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(More customer reviews)Having chronicled USN/USMC winners of the Navy Cross, James Wise and Scott Baron shift focus to those Marines and sailors awarded the Silver Star in Afghanistan, Irag, Vietnam, Korea and World War II. Ninety-seven men - 24 sailors and 73 Marines - have been awarded Silver Stars in Iraq and Afghanistan as of March 2008. THE SILVER STAR recounts the exploits of 75 of those individuals and ten from the earlier conflicts.
As with their NAVY CROSS volume, Wise and Baron arrange the accounts alphabetically within each conflict. After presenting the official citation, they then recreate the action in narrative form. In some cases, several SS awards were made for the same action, 'Operation Phantom Fury,' for example, resulting in 10 awards. The most widely-known Afghanistan/Iraq SS winner is probably tank commander GySgt Nick Popaditch, who recently penned his autobiography ONCE A MARINE. Notables from the previous wars include Vietnam MoH-winner Jimmie Howard and WWII's FDR, Jr. and John Hamilton (aka actor Sterling Hayden).
Truth be told, the Iraq/Afghanistan accounts, which make up 70% of the book, have a depressing sameness to them; most being hellacious, in-your-face ambushes in narrow streets marked by dozens of RPG rounds and storms of AK fire. Time after time, superb training coupled with personal bravery and initiative made the difference.
While THE SILVER STAR is an inspiring chronicle of brave men in action, the Iraq sections leave you with a sense of sadness; all that bravery and suffering in an unnecessary war! And I still think the reverse chronological arrangement, first seen in NAVY CROSS, makes for a clumsy read. Recommended.
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