THE SNAKE EATERS: An Unlikely Band of Brothers and the Battle for the Soul of Iraq.
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Pulsating throughout the pages of “The Snake Eaters: An Unlikely Band of Brothers and the Battle for the Soul of Iraq,” often paragraph by paragraph, is probity, a virtue defined by this noblest noun in the English language. Resonating among a small team of U.S. advisors, call sign “Outcast,” it meant to them exemplifying the highest of human principles and ideals while embedded in Iraqi Battalion 3/3-1—the 3d Battalion, 3d Brigade, First Iraqi Army Division—nicknamed “Snake Eaters,” often thrust into bitter and sanguinary urban fighting.
The author, Owen West, was a member of the fourth Outcast team to mentor the Snake Eaters in the battalion’s 33-month existence. The U.S. Army most often had provided staffing for the advisor team, but in 2006, the author’s team was an uninitiated, no combat-experienced hodgepodge, including a cop, a firefighter, an unemployed rock ’n’ roll guitarist, a plumber, a mailman and a DEA agent. Together, they planned amid pessimism and fought in optimism.
Binding them to each other as well as their “Snake Eater” Iraqi soldier-cousins was a strong, unwavering allegiance to the Allied mission bolstered by an empathetic understanding of the odds against any of them surviving the street-by-street, house-to-house killing in Anbar province’s Khalidiya, an insurgent-infested town along the Euphrates River. No amount of cunning or overwhelming enemy fire weakened their resolve or loyalty to each other.
West, a third-generation U.S. Marine who served two combat tours in Iraq, one as an advisor to the Snake Eaters, explains that his account focuses upon how ordinary American weekend reservists were deployed in extraordinary ways.
Researching, interviewing, gathering material and then writing the book required more than four years of constant effort, a dedication and commitment that he said “almost killed [him]. … It was worth it. The incredible contribution of these advisors is now memorialized, and with a collective voice we assert that the advisor model works.”
Indeed, as it should be. For West smoothly carries readers into Khalidiya, placing us into the streets, schools and homes of supporting civilians whom the 12 advisors were trying to protect. The only problem was that their friends were indistinguishable from the enemy they were determined to destroy. Complicating things was that the Iraqi battalion they mentored was at first amateurish and hostile, leading to the possibility of a failed mission.
But the men of Battalion 3/3-1 wouldn’t give up. They quickly acclimated to the culture, made friends with translators, and learned how to work with townspeople. By the end of their stay, Battalion 3/3-1 was the first Iraqi battalion granted independent battlespace, the insurgency was wiped off the streets, and peace was restored.
Although the core of the narrative zeros in on and details the near epic struggle where the fighting was so intense and prolonged that the combatants knew each other’s names, faces and families, West offers significant lessons for future counterinsurgency wars. During interviews, West argues the problem today is that the role of the military advisor is “a mystery to the public and misunderstood by politicians.” Even President Barack Obama has declared “that advisors are not combat troops.”
But the author says the opposite is true: “Few troops take as much risk as advisors, whose unwritten orders are to set the example in battle.” Our response in Iraq and Afghanistan has been “to send hundreds of thousands of troops at a cost of a hundred billion dollars a year, mistakes reminiscent of Vietnam that, left unchallenged, will be repeated.” West’s book now demonstrates there is a better way.
“The Snake Eaters: An Unlikely Band of Brothers and the Battle for the Soul of Iraq” is neither a memoir nor an official history. It’s a case study for a new way of war: the advisor model. Suggested by Owen West after observing one particular group of 12 ordinary but resolute men, who found themselves together in one small phase of an anguishing conflict waging battle in an unorthodox way, the model in its full measure is certain to be appraised by military strategists and historians alike, especially in light of our counterinsurgency efforts in the wars yet to come.
THE SNAKE EATERS: An Unlikely Band of Brothers and the Battle for the Soul of Iraq
By Owen West.
Published by Free Press.
352 pages. Stock #1451655932.
$23.40 MCA Members. $26 Regular Price.
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Today in USMC History
1902 - Marines from the USS Ranger landed in Panama City to protect Americans.
Related Article: Marines Fight in Panama By Ross W. Simpson Leatherneck Magazine (Mar 1990)
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Leatherneck Staff Artist, Technical Sergeant Robert Fleischauer, felt that our July cover should be commemorative of the Fourth of July. Since the members of the missile units are probably the Corps' best rocketeers, he picked them to perform a standard Fourth of July action. Whether or not the "Honest Johnny" is useful as a combat piece is a matter for debate, but you can't beat it for morale." [July 1957.]
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The oldest post of the Marine Corps, Washington, DC, is celebrating 200 years of excellence. Posed near the Barracks main gate were members of the official Color Guard of the United States Marine Corps (left to right): LCpl Joseph N. Keough, rifleman; Sgt Blake L. Richardson, Color Sergeant of the Marine Corps; Cpl Gerardo A. Guajardo, organizational color bearer; and LCpl Gregory A. Serwo, rifleman.
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"First To Fight For Right And Freedom": The Marine expedition in Cuba in June, 1898.
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"We Fight Our Country's Battles": The fall of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in 1865.
"On The Land As On The Sea": The "Bon Homme Richard" encounters the "Serapis," September 23, 1779.
"We Fight Our Country's Battles": The fall of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in 1865.
"First To Fight For Right And Freedom": The Marine expedition in Cuba in June, 1898.
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FROM OUR ARCHIVES: U.S. Marines And Miskito Indians: The Rio Coco Patrol Of 1928, published in the Marine Corps Gazette, November 1996.
“To The Shores Of Tripoli”: Storming the fortifications at Derne, Tripoli, 1805.
"From The Halls Of Montezuma": The assault on Chapultepec Castle--Mexico City, 1847
Marine patrol fired on while fording the Coco River.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: U.S. Marines And Miskito Indians: The Rio Coco Patrol Of 1928, published in the Marine Corps Gazette, November 1996.
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January 1992: This cover photograph of runners during Marine Corps Marathon XVI in Washington, D.C., was photographed by Sgt Deirdre Hallett.
January 1991: This month’s cover by Ross Simpson captures the Marines’ waiting-but-ready posture in the Middle East.
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Originally Published December 1975 -- A more traditional Christmas cover.
Originally Published December 1973 -- That's either a big tree or a small Marine!
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Originally Published December 1968 -- This cover expresses the wishes of Marines, both to their fellow Marines and to their families waiting at home, for a "Merry Christmas."
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This November 1992 article in the Marine Corps Gazette looked at the uniform regulations of 1859 and the attempt to standardize uniforms within the Corps. Read the story and see more pics.
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