The Marine Corps’ drive up the Tigris and Euphrates valleys during
Operation Iraqi Freedom was marked by a combat relationship between
its air and ground components that was unlike anything seen in the
history of warfare—eclipsing even the sweeping Nazi Blitzkriegs of
1939-1940 in the fine choreography of its execution. Hammer
from Above—Marine Airpower over Iraq describes the aviation component
of this campaign as no other work has done.
Rather
than simply a dry technical treatment of Marine Air Ground Task Force
doctrine, and a rehash of the major
actions with relevant statistics, Hammer from Above, gets into the
cockpits of the aviators as they execute the missions. It labors
alongside the young Marines who spend weeks at isolated outposts as
they refuel, rearm, and repair helicopter gunships. It worries
with commanding officers whose crews are flying combat operations
in excess of eighteen hours at a time. It exposes the reader
to the noise, the smoke, the fire, the stink, and the death of the
battlefield. And it does so in a human and familiar fashion.
