Book Review: Embedded, by Wesley Gray

"First Lieutenant Wesley Gray was a Marine Corps reservist assigned to a team training the Iraqi army in Haditha, western Iraq, in 2006. His excellent new book, Embedded, from Naval Institute Press, recalls his experiences and teases out some important lessons for future advising missions. It’s an important book, as the Marines re-organize to make foreign military training a core mission.

Embedded is also deeply, darkly hilarious in places. Consider chapter 11, “Death Operations,” where Gray found himself hauling around, Weekend at Bernie’s-style, the dead body of an Iraqi soldier who had been killed in action. The Marines called the Iraqi KIA, “angels.” It was Gray’s job to make sure the angel’s body reached the next of kin, as soon as possible. But incompetent Marine Corps bureaucracy, fickle helicopter schedules and the labyrinthine geography of Gray’s Haditha-dam base kept interfering."
War is Boring