Book Review: Boots On The Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq

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by Karl Zinsmeister

St. Martin's Press. 213. . 24.95. ISBN:0-312-32663-7

Boots on the Ground is a diary like report of Karl Zinsmeister personal experiences while embedded with the 82nd Airborne. If you are looking for a history of the battle for Iraq, don’t look here. But, if you want a very engaging story of one reporter’s experiences as an embedded reporter this is a great book.

Zinsmeister, a reporter for American Enterprise, begins the book from the moment he finds out about the opportunity to become an embedded. The book is very pro-military and very pro-invasion of Iraq.

Once pass the initial getting ready and why we are going chapters Zinsmeister tells some very entertaining and gripping stories of the 82nd’s experiences in Iraq. Everything from the boredom, the dust and dirt, the heat, the “smokin’ and jokin’” to the danger of battle is covered.

The book finishes up with a chapter that condemns some of the other reporters of the war and the anti-war movement in the United States.

If you are looking for a very quick read that gives you the experiences of an embedded reporter during then this is the book to pick-up. Reviewer: Dan Masterson   


Buy it at Amazon.com