January 8, 2007
Blood-and-guts accounts of Fallujah are not in short supply, but Jadick—a career Marine officer and brigade surgeon who took a demotion to battalion surgeon to volunteer for service in Iraq in 2004—tells the story through the eyes of a doctor. Unlike colleagues who remained in battalion aid stations behind the lines, Jadick and his medics accompanied their unit in makeshift ambulances as it battled through the streets. This was not bravado, he writes, but a calculated strategy to reach, stabilize and rush wounded troops to hospitals more quickly. He makes his case many times over, with dramatic accounts of catastrophically injured men from his unit and others who would not have survived a journey to the aid station. This remarkable man's story is well worth telling, although his writer should have discouraged him from frequent pauses for memorial essays on every soldier who died, and to remind readers of the Marines' bravery, of the dedication of the medics, and how much he loves his wife, the Marines and America. Readers who can skim past these segments will find the book a memorable experience.
March 1, 2007
For many Americans, the image of a military trauma surgeon was crystallized by the character of Hawkeye Pierce, the wisecracking, authority-hating, unwilling draftee made famous by the film and television series " M*A*S*H*." But this memoir is the real thing, and it isn't funny. Jadick was an experienced Marine Corps officer who eventually attended medical school on a navy scholarship. In 2004 he left a promising civilian career as a urologist, responding to the military's desperate need for trained surgeons in Iraq. Jadick found himself in the midst of the savage fight for control of the city of Falluja. He chose to operate on the front line, saving both time and lives. Jadick's story is shocking, bloody, and, at times, sickening. He pulls no punches in describing the devastating injuries he had to cope with day after day. Yet this is an inspiring story, both because of the dedicated and brilliant innovations practiced by Jadick and his colleagues and the sheer bravery of the soldiers he encountered.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)