In
the Company of Heroes
ISBN: 0399150609
Format: Hardcover, 361pp
Pub. Date: May 2003
Publisher: Putnam Adult
The Human
Face of of Captivity
Courage and Conviction of an American Hero
Review by Daniel Muniz
When a friend of mine handed me the hardback
edition of Michael Durant's In the Company of Heroes, I ended up
putting it on my bookshelf for future reading. The book was intended
as a special present especially since my friend went through the
effort to attend a book signing in which Michael Durant personally
autographed the inside cover to me.
However, my lack of enthusiasm to read this
particular book stemmed from the unfavorable impression I had of
Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down. Although Black Hawk Down was wildly
popular, it just did not mesh right with me.
Don't get me wrong! Black Hawk Down is a great
piece of historical literature but there were a few segments of that
book that rubbed me the wrong way which is why I procrastinated in
reading In the Company of Heroes.
Well, I could not have made a worse mistake.
I hate to say it but I could not put the
book down. I had to find every spare moment available to read In the
Company of Heroes twice.
Michael Durant, a Chief Warrant Officer served
in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia as a Black Hawk helicopter
pilot of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
otherwise known as the Night Stalkers. While flying on a mission to
snatch the top lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid, Durant
and his crew were shot down in the middle of Mogadishu in what was
to become the biggest firefight since Vietnam.
The lone survivor of his Black Hawk, the
author is held captive for 11 terrifying days by Somali militiamen.
As his sullen face appears on the cover of Newsweek, Time and U.S.
News & World Report, Durant unwittingly becomes a pawn of the Somali
conflict.
Frightened and suffering in agony from severe
injuries to his face, back, and leg, Durant vividly recounts his
harrowing experience as a POW. The writing style is raw, passionate,
and attaches a very human face to combat, chaos, and misery.
For those interested in the military jargon of
special ops, helicopter assault procedures, and weapons specs you
will not be disappointed. The book covers plenty of the technical
details in an interesting informative narrative that will not bore
you.
There is also plenty of bravado and
swagger since the author is a dedicated professional of an elite
military unit. But he also is a top notch and deserves every bit of
his bravado. And Durant is also a beer drinker and partygoer which at
certain times of the book can be rather amusing.
About the only thing that I didn't like about In the Company of
Heroes was that it intermittingly broke away from the storytelling
of captivity to recount the author's rigid training and his military
exploits in Korea, Panama, and Iraq.
In my first read, I skipped over those chapters because I was so
gripped by Durant's dramatic narrative of his confinement and
anxiety that I wanted to know what happened on a day by day and
hourly basis. I eventually read those skipped chapters in my second
read-through.
Overall, the book pays the appropriate homage
to Durant's brethren who gave their lives in Somalia, even though it
has become a forgotten footnote of history. I felt
inspired and grateful knowing that America has people like Michael
Durant and his band of brothers who have a deep sense of conviction
and arduous training to guard our freedom.
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