In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002

by Bill Murphy Jr.

Book Overview

The dramatic story of West Point's class of 2002, the first in a generation to graduate during wartime They came to West Point in a time of peace, but soon after the start of their senior year, their lives were transformed by September 11. The following June, when President George W. Bush spoke at their commencement and declared that America would "take the battle to the enemy," the men and women in the class of 2002 understood that they would be...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080508679X
• ISBN13: 9780805086799
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 365 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

works on several levels

Several authors have written about the West Point experience, but this one goes further. The author shows West Pointers after graduation in the distinctly non-glamorous jobs they do as Second Lieutenants. Murphy blends the human interest stories of selected West Point graduates with a sobering account of life in a war zone. I was surprised to to learn how much drudgery and boredom coexist with the very real dangers of war. Apparently officers do a lot of counting and inventorying. For the most part, these officers seemed to experience good leadership. One becomes aide to a particularly humane general. Another gets a special x-rated assignment when his commander realizes he's growing bored. It's very hard to read parts of this book because Murphy spares nothing when he describes the deaths of these brilliant, idealistic young officers who are also very decent human beings. Most of us view war as senseless and these particular casualties seem to have no purpose. It's easy to get engrossed in this book and, like many readers, I find myself wishing for a sequel. Where are these brave officers now?

THIS BOOK SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR ALL AMERICANS!

One can expect that any book published today - either fiction or non-fiction - with the Iraq War as a backdrop will include the author's opinion regarding whether the U.S. should have invaded the country... or perhaps whether the war is even legitimate. Frankly, there are far too many of those on bookstore shelves today. In A Time of War is refreshingly devoid of any opinion or overt criticism of the Bush Administration and its decision to go to war with Iraq. In fact, thankfully the author, Bill Murphy, Jr., spends very little time on the politics of the war or any of the more controversial aspects of how it has been fought. Instead, Murphy tells the moving story of young lives that are forever changed by war. Young men and women who manage to find their way to the tip of the spear and who in some cases return to our shores with their bodies and minds badly broken. These are not average lives by any means - as if any life that is committed to the machinery of modern war could ever be called "average" - but they are the lives of recent West Point graduates from the Class of 2002 brimming with all the potential of youth and all the confidence of graduates of one of the country's premier leader development institutions. These budding leaders represent our country's best and brightest, and as many members of the Long Gray Line have done for over two centuries before them, they embark on their military careers without an ounce of reluctance or regret... only a healthy idealism combined with an unshakable belief in a destiny that lies somewhere on the field of battle alongside that of Grant, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Patton, Schwarzkopf and other famous graduates before them. Murphy chronicles the lives of these young West Pointers as they graduate from the academy, attend training on their way to becoming newly minted second lieutenant platoon leaders, and then assume their junior role in the ranks of the U.S. Army's professional officer corps. Where the author really succeeds is in his description of their experiences leading soldiers on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. This is where the pace of the book really picks up. West Point's matchless leadership training and preparation is put to the test as these uncommon Americans confront half-crazed IED-embedding and RPG-wielding jihadists and insurgents. How they fearlessly confront these threats while leading soldiers makes for some terrific reading. But there is quite a bit more to Murphy's book than emerging combat leaders plying their trade in the Global War on Terror. He illuminates challenges fighting in Iraq, for instance, that many Americans have read or heard about in the news but perhaps do not fully understand. For instance, much has been made of how the U.S. Army, at the outset of the Iraq War, remained culturally and structurally better prepared to fight a Soviet era "linear battle" replete with state-of-the-art M1 tanks and lumbering B-52 bombers than a coun

A must read - a heart-rending and gut-wrenching account

I have just completed Bill Murphy's moving book, "In a Time of War - The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002." The book is both gut-wrenching and heart-rending, yet it also leaves the reader inspired and proud of the young men and women who left West Point in the summer of 2002 to answer the call to fight the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. The title of the book is drawn from the speech that President Bush gave to the West Point Class of 2002 as they graduated and were commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants in the U.S. Army. I was in the audience that summer day and heard him utter those words. I also have personal relationships with several dozens members of the West Point Class of 2002, so for me the book was particularly poignant. I have followed several of these soldiers through their multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. This book added to the depth of my understanding of the challenges they have faced as they lived and fought, sweated and bled, in those far off places. Bill Murphy describes himself, in essence, as someone who has served in the military (as an Army Reserve officer), but without great distinction. He has, without question, distinguished himself in his ability to grasp the essence of the West Point experience for a representative sampling of graduates of the Class of 2002, and to bring the reader inside their lives as they took their West Point training and became officers serving our nation in a time of war. "This, for Todd [Bryant], was the essence of West Point. `Duty, honor, country' was the academy's motto, and everyone talked constantly about honor and commitment, loyalty and patriotism. All that was true and good, but stripped of its pomp and circumstance, the place was really about love. Love of your country, love of your classmates and friends, and love of the future officers you'd someday serve with. Most of all, West Point was about learning to love the soldiers you would someday lead, the privates and sergeants, knuckleheads and heroes alike, who might, just once, in a life-justifying moment, look to you for leadership in some great battle on a distant shore." (Pages 11-12) I have never read a more concise or accurate summation of the West Point ethos as I have come to understand it through the eyes of my many friends who proudly stand as part of the Long Gray Line. These newly-minted lieutenants faced the classic dilemma of what kind of leader to be, deciding where their ultimate loyal should lie: "A new lieutenant had to choose between two leadership styles. He was obliged to follow his commander's orders, of course. But he also had to decide whether, at his core, he was going to be his platoon's envoy to the higher brass, or the higher brass's man embedded with the soldiers. Todd chose the former style, and most of his soldiers considered him one of them. He was their guy, advocating on their behalf to the people making the decisions that controlled their lives." (Page 117) A

Five long years later..

West Point's Class of 2002 spent a majority of their time training in a time of peace. By the time graduation came around, we were in a war and the President announced his doctrine of preemption. We graduated in a time of war. For me, the memories came rushing back. Bill Murphy Jr described and detailed he lives of a few cadets and their families to achieve something that hasn't been done before. Bill took an in-depth and intimate approach dealing with the choices the cadets made from their personal relationships, them choosing their branches, them choosing their first duty stations, all the other choices that came with being leaders of America's sons and daughters in a war, and them choosing to stay in the Army at the end of their five year commitment or not. Their choices will lead them apart and together throughout their careers. For training. For weddings. For funerals. (Be thou at peace.) For Reunions. In A Time Of War is an emotional roller coaster. Those serving in the military have similar stories to Todd Bryant, Drew Sloan, Tricia LeRouc Birdsell, Tim Moshier, Will Tucker, Dave Swanson, Joe Dasilva, and the other Soldiers' stories told inside. These are not characters in a book, these are real Soldiers serving their country and doing what they think is right. You will laugh, cry, get angry, laugh again, cry again, and smile at times. This is the story about their lives, the lives they touched, and the lives they continue to touch. Bill Murphy Jr's book answers the question the Pentagon and "the higher ups" have been so confused about: "Why are the young combat experienced leaders getting out?" Well general, this book has the answer to the question the military keeps spending money trying to get. Give it a read. Recently one night, I started my 12 hour shift in our battalion's TOC and mail (this book) had been delivered. Thankfully it was a quiet night and I had a chance to read. After my shift, I grabbed my laundry and hurried back to finish the best book about the long war. I couldn't put it down. Maybe I'm biased having also graduated West Point in 2002. Maybe I'm not. Regardless, Bill Murphy Jr's book is an unbiased matter of fact explanation of the extraordinary years in the lives of those who have been, done, and served. It's not just for West Pointers, this is for everyone. CPT Ryan R. Renken Class of 2002, F2 Camp Slayer, Iraq

Simply excellent

The West Point class of 2002 graduated to the words of President George W. Bush sending them to war. It was not the first time that a major foreign policy speech coincided with an academy graduation, but it was certainly the first one that mattered on such a personal level to the roughly 1,000 members of West Point's Bicentennial class. The first book detailing the experiences of this class, David Lipsky's _Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point_, captured the carefree nature of a class consumed with its own day-to-day survival. It accurately depicted the innocence of the 20-somethings focusing on what they believed to be the biggest challenge in their lives: graduation. Bill Murphy Jr.'s book, _In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002_, captures the essence of the class after the reality of its future in combat zones has set in. Murphy applies his remarkable journalistic talent to the stories of several classmates whose stories manage to be both extraordinary and representative of the whole at the same time. Murphy clearly gained the trust of his subjects in the interviewing process, and he did them justice by telling a story of which they can be proud. His narrative plumbs the depths of the disparate personal histories that led to the choice of a career in the military, the emotions evoked from multiple deployments, and in its most powerful moments, the stories of those left behind by the fallen. His style, vivid and powerful, often leaves the reader on a hillside in Afghanistan, or on an Army base in Kansas. This book will leave the reader hoping for a second volume. I cannot endorse it heartily enough.