The Good Soldiers
Page 30
CHRISTOPHER TINGLE
RUDY TOIA
CHRISTOPHER TORIX
ROBERT TRUEX
CHARLES TRUNNELL III
JARRAD TRUOG
DEAN TUBBS
KYUNG TURNER
PATRICK TUTWILER*
ASILA UME
MICHAEL VACANTI
GEORGE VALENCIA
RAFAEL VALENTIN, JR.
BRANDON VALENTINE
ALLAN VALTIERRA*
IGNACIO VALVERDE, JR.
JASON VAN GUNDY
JAMES VAN ZYTVELD
CHARLES VASQUEZ, JR.
JAIME VASQUEZ
SHAWN VENTURA
JOSE VERA*
WILLIAM VIAN
BENJAMIN VILLASENOR
JOHN VIOLA
RANDY WADDELL
CHARLES WADE, JR.
JEROD WADE
ERIC WAGNER
NICHOLAS WAGNER
SETH WAHL
REBECCA WAINNER
WILLIAM WALDEN
JOSEPH WALKER, JR.
WILLIAM WALKER
WILLIAM WALLACE
ANDREW WALLER
ALBERT WALSH
MICHAEL WAPELHORST
MICHAEL WARD
PRESTON WARD
THOMAS WARTH
RYAN WATERS
ERIC WATSON
CHRISTOPHER WATTS*
MICHAEL WEAKLEY
WILLIAM WEBB
ORIS WEBSTER
SAMUEL WEISSMAN
HOWARD WEITZMAN
JOSHUA WELBORN
DANIEL WENZEL
JACK WHEELER, JR.
CHARLES WHITE
NICHOLAS WHITE
ALLEN WICK
JAMES WIDENER
MATTHEW WILES
AMANDA WILLIAMS
BRANDON WILLIAMS
CARL WILLIAMS
JAMES WILLIAMS
KENNETH WILLIAMS
TIMOTHY WILLIAMS*
MICHAEL WILLIFORD
CRAIG WILSON
JAMES WILSON
JEFFREY WILSON
KRYSTAL WILSON
RYAN WILSON*
MICHAEL WINCHESTER
ROBERT WINEGAR, JR.*
ANDREW WINKLER
SHANE WINN
SCOTT WINTER
BRANDON WISE
LEONARD WISNIEWSKI
MATTHEW WITTE
JOSHUA WOLD*
BRANDON WOOD
RYAN WOOD
JASON WOODBURY
TREVOR WOODS
DARRIN WOOLF
WILLIAM WORTHINGTON
JOSEPH WRIGHT
MATTHEW WRIGHT
RICHARD WRIGHT
THOMAS YANNELLI
ADAM YOUNG
DAVID YOUNG
JUAN ZAMBRANO, JR.
EDGAR ZAMORA
WILLIAM ZAPPA*
DIONICIO ZARRABAL
STEVEN ZEBROWSKI
TODD ZIEGLER
VANCE ZIMMER
RUSTY ZIMMERMAN
ALLEN ZURENKO
BRIAN ZWEIBOHMER
ABRAM ZYNDA
Information courtesy of the 2-16. List includes original deplojers and mid-tour replacements. Asterisks signify Purple Heart recipients.
The 2-16 Soldiers Who Died
Jay Cajimat, April 6, 2007
Shawn Gajdos, June 6, 2007
Cameron Payne, June 11, 2007
Andre Craig, Jr., June 25, 2007
William Crow, Jr., June 28, 2007
James Harrelson, July 17, 2007
Joel Murray, September 4, 2007
David Lane, September 4, 2007
Randol Shelton, September 4, 2007
Joshua Reeves, September 22, 2007
James Doster, September 29, 2007
Duncan Crookston, January 25, 2008
Durrell Bennett, March 29, 2008
Patrick Miller, March 29, 2008
A NOTE ON SOURCES AND METHODS
Most of this book is based on events I personally observed between January 2007, when I first met the 2-16, and June 2008, the month of the Ranger Ball. I spent a total of eight months with the 2 -16 in Iraq and made additional reporting trips to Fort Riley, in Kansas; Brooke Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, Texas; the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland; and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C
The book also contains some scenes for which I wasn’t present. In those instances, the details, descriptions, and dialogue used in the book were verified through internal army reports, photographs, videos, after-the-fact observation, and interviews with as many participants as conditions would permit. All of the people described and quoted in the book knew that I was a journalist and that everything I was seeing and hearing was on the record.
It is to the army’s credit, I believe, that during the length of my reporting, there were only two times that I was asked to treat something as off the record. Both requests involved classified technological applications in use by the soldiers, the revealing of which could conceivably put subsequent soldiers using the applications at increased risk, and I agreed to do so.
And it is to the 2-16 soldiers’ credit that they tolerated a journalist being among them, and in almost all cases welcomed me with their trust. From the beginning, I explained to them that my intent was to document their corner of the war, without agenda. This book, then, is that corner, unshaded. I feel privileged to have been its witness, and to write the story of what happened.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are many people I want to acknowledge and thank, beginning with the soldiers of the 2-16, every one of them.
I want to thank Sarah Crichton, of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
I want to thank Melanie Jackson, my literary agent.
At The Washington Post, I want to thank Don Graham, Leonard Downie, Jr., Mary Ann Werner, Rick Atkinson, Bill Hamilton, David Hoffman, Dana Priest, Sudarsan Raghavan and the heroic Baghdad bureau, Tom Ricks, Liz Spayd, Julie Tate, Karl Vick, the foreign desk, and everyone in Benefits.
At the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, I want to thank Lee Hamilton, Michael Van Dusen, Lucy Jilka, Janet Spikes, and especially Margaret Paxson.
At Stanford University, I want to thank the Hoover Institution.
Thank you to my parents.
Thank you, Bob Barnes.
Thank you, Lucian Perkins.
Thank you, John Nagl.
Thank you, Katherine Boo.
Thank you, Anne Hull.
Thank you, Phil Bennett.
Thank you, Steve Coll.
Thank you, Julia, Lauren, and, most of all, Lisa. You are the home I got to come home to.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Finkel is the National Enterprise Editor of The Washington Post. He joined the Post in 1990 and has worked for the paper’s national, foreign, and magazine staffs. He has reported from Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, and throughout the United States, and was part of the Post’s war coverage in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo.
Among Finkel’s journalism honors are a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2006 for a series of stories about U.S.-funded democracy efforts in Yemen. He has been a Pulitzer finalist three other times, for both explanatory reporting and feature writing.
A 1977 graduate of the University of Florida, Finkel is married, has two daughters, and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Table of Contents
1. APRIL 6, 2007
2. APRIL 14, 2007
3. MAY 7, 2007
4. JUNE 30, 2007
5. JULY 12, 2007
6. JULY 23, 2007
7. SEPTEMBER 22, 2007
8. OCTOBER 28, 2007
9. DECEMBER 11, 2007
10. JANUARY 25, 2008
11. FEBRUARY 27, 2008
12. MARCH 29, 2008
13. APRIL 10, 2008
APPENDIX: THE 2-16 ROSTER OF SOLDIERS
A NOTE ON SOURCES AND METHODS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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David Finkel, The Good Soldiers