reading other books from this author.

I loved Mr. Pritchard's account of an extraordinary time in Iraq. Mr. Pritchard manages to capture his audience by providing details and unique insights on how life in Iraq was for American troops in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.

His account of the soldiers in this conflict is remarkable and I highly recommend this book to historians, war buffs and others who are just interested in learning more about a war that is often only understood in political terms.

I give this book a big thumbs up and five stars and I look forward to reading other books from this author.

Pritchard has done a nice job writing about such an important conflict.

I have to ask all the former and current soldiers out there: are (or were) we always so messed up or do I just have selective memory?

What this book needs, and why I only gave it thre stars, is more focus during the critical small-unit battles. It seems like 1/2 the book just says over and over again about figures running out and taking pot shots and marinese not sure what was happening. Now, while that may be what transpired, books like Blackhawk Down do a much better job at capturing the chaos.

I mean we know so little of what happened on the North Bridge, but we get to know that it was hell for them. Ony at the alamo, does Pritchard go into depth on the smaller details that reallys seem to make or break this type of book.

For example, please see Not a good day to die or We were soldiers once and young (clearly the book, not the DVD). Also, Generation Kill does nicely.

In Ambush Alley, Tim Pritchard, whose documentaries have aired on BBC, PBS, and the Discovery Channel, describes the battle for Nasiriyah, perhaps the hardest fought of the war. While he humanizes the U.S. soldiers, he prioritizes drama above accuracy. How he arrives at what soldiers think is curious as his omniscience does not appear to result from extensive interviewing. And, while he captures the confusion of battle, Ambush Alley does not place it in perspective; his post-publication attempt to paint the fight for Nasiriyah as the clarifying moment when it became clear that the Iraq war would be folly is not convincing. Far better is military historian Richard S. Lowry's detailed and less pretentious, even if somewhat disjointed, reconstruction of the same battle in Marines in the Garden of Eden, and its succinct coverage in Cobra II.

Michael Rubin
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2007

This book was so interesting that I purchased additional copies for gifts to my two sons. As is often said, the plan is good only until the first shot is fired. This book illustrates this very well and shows that Ambush Alley was a prime example of not only what can go wrong but also of the ingenuity, dedication and bravery of the American fighting men and women to overcome the bad things that can happen in battle.

This book was so interesting that I purchased additional copies for gifts to my two sons. As is often said, the plan is good only until the first shot is fired. This book illustrates this very well and shows that Ambush Alley was a prime example of not only what can go wrong but also of the ingenuity, dedication and bravery of the American fighting men and women to overcome the bad things that can happen in battle.

fantastic puts you in the hell that is war, tim caught the action and misery of combat and keeps you going. Shows the true bravery of the Marine Corp and what our troops are doing in Iraq.

fantastic puts you in the hell that is war, tim caught the action and misery of combat and keeps you going. Shows the true bravery of the Marine Corp and what our troops are doing in Iraq.

I came away from this book first off amazed and saddened. I thought that allied troops had really met light resistance, nothing like the intense urban bloodbath this book so disturbingly highlights. Whatever happened to a 21century ultra-modern high-tech fighting force? Due to the lack of working radios Marines died by not only enemy hands but by friendly fire as well. Sure the "fog of war" is always present but to have the whole plan shot to hell by dead radios and mud is bewildering. The most gut-wrenching part of the book (there are many I assure you) is when the A-10's are about to start there run and you know what is going to happen to the men you read about previously. The fathers, sons, husbands and friends who are about to be killed and maimed, it just brings the horrors of war home. This brings me to another point about US gov't censorship.

From the pictures in the book you get NO SENSE whatsoever of the carnage. Just some smoke from a track in the distance. I know there is a controversy over such pictures but war is a dirty business. How would we ever get a sense of the horrific trench warfare of WWI if there had been the same attitude back then? Would Nov11 mean as much as it does today? Would we even care? To simply have a nice sanitized war only serves those who care about tomorrows opinion polls and not those who die daily.
Ambush Alley is a fine work to the memory of those Marines of Charlie Company who died due to bad equipment and failure of leadership and Intel.

I came away from this book first off amazed and saddened. I thought that allied troops had really met light resistance, nothing like the intense urban bloodbath this book so disturbingly highlights. Whatever happened to a 21century ultra-modern high-tech fighting force? Due to the lack of working radios Marines died by not only enemy hands but by friendly fire as well. Sure the "fog of war" is always present but to have the whole plan shot to hell by dead radios and mud is bewildering. The most gut-wrenching part of the book (there are many I assure you) is when the A-10's are about to start there run and you know what is going to happen to the men you read about previously. The fathers, sons, husbands and friends who are about to be killed and maimed, it just brings the horrors of war home. This brings me to another point about US gov't censorship.

From the pictures in the book you get NO SENSE whatsoever of the carnage. Just some smoke from a track in the distance. I know there is a controversy over such pictures but war is a dirty business. How would we ever get a sense of the horrific trench warfare of WWI if there had been the same attitude back then? Would Nov11 mean as much as it does today? Would we even care? To simply have a nice sanitized war only serves those who care about tomorrows opinion polls and not those who die daily.
Ambush Alley is a fine work to the memory of those Marines of Charlie Company who died due to bad equipment and failure of leadership and Intel.

In the early hours of March 23, 2003 the men of the 1st battalion 2nd U.S. Marines, part of Task Force Tarawa, moved north from Kuwait to a destiny that no one--from Battalion Commanders to the line grunts--ever anticipated.

The 1/2 was on the road to Nasiriyah, Iraq. They were young men, the vast majority untested in combat, They were confident in the briefings they had received and the intelligence they had acquired that their mission would be a success. It would all be over in a few hours; they would breeze through the city and clear the road for the follow-on units of the 1st Marine Division to pass through Nasiriyah and flank Baghdad from the southeast.

The primary mission: Secure two bridges. The first bridge, was south of the city over the Euphrates River. The second bridge was north and east of the city over a body of water known as the Saddam Canal. The obvious lifeline between the two objectives? A four-lane paved causeway dubbed "Ambush Alley" by soldiers of the 1/2 from their shipboard planning session's enroute to Iraq.

As with any battle plan it is only as good as the soldiers assigned to carry it out. The US Marines are some of the best-trained soldiers in the world, but as generals as far back as Alexander will tell, the best-laid plans are only good until the shooting starts.

The Marines' intelligence led them to anticipate that the Iraqi army units stationed in Nasiriyah would lay down their arms and fade into the populace. They also assumed they could maneuver around Ambush Alley and flank the bridge at the Saddam Canal from the east. Neither happened.

What resulted was twenty-four hours of mind-numbing combat. The Iraqi's fought back, tenaciously! Tanks became mired in mud; thin-skinned armored vehicles proved no match for an endless supply of RPGs and battalion communications faltered from the first minute.

Tim Pritchard has written a stunning blow-by-blow account of America's best in their toughest fight since Khe-San, telling how Marine Corps doggedness at its basic level won the day.

Armchair Interviews says: Ambush Alley is a blood and guts story of real heroes, a testament to our Armed Services.

In the early hours of March 23, 2003 the men of the 1st battalion 2nd U.S. Marines, part of Task Force Tarawa, moved north from Kuwait to a destiny that no one--from Battalion Commanders to the line grunts--ever anticipated.

The 1/2 was on the road to Nasiriyah, Iraq. They were young men, the vast majority untested in combat, They were confident in the briefings they had received and the intelligence they had acquired that their mission would be a success. It would all be over in a few hours; they would breeze through the city and clear the road for the follow-on units of the 1st Marine Division to pass through Nasiriyah and flank Baghdad from the southeast.

The primary mission: Secure two bridges. The first bridge, was south of the city over the Euphrates River. The second bridge was north and east of the city over a body of water known as the Saddam Canal. The obvious lifeline between the two objectives? A four-lane paved causeway dubbed "Ambush Alley" by soldiers of the 1/2 from their shipboard planning session's enroute to Iraq.

As with any battle plan it is only as good as the soldiers assigned to carry it out. The US Marines are some of the best-trained soldiers in the world, but as generals as far back as Alexander will tell, the best-laid plans are only good until the shooting starts.

The Marines' intelligence led them to anticipate that the Iraqi army units stationed in Nasiriyah would lay down their arms and fade into the populace. They also assumed they could maneuver around Ambush Alley and flank the bridge at the Saddam Canal from the east. Neither happened.

What resulted was twenty-four hours of mind-numbing combat. The Iraqi's fought back, tenaciously! Tanks became mired in mud; thin-skinned armored vehicles proved no match for an endless supply of RPGs and battalion communications faltered from the first minute.

Tim Pritchard has written a stunning blow-by-blow account of America's best in their toughest fight since Khe-San, telling how Marine Corps doggedness at its basic level won the day.

Armchair Interviews says: Ambush Alley is a blood and guts story of real heroes, a testament to our Armed Services.

Wow. I just bought five books on the Iraq War and thought this one would be good, but probably the worst of the five. I haven't finished them all, but this is an amazing book. I've always been in awe of our military men and women. I've read battle accounts of previous wars, but because these people are my peers this hits much closer to home.

As nearly all of the reviewers have said, Pritchard does an amazing job of taking you into battle. Perhaps because he does such a good job, you realize you're just getting a slice of the action. Yet it's a big enough slice to feel like you get a picture of what happened to our marines on that fateful March day--even if nobody will ever know the whole picture as that is lost in the fog of war.

I have a new understanding of simper fidelis. I love how Pritchard points out that these were average young men (in some cases big boys) before the battle. Many were guys with troubled backgrounds. But when the metal started flying and sadly, the blood started flowing, they became men. As another reviewer notes, they're as fine Americans as the best of the Greatest Generation--our World War II fighting men. Their training served them well even when other things didn't--like their communications systems.

Like other reviewers, I too finished the book at about 3:30 AM, unable to put it down.

I hope Pritchard will expand the postscript in the paperback version or some future version of the book. Give even a short summary of the next day for these marines and then the next few weeks. Give a little more detail on what became of some of these men--for example what about the wounded from the Alamo? Write a summary of the wounded and dead in list form. Include who they were, what happened to them and when. It is fine that in the main narrative the casualties are often a blur, just as were the events of the battle, but at the end of the book give us more.

Also, expand the summary--even if by a few pages--of other events in Nasiriyah that occurred in the ten days or so after March 23. In a future postscript I'd also like to see something from the Iraqi's perspective. The sick way the Iraqi fighters were using women and children is clear enough in the book, but let's hear their voice on how it was done. Also, did Nasiriyah become pacified after early April? What kind of insurgent violence came later? These are side notes, but given the blood shed that day, I think they are very important.

With or without those additions, this is a great book that all Americans would benefit from reading.

I salute the marines of March 23, 2003 and thank you Tim Pritchard for your worthy effort in telling their story.

Wow. I just bought five books on the Iraq War and thought this one would be good, but probably the worst of the five. I haven't finished them all, but this is an amazing book. I've always been in awe of our military men and women. I've read battle accounts of previous wars, but because these people are my peers this hits much closer to home.

As nearly all of the reviewers have said, Pritchard does an amazing job of taking you into battle. Perhaps because he does such a good job, you realize you're just getting a slice of the action. Yet it's a big enough slice to feel like you get a picture of what happened to our marines on that fateful March day--even if nobody will ever know the whole picture as that is lost in the fog of war.

I have a new understanding of simper fidelis. I love how Pritchard points out that these were average young men (in some cases big boys) before the battle. Many were guys with troubled backgrounds. But when the metal started flying and sadly, the blood started flowing, they became men. As another reviewer notes, they're as fine Americans as the best of the Greatest Generation--our World War II fighting men. Their training served them well even when other things didn't--like their communications systems.

Like other reviewers, I too finished the book at about 3:30 AM, unable to put it down.

I hope Pritchard will expand the postscript in the paperback version or some future version of the book. Give even a short summary of the next day for these marines and then the next few weeks. Give a little more detail on what became of some of these men--for example what about the wounded from the Alamo? Write a summary of the wounded and dead in list form. Include who they were, what happened to them and when. It is fine that in the main narrative the casualties are often a blur, just as were the events of the battle, but at the end of the book give us more.

Also, expand the summary--even if by a few pages--of other events in Nasiriyah that occurred in the ten days or so after March 23. In a future postscript I'd also like to see something from the Iraqi's perspective. The sick way the Iraqi fighters were using women and children is clear enough in the book, but let's hear their voice on how it was done. Also, did Nasiriyah become pacified after early April? What kind of insurgent violence came later? These are side notes, but given the blood shed that day, I think they are very important.

With or without those additions, this is a great book that all Americans would benefit from reading.

I salute the marines of March 23, 2003 and thank you Tim Pritchard for your worthy effort in telling their story.

While I am not sure if every single detail in Tim Pritchard's account entitled "Ambush Alley" is dead on, it's a captivating account of the Battle in Naseriyah. And while I might have picked up on a few of the slight anti-American digs, it's nothing compared to Generation Kill by Evan Wright. It seems as if the author left most of the anlaysis for the reader, or somebody else, a wise decision. I think it's obvious, what makes this book so powerful is its gripping account that draws you in further and further as you read.

I literally had a hard time putting this book down. I fought fatigue over and over so I could finish. I have read a lot of the accounts of battles in Iraq, and this is probably the best, in that it is one of the least confusing accounts because the author does not try to tackle to much, such as months and months of fighting. I liked the flow, and appreaciated the limit of characters.

I know it's a cliche to say, and I saw other reviewers say it, but the author really does a good job helping the reader feel as if they are a attatched or involved in the story. It's a powerful account, definitely worth a read.

As the father of a Charlie Co. 1/2 Marine I was very disappointed. The factual errors, as related to me by my son, were numerous. Also, Pritchard paints an unfairly poor picture of the 1/2's performance that day, which can only be described as heroic.

A much more well-researched and written account can be found in Richard Lowry's "Marines in the Garden of Eden".

The fact that Pritchard is associated with the anti-American, left-leaning BBC doesn't surprise me in the least.

Ambush Alley takes you into the complexity and the darkness of the invasion of Iraq. In a slew of books to emerge from the 2003 invasion, this is one of the best. Taken from the accounts of those who were there, it will leave you thinking about those who are there now.

The book covers a good number of things that relate to not just the Marine Corps either. Haveing never been a Marine, I felt from the information provided that I could understand parts of their life style going into battle. The book gives you insite into the 2003 general military feeling about reservists and their uses. It showed how a united fighting force could be splintered, enter one of the worst fights of the invasion, and emerge unified.

The book is well paced, and does pickup and drop off at some points. Tim Pritchard does a very good telling the stories of several Marines, to include some who did not come home from the battle.

When I purchased the book it was only available in hard cover, and to true military enthusiasts out there, I recomend the hard cover version - as a lasting addition to your library. This is surely one book you must have if you read about the Iraq War.

With respect to how well written and involving this book is I will just confirm what most of the other reviewers have written. Mr. Pritchard has a writing style that draws you into the book and gives you the feeling of being there. This is the combined effect of his detailed reporting of the events of the battle and his relating of the thoughts and emotions of the individuals who fought it. This book is definitely hard to put down.

One of the compelling aspects of the book is that not only does it cover the human aspects beautifully, but it gives fascinating insight into the mechanics of conducting a battle with a modern army. How remarkable is it that something as simple as maintaining voice communication between two companies within the same battalion is so problematic in this era of technology? The ability to do so could have completely changed the nature of the battle. I certainly hope this book is on the reading list for our war planners.

this book does nothing for the Marines of Task Force Tarawa except make money for the author. Most, if not all, of the alledged conversations and quotes are pure fabrication - did Pritchard even interview most of the Marines he he quoted ? No, he did not. There are no footnotes, no references. This is one more attempt to make money off the backs of these young Marines. This was a 9-day battle ( 23 March - 1 April ); too bad Pritchard loses interest after writing about the first day.
The arty bubbas of 1/10 were major participants on 23 March, for example, yet the author neglects to include them. His attention to other details is equally incompetent.

The battle of An-Nas is incredible story - too bad the author does not tell it. Frankly giving him one star is one too many.

Ambush Ally is an outstanding combat narrative! Gripping is a good word for it. I have written and studied the accounts of the Task Force Tarawa battle from the perspective of the Saddam's Naseriyah Fedayeen who carried out the defense of the route 7 highway. I don't believe it needs editing and I place it next to Thunder Run as the best historical account of the invasion. This is a keeper for Marine Corps enthusiasts or Iraq war historians.

It really captures just how badly prepared the Marines were for entering Naseriyah (because of incredibly bad intelligence)and how their sheer toughness and skill broke through the Fedayeen's fanatical defenses. It gives clear meaning to why Naseriyah is going up with pride on the Battle Wall at the Iwo Jima memorial. Great Book!

I would give it 5 stars, except that the book is filled with sloppy writing, including changing focus in mid-paragraph, ping-ponging between different groups and times without making it clear, and many typos. Perhaps some of this was done intentionally to add to the feeling of chaos, miscommunication, and fog of war. Otherwise, this is a gripping read that makes it easy to forget that the writer was in the middle of the action. It would have been nice to include some maps and aerial photos of the area (especially ones similiar to those that (mis)led the marines involved), as well as a timeline for the chapter headings.

A well written book about the worst day of the war. My son was there and assures me that this was the way it was. Two themes shine through: the importance of the U.S. Marine Corps' unparalled training, and their unique ability to "adapt and overcome". I'd like to thank Mr. Pritchard for writing a fair and unbiased account of a much undertold story.

I am a former Marine, and the battles that took place in this town have intrigued me since the war. I wanted to know why we took so many casualties. Now I know. Without giving away too much, it's amazing how quickly things became unraveled. It all started with the 507th Maintenance Company of Jessica Lynch taking a wrong turn. It isn't a big one sided OOH RAH story, but objective at all levels-letting you know the true feelings of the troops and commanders on the ground. You get a feeling that you know some of these guys. At times I found myself having to put the book down to take a moment and reflect on what I had just read. The author really takes you into the battles, and into the thoughts of these Marines. Semper Fi!

My objective in writing this review is to help subsequent readers with similar backgrounds and intent prevent wasting their money on "turkeys". The following five books are listed in order of my recommendation, best to worst. I'm not military, just an educated, middle-aged civilian interested in whether we should continue or intensify or diminish our current approach to "terrorism". It is our responsibility as VOTING citizens to KNOW the issues before we cast a ballot.

Sometimes the best judge of quality is to compare related things; this gives a less arbitrary scale from which to judge. I'll just copy/paste these brief reviews into all five listed book's review here at Amazon.com. All the books are fresh in my mind as I've just completed reading them all within the last two weeks:

***** 1. No True Glory. Awesome. Gripping. Reads like a suspense novel but is non-fiction and fact based. Makes me confident that "Generation X" can be every bit the warrior as "The Greatest Generation". Like "We Were Soldiers Once ..." and "Blackhawk Down", could easily make a great movie.

***** 2. Ambush Alley. Also very good. Gripping too. Same comments as #1.

**** 3. Not a Good Day to Die. Also very good. Gripping too. Suspenseful, but not just quite as good a read as #1 or #2, therefore four stars. Equal to book "Generation Kill". The book is nearly double the others in size and seems to move a bit slower, particularly early with too much detail on the pre-phases of the operation. Still recommend buy it.

*** 4. Imperial Grunts. I only read to page 167 out of 375. Moves slowly. I might even say "boring". Characters not stayed with long enough to "get to know them" making the book dry. This book is not about tactical combat operations, but instead about the strategic implications of what our forces are doing around the world, investigated by traveling and interviewing at the tactical level our forces. Probably useful from an intellectual historical perspective.

* 5. Among Warriors in Irag. This book is juvenile; the writing seems at that level. At least the above four writers, for the most part, kept themselves out of the storyline, even though many -- though not all -- were embedded real-time. I couldn't finish this book made me want to barf. It felt uncomfortable to read compared to the others above. It felt like reading a professional football/basketball player's autobiography. (Lest you misunderstand, I had a successfull athletic youth.) It seemed like every other sentence in the book began with "I" and described how tough/audacious/"one of the guys"/etc the author thought he was. Who cares? The author is NOT a current combatant, though he writes as if he is (for example, see bottom of page xii and on and on). Avoid it.

I am always nervous about a person who didn't partake in the battle or the war writing a book about it. I remember Tim coming around base asking to speak with people. He wasn't the first, and the other had muffed pretty badly on a lot of areas. He assured everyone that our story would be told as it was, no big fish stories, and no cover-ups.

He obviously did his homework well. This book is true to life. Like it or not, this is what happened. There might be some wild west like narritive, but actually it wasn't that different. This was a whirlwind of a battle and Pritchard catches the current perfectly allowing the reader to follow as the battle progressed.

Thank you for doing this day justice, I believe this is a must read for a true account of a bloody day in Iraq.

Semper Fi

It is refreshing to finally see a book that does some justice to the events of March 23rd 2003. I have been disappointed time and again by authors who sacrifice accuracy, credibility and realism in an effort to make a quick buck. Speaking as a Marine who lived through March 23rd and the days that followed I can say that this account is by far the most accurate and compelling effort to date. Mr. Pritchard deserves a great deal of credit for talking to the individual Marines who were there and letting them tell their stories. The result is a personal and realistic look at the horrors that confronted the Marines of Task Force Tarawa in the city of Nasiriyah. It seems that Pritchard's focus was on the individual Marine. Too often authors try to recreate the tactical picture with such detail that they forget about the people who lived it. He captures the terror, confusion and utter chaos that defines combat. From the first word to the last this book captures the readers emotions. What happened that day was important and deserves to be told. This book is a tribute to the fighting spirit of the United States Marine Corps as well as a testimony to the fact that there are no certainties in war. Well done Tim.

This book hits the nail on the head. The urban battlespace and skillfully executed deceptive tactics of today's unconventional enemy changes the rules about the way battles are fought and won. A navigation blunder by a supply convoy set events into motion that drew American forces into the enemy's Somolia-like "fire sack". It was the Iraqi force's dream come true - an opportunity to recreate the end-state of 1993's Black Hawk Down. Col Davis and the Marine's of Task Force Tarawa were too smart to let that happen. Despite the misapplication of close air support that killed Marines - Task Force Tarawa was successful. God Bless the young men who fought this battle.

I was a corporal with 1/2 on that fateful day that changed my life forever. Tim Pritchard's retelling of our story was right on as far as I am concerned. The confusion, chaos, and total fear of combat is something that can never be accurately felt by someone who is reading a book unless you have experienced it for yourself. The important thing is that the story itself is told. Not how well it is told, just that it is told. I could not put the book down until I finished reading it once I started. From the first words I was immediately transported back in time to that day and his storytelling brought back up many memories I had forgotten, some good and some bad. It was very interesting for me to get a complete picture of what actually went on that day and be able to see all the pieces of the puzzle and not just my own. Take it from someone who was there, this story is the real deal, uncensored and brutally honest. March 23, 2003 was not something pretty or something we should push under the rug and forget about. It did happen. Combat is the most horrible of things in this world and I hope our story will make people realize this. But to deny that it ever happened would also be a travesty. The bravest of Marines paid the ultimate sacrifice that day and the fact that Tim Pritchard has told our story is the best way I know to honor those brave Marines. Their memories will live on forever.Thanks Tim, you have given us all honor.

It is rare that one can find a book about war that catches the pace and confusion of combat. This book does exactly that. The only thing I can compare the style to is Saving Private Ryan. Need I say more? It's that good. This book is authentic. It is fresh. And it is a worthy read. Well done Tim Prichard.

This battle needs a good accounting and this is a fast book--I read it in two sittings--but for an Iraq vet I have to say I did not think it was that well-researched. At least, it felt a bit cobbled together. But thank you for the subject!