During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright was embedded with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the U.S. Marine Corps. He spent two months riding in the lead Humvee with Sergeant Brad "Iceman" Colbert and other members of Bravo Company. Wright carried a weapon and experienced frequent combat, starting with the 10 rounds that hit his door during his first firefight. His Rolling Stone dispatches, titled The Killer Elite, won the 2004 National Magazine Award for Reporting. Wright expanded these articles into Generation Kill (2004), which was adapted into a seven-part miniseries by HBO in 2008 starring Alexander Skarsgård and co-written by David Simon, creator of The Wire.
Generation Kill chronicles a close-knit group of young men at the spear tip of a new era in American warfare. Wright's book is not about grand strategy or command decisions, but individuals in war--in tedium and terror--the single soldiers whose multitudinous sacrifices are honored each Memorial Day. Generation Kill was last published by Putnam in 2008 ($16, 9780425224748). --Tobias Mutter
