Galveston County Daily News Review of "House to House."
War memoir is fast-paced, authentic, exciting
By Mark Lardas
Contributor |
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Published September 16, 2007“House to House: An Epic Memoir of War,” by SSG David Bellavia, Free Press, 321 pages, $26.
David Bellavia was one of those rough men that stood ready to do violence on behalf of the American people to allow us to sleep peaceably in our beds.
In September 2004, he was a Staff Sergeant in Third Platoon, Alpha Company, Army Task Force 2/2, First Infantry Division, in Iraq.
In “House to House,” he tells the story of the Battle of Fallujah, as experienced through his eyes, leading a mechanized infantry squad.
Fallujah was bypassed by the American military in its initial conquest of Iraq in 2003. By 2004, it coalesced into the heart of Islamist resistance against the American military.
Fallujah had to be taken and placed back under control of the new, democratically-elected Iraqi government that was then forming.
By November, when the American and Iraqi militaries were ready to assault Fallujah, it was occupied by the best fighters that the jihadist movement had available.
Thousands of foreign fighters from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and the Philippines were there, highly motivated, well equipped and well supplied with munitions. Bellavia described it as a “regular Islamist all-star team.”
They intended to make Fallujah the Iraq War’s Stalingrad, a killing ground for the Americans.
Instead, Bellavia and his comrades turned the town into a death trap for the terrorists. It was one of the biggest, yet most underreported stories in today’s conflict in Iraq.
Bellavia tells the story from the war fighter’s view at the squad level, at close quarters and in blunt, uncompromising language.
He takes you into the world of the infantryman, a figurative Virgil in a real-world inferno of combat. Its violence and profanity is vividly portrayed.
Bellavia is unapologetic about his mission in which he still believes and supports and is proud of the accomplishments of his unit.
The American soldiers he describes are excellent, but not our elite. They are line troops, both the First Division soldiers Bellavia fought with, and the Marines on his flank.
They prove superior to what are the enemy’s elite. The Americans are more disciplined and fight harder and smarter. They do not make the mistake often made by the jihadists of despising their enemy.
“House to House” is fast-paced, authentic and absorbing. It is more exciting than most war novels and just as involving. A book that offers a revealing look at modern infantry combat, “House to House” is likely to become a classic among military memoirs.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian and model-maker, lives in League City.