The Captains: The Brotherhood of War

The Captains: The Brotherhood of War

First thing’s first – this one is book 2 of a series.  If you come across this thing at a library or used book store, make an effort to read book 1 (The Lieutenants) first.  It’s a great book, quick read, and really should be ingested before you tackle this one.

This one, volume 2 is also a good, quick read.  Although titled “The Captains”, I would argue that this book is not exclusively about Captains in the U.S. army. There are three or four of them in and out of these pages, and I guess you could argue that they are, in fact, the ‘center’ of the story. This book is really about the soldiers in the U.S army, how they interact, obstacles they face, the politics that are involved, and how things generally get done in the U.S. armed forces.

The character with the most page space is Captain Craig Lowell. He’s basically a spoiled rich kid who is the antithesis of what a great soldier is supposed to be.  He probably should have been kicked out of the army years ago (although he’s very young to be a Captain – about 24 I think), but he just seems to be too good at his job. In fact, he does get kicked out of the army several times within these volumes, but somehow manages to always get back in due to various circumstances.

This book takes place from 1950-1953.  Since it’s a book about the military, you’re probably thinking ‘The Korean War’ right? Well, yes and no.  The bulk of this book does take place during the Korean Conflict, but there’s not a whole lot of ‘Korea’ here. What I mean by this is author Griffin doesn’t really weave the who’s, the where’s, or the why’s of the war into the story.  If you knew nothing about the Korean War before you read this book, you still wouldn’t know much about it when you finished reading. That’s o.k., I guess.  Again, Griffin is telling a story about people, and not so much events.

I really enjoyed this book, and picked it up immediately after I finished ‘The Lieutenants’. As soon as I finished this one, I quickly read volume 3 from cover to cover as well.  I wouldn’t be going through this series so quickly if the writing were boring or sub-par.  As long as you prefer ‘story’ as opposed to ‘history’, you should enjoy these books.  You learn quite a bit of how the military works (or worked) as well.