Entertainment, Books - Air Force Times

‘We Were One’ follows 4 pairs of friends through Fallujah

It may not be considered a classic among recent Iraq war books, but “We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah” is still first-rate reading.

Written by combat historian Patrick K. O’Donnell, the book admirably depicts the brutal realities of street-to-street, house-to-house fighting.

Such insight can come only from deep personal involvement, obviously based upon first hand knowledge, experience and honorable concern.

O’Donnell chronicles the Fallujah story in the same straightforward and personal manner that characterizes his three previous books: “Beyond Valor,” “Into the Rising Sun” and “Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs.”

In “We Were One,” he follows the infantrymen of 1st Platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, as they tackle and subdue the Iraqi insurgency’s strongest enclave. At battle’s end, the 46-man platoon from Camp Pendleton, Calif., had suffered 35 casualties, including four dead.

“I volunteered to go to Iraq to become one of the first civilian historians to accompany American men and women into combat, be present as the action unfolded, and then write the history of their war, allowing them to tell the story as much as possible in their own words through oral history,” O’Donnell writes. “Through fate, I was assigned to the 3/1. Together, we participated with other infantry units in the frontal assault into Fallujah. After 12 days of urban combat, only 14 of the platoon’s original complement of 46 were still standing when Lima Company was withdrawn from the city.”

Although the author writes in a flat, direct style, and his Marines’ dialogue is at times surprising, the portrayal of 1st Platoon as a close-knit family of men who would lay down their lives for one another is a sincere study of men facing a deadly enemy.

O’Donnell focuses on four pairs of best friends, including a Marine he describes as the “heart and soul” of 1st Platoon, Lance Cpl. Michael Hanks. The author is not always subtle in his analysis of a Marine’s state of mind, but each of the best friends is ably described. Especially endearing is the fact that several of the platoon’s experienced Marines didn’t have to be in Iraq. They extended for another deployment to protect the younger Marines who hadn’t seen combat.

O’Donnell’s work earned the praise of the battalion’s commander during the Fallujah fight, Lt. Col. Willy Buhl, who said the book is “historically accurate and describes the greatest personal and professional test of our lives. ‘We Were One’ is destined to be a classic of urban close combat and honors the memory of all who made the ultimate sacrifice for their brother Marines. I am deeply thankful that Pat kept his oath to Lima Company.”

There is no lack of good histories on the battle for Fallujah. But “We Were One,” more than the others, captures the sensory details and emotional drama of good men killing and dying for one another and their country.

We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah. By Patrick K. O’Donnell. Da Capo Press. 244 pages. $25.

Don DeNevi is a freelance writer in California.