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Summary
Summary
When the 506th Infantry Regiment--known since World War II as the Band of Brothers--returned to Colorado Springs after their first tour in Iraq, a series of brutal crimes swept through the city. The Band of Brothers had been deployed to the most violent places in Iraq, and some of the soldiers were suffering from what they had seen and done in combat. Without much time to recover, they were sent back to the front lines. After their second tour of duty, the battalion was renamed the Lethal Warriors, and, true to their name, the soldiers once again brought the violence home.
Lethal Warriors brings to life the chilling true stories of these veterans--from their enlistment and multiple tours of duty to their struggles with ptsd and their failure to reintegrate in society. With piercing insight and employing his relentless investigative skills, journalist David Philipps shines a light not only to this particular unit, but also to the painful reality of ptsd as it rages throughout the country.
By exploring the evolving the science and the stigma of war trauma throughout history--from "shell shock" to "battle fatigue" to "combat stress injuries"--Philipps shows that this problem has always existed and that, as the nature of warfare changes, it is only getting worse. In highlighting the inspiring stories of the resilient men and women in the armed forces who have the courage to confront the issue and offer a potential lifeline to the soldiers, Lethal Warriors challenges us to deal openly, honestly, and intelligently with the true costs of war.
Author Notes
David Philipps is an award-winning investigative journalist whose articles have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times , the Chicago Tribune , The Philadelphia Inquirer , and The Seattle Times , among others. His coverage of the violence at Fort Carson won him the Livingston Prize for National Reporting and he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. This book was a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
The shameful story of how the U.S. Army has played a role in the mistreatment of traumatized soldiers who served in Iraq, then returned to Fort Carson, Colo., to commit rapes, murders and other violent crimes.Colorado Springs Gazette features writer Philipps grew up in Colorado Springs, the locale of Fort Carson. Earlier this decade, he began to learn about the post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) suffered by thousands of returning Army infantrymen who both saw and committed atrocities in Iraq. (The same phenomenon is unfolding among American soldiers returning from Afghanistan, but that is not the focus here.) The author looks at soldiers from one specific combat team, some of whom dubbed themselves "the lethal warriors," patterned loosely on the now-famous Band of Brothers from World War II. As the book opens in December 2007, a Colorado Springs newspaper carrier finds one of the PTSD-disabled soldiers, Kevin Shields, dead on the street. Somebody murdered Shields, but at first police and Fort Carson authorities could not identify a viable suspect. It turns out that Shields' colleagues from Iraq killed their comrade. Some of the rampaging Fort Carson personnel had built up criminal records before joining the military, but others had not, and certainly none had been previously convicted of a violent crime. Philipps names names as he demonstrates an entire military chain of command in denial about the very existence of PTSD. The few commanders who would acknowledge the problem refused to institute meaningful treatment or safeguards to protect innocent bystanders from assaults. However, the author does identify one military hero from the PTSD realmMaj. Gen. Mark Graham, who took charge of Fort Carson and supported treatment programs that have reduced the carnage in Colorado Springs.A searing expos that might make readers wonder how Army commanders and civilian warmongers sleep at night given the disgraceful handling of traumatized veterans who fought in Iraq.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
This volume explores the same story as in Frontline: The Wounded Platoon (see above) but in greater detail and with the pacing of a true crime novel. As with the film, the book concentrates on the dark side of vet behavior, but both contribute important points to the debate over the war's impact on the life and health of our nation. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. vii |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Chapter 1 ôY'All can Forget Going to Iraqö | p. 13 |
| Chapter 2 A Walt Disney Family | p. 33 |
| Chapter 3 Operation Mad Max | p. 47 |
| Chapter 4 Casualties of War | p. 77 |
| Chapter 5 Stands Alone | p. 91 |
| Chapter 6 ôA Walking Time Bombô | p. 109 |
| Chapter 7 ôThis Almost Painful Stillnessö | p. 119 |
| Chapter 8 Heart of Darkness | p. 129 |
| Chapter 9 ôThrow Me a Life Worth Livingö | p. 151 |
| Chapter 10 Escalation of Force | p. 163 |
| Chapter 11 ôEverybody Does Stuff in Iraq. Everybody.ö | p. 185 |
| Chapter 12 ôReading is for the Lame, Go Shoot Someoneö | p. 195 |
| Chapter 13 Fuel to the Fire | p. 213 |
| Chapter 14 Invisible Wounds | p. 227 |
| Chapter 15 Changing the Mindset | p. 245 |
| Postscript Where are they Now? | p. 255 |
| Notes | p. 259 |
| Index | p. 269 |
