Library Journal
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Chivers (The Gun), a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Marine Corps officer in the Persian Gulf War, presents a memorable, gritty account of six servicemen who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, following the September 11 attacks and through 2017. These men shared both patriotism and anger over the tragedy, which motivated them to enlist and reenlist, questioning the wars' objectives because of poor military brass leadership and experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder that made their tours enduring if not endless. The author includes many interviews with the combatants and their families along with their fellow servicemen and -women and Iraqis and Afghans, some of whom saved Chiver's life on more than one occasion. Included among the six are Layne McDowell, a pilot who questioned the bombing and killing of citizens; Dustin Kirby, who rescued men under extreme conditions and himself suffered a horrific wound; and Michael Slebodnik, whose heroism cost him his life. Although the subjects are men, Chivers describes women who also served heroically, concluding that neither war achieved its goals as anti-American sentiment remains high in the region and ISIS continues to expand. VERDICT This important battlefield narrative will find wide audiences among readers of military history, wartime exploits, and hopefully military and political policy-makers.-Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper -Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* For the majority of Americans who have not served in the Armed Forces, nor know anyone who has, journalist and former infantry officer Chivers aims to help readers get to know a few service members from the long campaigns following 9/11. In this excellent set of military portraits, Chivers tells the life stories and battle experiences of a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, a naval aviator, a helicopter pilot, a navy corpsman with the U.S. Marines, an army rifleman, and an unlikely marine infantry officer, and all are wonderfully engaging. Readers will empathize with the trials each faced in combat and beyond in a book that will enlighten all who read it, no matter their feelings about the wars. Veterans will discover how their time in the service compares with others'. Civilians will gain understanding of the military world. Prospective recruits will get an unvarnished look at what may await them: the challenges, the hardships, the glory, the camaraderie, and some of the things recruiters don't talk about. The Fighters will take its place among other great books about horrible wars and should be front and center for displays during patriotic holidays and any occasion that we honor our veterans.--James Pekoll Copyright 2018 Booklist

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and former Marine Corps infantry officer Chivers (The Gun, 2010, etc.) offers a chilling account of failed American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq through the searing experiences of six fighters.After 9/11, the author risked his personal safety to experience combat up close as a journalist in Afghanistan and Iraq, making excellent use of the observational powers he honed as a Marine during the earlier Persian Gulf War. Chivers ably relates the details of the U.S. military incursions into those two countries based on the thinking of the six combatants featured in the narrative. Each of the men is at the center of at least two chapters out of 13, including the epilogue. By returning to individual sagas throughout the book, the author captures not only isolated moments, but also evolving thoughts as U.S. military and civilian commanders make countless mistakes in their goals and their tactics. One of the six main characters is dead; the other five suffered physical and/or psychological injuries during their service. Now no longer in combat, the protagonists were candid with Chivers about the worth of their military missions. Sometimes bitterness emerged, but more often puzzlement, as the combatants tried to work through why they and their fellow troops were fighting elusive enemies for no clear purpose. At the beginning of each chapter, the author, who shatters much conventional wisdom about the conflicts, provides a transitional summary of shifting U.S. priorities between fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan or sometimes both at once. A central dilemma for noncombatant policymakers has been deciding whether to withdraw, thus creating geographical regions for the terrorists to consolidate, or remain, thus encouraging new terrorist recruits to enlist against the hated Americans.Given his background, Chivers certainly did not set out to write a book emphasizing the foolishness of American actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. But that is the story that emerged from his painstaking, courageous reporting, and readers will be thankful for his work. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Chivers, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and a Gulf War veteran in the Marines, presents in evocative detail the Iraq and Afghanistan war experiences of a handful of American fighters to tell the bigger story of how those conflicts with al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein, and ISIS devolved into "wars that ran far past the pursuit of justice and ultimately did not succeed." Chivers focuses on six combatants-an F-14 pilot, a Green Beret sergeant, a Navy corpsman, a helicopter pilot, an Army infantryman, and a Marine lieutenant. He briefly relates why each one joined the military and what happened to them after coming home, but the heart of the book is in-depth, intense reporting of their in-the-trenches tours of duty. Chivers spent countless hours on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2013. His reporting rings chillingly true, especially his accounts of the worst that war metes out to those doing the fighting and civilians caught in the crosshairs, for example the agony that corpsman Dustin Kirby went through after being shot in the face. The five-page account of a 2013 meeting between George W. Bush and the severely wounded Kirby and his family is a brilliantly told jolt of postwar reality. This fast-paced, action-heavy work of long-form war journalism has bestseller written all over it. Agent: Amelia Atlas, ICM Partners. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.