War

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Index of Terms

Hesco

A Hesco is a giant basket made of wire and lined with heavy fabric, a cube eight feet on a side that can hold 25 tons of rock or sand. A line of Hescos makes a barrier that can dam floodwaters or protect a military base. The men of Second Platoon carve their Restrepo outpost from a hillside and pour the rock debris into a wall of Hescos that shields them during attacks by Taliban insurgents.

Hooch

Hooch is military slang for a hutch or hut, usually made from plywood or other light materials and used as living quarters or for storage. At the Restrepo outpost, the men build plywood hooches. The huts’ sizes and shapes vary depending on their location on the roughly carved-out hillside lot.

Korengal Valley

One of five valleys in the rugged foothills of the Hindu Kush mountain range in eastern Afghanistan, Korengal is where First and Second Platoons of Battle Company are stationed. Their job is to stop enemy fighters, weapons, and ammo smuggled in from Pakistan. The valleys are scenic but supremely hard to control given the rugged terrain, often-harsh weather, and uncooperative inhabitants.

The valley’s culture is religious and conservative. American attempts to improve the locals’ lives are often rejected for complex social and political reasons. The valley sometimes makes money selling cedar logs; otherwise, most earnings come from agriculture and smuggling.

Medal of Honor

Since the US Civil War, the Medal of Honor—the highest American military award—has been bestowed on US service personnel who display extraordinary courage under fire. Often the medals are awarded posthumously when service members sacrifice their lives to save others. Nominees are presented to the US secretary of defense by the various US military branches; those chosen receive the award directly from the president, as commander in chief, in the name of Congress. Thus, the award is popularly but unofficially referred to as the “Congressional Medal of Honor,” perhaps to distinguish it from other honor medals.

Platoon

A platoon is a group of roughly 30 individuals divided into squads of six to 12 soldiers. Squads are led by sergeants; platoons are run by lieutenants. Three to five platoons make up a company, overseen by a captain, and a group of companies is a battalion. Second Platoon of Battle Company is the military unit on which the book focuses; also featured are First Platoon and an independent squad of Scouts. Other platoons and companies receive brief mentions.

Weaponry

The M4 is the US Army’s standard-issue automatic rifle. It’s lightweight, and soldiers can carry more of its small ammunition, but it’s not very accurate and tends to jam. The SAW—squad automatic weapon—is belt-fed and “has an extremely high rate of fire and basically vomits rounds if you so much as touch the trigger” (20). Its larger cousins are the slower M240 and the .50-caliber gun, which, with a sighting scope, is accurate up to two miles.

Other weapons common to both sides of the conflict include mortars and RPGs. Mortars are tubes attached to adjustable mounts that launch explosive shells in high arcs that rain down from above onto enemy positions. RPGs—rocket-propelled grenades—are fired from a shoulder weapon aimed at enemy soldiers or armored vehicles.

Battle Company enjoys the services of drones that constantly fly overhead. These are large, shaped like airplanes but without cockpits, and many are armed with ordnance that they can deliver on command. The drones, guided and monitored by technicians far from the front, provide important visual intelligence on enemy troop positions.

Much or most of the destruction inflicted on Taliban insurgents comes from aircraft. Apache helicopters shoot bullets and missiles; A-10 “Warthogs” fire armor-piercing shells, missiles, and bombs. B-1 bombers (nicknamed “Bones” for B-One) also drop munitions. US military tactics in the Korengal Valley rely on platoons flushing out enemy cadres that aircraft then destroy. On multiple occasions, Second Platoon calls for air support, the planes clean out the opponents, and the platoon walks away.

Battle Company’s job includes finding cached weapons and ammunition and destroying them. Of great concern are enemy weapons, especially those smuggled into the valley on their way to various battlefronts. The enemy has access to several types of guns, including the powerful Dishka, a Soviet-era .50-caliber heavy machine gun, along with mortars and RPGs. During Operation Rock Avalanche, Taliban fighters scavenge several high-tech American weapons; the American platoons search for them without success.