Joker One

This first-person account of the author's experiences commanding a Marine platoon in Iraq is full of human tragedy, hope, camaraderie, and faith. He and his men spent seven months defending Ramadi, a Sunni-dominated city, and never let it fall to the insurgents. Narrator David Drummond has a pleasant voice and reads largely without emotion. His matter-of-fact style works well for most of the narrative, but he uses the same voice for firefights and attacks, which limits the impact of those sections. Drummond is easy to follow, and his excellent diction and pacing make the book interesting. His intonation, though, does not allow us to experience the full force of the author's words. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 6, 2008
Campbell decided as a junior at Princeton that attending Marine Corps Officer Candidate School would look good on his résumé. Three years later, in the spring of 2004, he was in Iraq commanding a platoon known by its radio call sign, “Joker One.” Campbell tells its story, and his, in an outstanding narrative of the Iraq War. Joker One counted around 40 dudes: country boys and smalltown jocks; a few Hispanics and a single black. Some were college men with futures; some had pasts they preferred to forget. The battalion was assigned to one of Iraq's worst hot spots: the city of Ramadi, where faceless enemies found shelter among 350,000 Iraqi civilians. Joker One fought from street to street, house to house and ambush to ambush for seven straight months. By the end of the tour, “even the Gunny's hands had started ceaselessly shaking,” Campbell writes. Faced with urgent life-and-death decisions, Campbell had learned that “there are no great options... you live with the results and shut up about the whole thing.” For all his constant self-questioning, Lt. Campbell brought Joker One home with only one KIA—a record as impressive as his account.