The book will trace the experience of Bravo Company of the 150th Combat Engineers (the Dixie Sappers) of the Mississippi National Guard through the unit's tour of duty in Iraq in 2005. Raised from the Piney Woods and Gulf Coast areas of southern Mississippi, the Dixie Sappers were a true melting pot of Americana. Comprised of everything from city youth hoping to attain college benefits, to rural African Americans seeking a way out of grinding poverty, to women who sought to break barriers, to patriots answering their nation's call after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 - the Dixie Sappers represented nearly all of what America had to offer in 2005. The fates of those who served in the Dixie Sappers after the war also speak to the unit's representative qualities. On one end are the soldiers who went on to great things, a U.S. Congressman and the Director of the National Guard Association of the United States. On the other end of the spectrum are those who still can't get their lives together, turning to suicide or winding up in jail. The majority are somewhere in the middle, trying to make life work, even as the bonds of the unit still hold them all together.
In 2005 the Dixie Sappers were part of the new National Guard. Amidst the transformation of the U.S. military in the 21st century, the Guard was called on to do more of the fighting and for longer periods than ever before - a change with profound implications for how America fights its wars and one that nearly ground the National Guard to dust. Bravo Company at War will allow for an investigation of the transformation of the U.S. military and the role of the Guard on a human level. No longer was the Guard destined to be weekend warriors tasked mainly with local disaster relief. The new Guard was a sharp weapon of war. As America readied for an expanded conflict in Iraq, the Dixie Sappers were one of the first Guard units sent to the battlefront as a test of the new American Way of War.
Sadly, though, America was far from ready for its new way of war. Instead of fulfilling their expected mission of building and maintaining bases in Iraq, the Dixie Sappers were given an Area of Operations outside of Baghdad and were tasked with bringing a bitter local insurgency they knew nothing about to its knees. Deployed into the unknown without intelligence or even armor for their vehicles, the Dixie Sappers quickly paid the price.
Where most standard military units become comrades who are driven by small unit loyalty through a short, intense period of training, Guard units are different. Guardsmen and women grew up together in the same communities, played sports with and against each other, worked together, and served together. The closeness of the Guard community is unmatched, providing a singular advantage, but also making loss hurt all the more.
Defying poor equipment, lack of specialist training and these crippling, heart-breaking losses, the Dixies Sappers fought and endured combat. But they also do so much more. Thinking on their feet they implemented their own homespun counterinsurgency policy which was so effective by the time they left Iraq they had turned a hotbed for insurgency into a peaceful, thriving community - one of the few success stories of the war. But it was all for nought. Handed over to a Marine unit trained only for kinetic operations, the peaceful coalition was abandoned and forgotten. Death and destruction was once more the order of the day for all sides.
Set within the context of a changing military, an evolving strategic situation and an unpopular war that could not be won, Bravo Company at War lays bare the harsh reality and cost of war. Readers will get to know the characters, mourn their passing, and cheer their victories. It will read like a novel but will be deep history based on an exhaustive understanding of the sources. The author grew up in and around the men and women of the Dixie Sappers. He knows their stories well, and they trust him with the most intimate details of life and battle.
