The Eyes of Orion: Five Tank Lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War

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Summary: I'm proud to be an American
Review: All too often we hear the "Pentagon version" of combat experiences, but this book is an exception to that. I was struck by the honesty of the authors. It is so nice to read the good and the bad. This facet of the book adds greatly to the credibility of the story...and what a great story it is. Young men coming of age, leading soldiers into the unknown, and coming out wiser than before despite the inner conflicts that continue to cling to each of them. War changes a person. It is meant to do that. There are some critics who cannot possibly begin to understand what preparing for and fighting in combat is about. They are the same people who prefer to sit on the sidelines, where it is safe, and second-guess those that have the courage to do what is not always the easy thing to do. God Bless these fine young Americans who wrote this book. They deserve our gratitude and deepest appreciation for doing their job and doing it well.

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Summary: Army Officer Loves This Book!
Review: As a reserve Army officer, formerly active duty, I can say the book speaks for most of us when we were lieutenants. It really struck a chord for its realism and candor. The other great aspect of the book is it gives an awesome account(by men who were there) of a major tank battle: something which hadn't happened since World War II and may not happen again for another 40 years...if ever. Accordingly, this book is a valuable account of history as well as being fun to read. If you enjoy any military subject matter, buy this book. You won't be disappointed.

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Summary: Excellent handbook for platoon leaders
Review: I heard about this book a few years ago while attending OCS, but reading it took on a new sense of urgency with the possibility of fighting the Iraqi Army again.

What these 5 young leaders did, not only during Operation Desert Shield/Storm, but also in taking the time & energy to put it down on paper, is absolutely invaluable to company grade officers. As an Mech Infantry Company Commander with no combat experience, I feel that I am better prepared for what lies ahead now that I have been exposed to this book. The candor of the 5 authors is a welcome relief.

Thank you to the 5 authors for providing today's military leaders with a glipmse into the most difficult leadership situation known to mankind...leading soldiers into battle.

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Summary: A not-so-objective review
Review: I served with Alex Vernon and the other authors in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Their book was a powerful trip down memory lane for me. The strength of Eyes of Orion is its honest look at the challenges of military service from the eyes of junior officers. It is indeed painfully honest. Though Alex and I were in the same company and talked often, even I didn't know how much he struggled with the experience. To me he was a calm and competent platoon leader. I think that says a lot about the masks we put on, especially when commanding soldiers. If you are interested in the psychology of leadership and people under stress then read this book.

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Summary: A not-so-objective review
Review: I served with Alex Vernon and the other authors in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Their book was a powerful trip down memory lane for me. The strength of Eyes of Orion is its honest look at the challenges of military service from the eyes of junior officers. It is indeed painfully honest. Though Alex and I were in the same company and talked often, even I didn't know how much he struggled with the experience. To me he was a calm and competent platoon leader. I think that says a lot about the masks we put on, especially when commanding soldiers. If you are interested in the psychology of leadership and people under stress then read this book.

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Summary: An okay read
Review: I was a M1A1 tank platoon leader in the 1st Infantry Division during Desert Storm and this book brought back memories of that time in my life. For a non-military person this book offers a unique insight into what it is like for a unit going off to war. there are flaws though, as mentioned by others it is hard at times to figure out who is doing the talking. One minute I'm reading about the scout platoon leader and the next I am reading about one of the tank platoon leaders without knowing I had left the scout platoon leader. Overall it is a pretty good book once you get past the confusion of who you are reading about on some pages.

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Summary: Good book to read
Review: I'm a former active duty Air Force junior NCO. I loved reading this book because the authors honestly and candidly expressed their feelings on what it was like to be in combat during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and how it had affected their lives after the war. I can truly relate on some of their experience in the US military during peace and war time. This is definetly one of the best Gulf war book I've ever read so far. Last but not the least, I salute these young officers for their great service to our nation.

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Summary: History repeats itself
Review: Ostensibly, the Eyes of Orion is a war memoir of five American armor lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War. In actuality, most of this book was written by only two of the lieutenants - roommates Vernon and Holmes - with only minor participation by the other three. The Eyes of Orion consists of five sections covering pre-deployment activities, Desert Shield, the Air War, the Ground War (only 26% of the book) and Redeployment. The book has numerous sins, beginning with its pretentious title; at different times the authors assert that the constellation Orion is the "God's eternal monument to soldiers," that he is "the liberator" or can unite two separated lovers across vast distances. Please. The structure of the book itself is not only annoying, it is confusing since the five lieutenants' stories are often interwoven without identifying who has written a particular section. Nor does Vernon, the primary author, take much effort to introduce the unit or characters in any kind of logical order; it is not until page 69 that we learn exactly which companies each of the authors served in during the war. Four of the five LTs are West Pointers, with a token ROTC lieutenant thrown in because he was the scout platoon leader; the over-focus on West Pointers appears cliquish and elitist. Perhaps the worst sin of this book is the alienation of all possible audiences: military readers expecting a war memoir will be disappointed by the anti-US Army tone of much of the book, historians will be disappointed by its casual attitude toward rumors and facts and the general reader will find this book too plodding and confusing. Advice to new lieutenants at Ft Knox: avoid this book like the plague!

Since most of the book is written by Vernon, the book collapses under the weight of this lieutenant's evident and self-admitted flaws. Vernon, as well as some of his cohorts, believed that the US Military Academy existed to give him access to sports and a free education, and that the US Army was a good place to spend a few years until graduate school. Prior to the war, the authors all complain that they had little or no field training with their platoons, although Holmes had time to go to the London School of Economics (and then claims he hadn't had a chance to learn the names of all his platoon members). There's a lot of selfish dishonesty in this book and it begins in the pre-deployment phase. However when orders for deployment to the desert came, Vernon begins to come unglued. Vernon cries a lot, and former tankers will find this nauseating. At Ft Stewart, Vernon cries in the chaplain's office, pleading not to be deployed. Once deployed, Vernon cries when he sees a Julia Roberts movie, when he sees a goat giving birth, when he dreams, whenever his company commander criticizes him. On the other hand, Vernon spends a great deal of the book criticizing his superiors: his battalion commander ("..in the desert I hated him. I hated him because he was a warrior."), President Bush (for refusing Gary Trudeau permission to visit the troops), his company commander, his platoon sergeant, etc. Vernon's leadership skills were non-existent; in one letter just before the ground war he wrote, "I do not want to lead men into battle. I want nothing to do with the things leaders do." Morale and discipline in Vernon's platoon appear shockingly bad, with the author unable to get his allegedly brain-dead platoon sergeant to do anything (the reader should consider that the truth may have been the opposite). It also appears that Vernon displayed cowardice in the face of the enemy at the only significant fighting his unit participated in, the attack on Jalibah airfield on 27 February 1991. The author's account is unclear, but somehow his platoon failed to link up with rest of the task force, failed to find the airfield that was under attack and failed to see a single enemy (when all four of his cohorts were under fire). This sounds suspiciously like deliberately getting lost to avoid combat. At the end, the author offers a mea culpa of sorts by asserting, "I knew I did not have the stuff to command troops...American soldiers deserve better leadership than I could provide."

The elitist angle and faux intellectualism of this book is also annoying. The West Pointers read French essays on Cowardice and the Economist. While the soldiers talk about getting back to the land of beer, pizza and hot women, their elitist lieutenants discuss plans for grad school. Amazingly, there is no mention of "duty, honor, country" by any of the West Pointers. Did they miss that part of their four-year military education? Once the war is over, four of the five quickly opt to leave the US Army for hypocritical reasons: I can't stay because I could deploy for another war, but it's boring in the peace-time US Army if there is no war. Ridiculous. When the Army gives them a chance, they stiff the US taxpayers by leaving the service with 40% of their obligation remaining and quickly trot off to grad school and business opportunities. It is also irksome that several of these lieutenants complain that they didn't want to remain in the army to be "only a staff officer," or in a non-armor slot. The level of immaturity and unprofessionalism is astounding - they apparently never digested the "needs of the service" imperative of a military career. In fact, the level of self-absorbed, whining and avoidance of self-sacrifice evident in these pages is totally at odds with the ethics of the officer corps.

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Summary: No press pools here
Review: This book should be old news, but it's not. The United States and Iraq skillfully manipulated and limited media coverage during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, and now years after the fact, we're left with a hazy view of what took place in the desert. What this book does very well -- what others have failed to do so far -- is give the reader an up-close view of five tank lieutenants' experiences during the war. These five officers offer a very honest account. Their prose predictably drifts into gung-ho military speak on occasion, and with five lieutenants writing about similar experiences, it's hard to figure out which officer is which. But those things aside, the book offers a great unfiltered -- and uncensored -- account of what it was like to be a young officer thousands of miles from home and facing combat for the first time. It's an interesting and haunting narrative.

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Summary: Not Sexy but Great Stuff
Review: What I liked about this book was how it took you through every stage of a deployment. Starting in Hinesville, GA to the Persian Gulf and back to Hinesville. Too many books these days glorify war stories but this book is more of a deployment story and a story of what a LT is thinking when challenges surface. I am a newly commissioned Armor Officer and this book is helpful. What I did not like about the book was the skipping around from one author to the next without clarity in who is speaking. Another thing is that most of these officers seem awfully proud they went to West Point, it is mentioned in too many of the paragraphs. Not that they shouldn't be proud of having gone there, but they sort of belittle their comrades from OCS and ROTC with their comments.