| Product Summary | | Format: Hardcover | | ISBN: 9781400067732 | | Publisher: Random House | | Publish Date: 3/10/2009 | | Buy.com Sku: 209314806 | | Item#: | | Dimensions (in Inches) 9.75H x 6.5L x 1.5T |
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| | | In this thrilling and inspiring memoir, Campbell recounts his time as a commander of a 40-man infantry platoon and the unit of hard-pressed Marines defined by their leadership, loyalty, faith, and camaraderie.
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In the summer of 2001, Donovan Campbell, an honors student at Princeton, decided that he could differentiate his résumé from the pack by attending Marine Corps Officer Candidate School. Three years later, rather than fighting for a corner office, he was fighting for his life in Iraq, with a full platoon of mostly novice soldiers looking to him for safety and guidance. His harrowing description of his tour in one of the most hellish spots in Iraq, Ramadi, evokes the terrifying immediacy of living every moment with the knowledge that your life was in considerable danger. Campbell and his platoon, Joker One, were on point for the door-to-door advancements of the battalion, meaning they constantly and repeatedly thrust themselves into hostile environments with no awareness of the extent of the enemy's presence. One morning, they were awoken by the chilling chant of "jihad" emanating from the speakers of the surrounding mosques, and were soon engulfed in a torrential barrage of gunfire. Unbelievably, under Campbell's command, Joker One lost but a single soldier during his tour. This haunting and heroic story will resonate with readers long after the final page.
| Praise| "[A] beautiful and harrowing debut....By the time the platoon finally returns home, exhausted, scarred, and with fewer men than they set out with, Campbell's admiration for his men has become contagious. It's only then that you realize that JOKER ONE isn't as much a story of war as it is a story of love." - Chris Nashawaty 03/13/2009 "JOKER ONE...should be read by all those who have ever wondered what conclusions they would have drawn about the Iraq war if they had been dropped into the middle of the conflict..." - James Glanz 03/22/2009 "[This] is an extraordinary book....[that] brings a complicated and often messy war down to an extraordinarily personal level. Even those who have serious doubts about the wisdom of the war will come away from reading JOKER ONE with a deep admiration for the values and character of those who are fighting it." - Claude R. Marx 05/08/2009 |
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| Customer Reviews | ![]() | | Writing |  5 | | Content | 5 | | Readability | 5 | | Overall Satisfaction | 5 |
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5 of 5 I loved this book! Saturday, February 21, 2009
Laura Goodwin from Conroe, Texas
Joker One by Donovan Campbell is a great book. Being female, I didn’t think that I was going to get into this book, but I did. He paints a picture of Iraq and it is almost as if you are there, living it through his eyes. To watch him grow from a recent College Graduate to a Marine Platoon leader is awesome. The author has it broken down starting with the main characters and includes a map of Ramadi, Iraq . This is helpful as you are reading about the locations, you can visually see them on the map. It did take me awhile to read this book, it is not one that needs to be skimmed.
Donovan has it broken down into 5 sections, Part 1 Eager, Part 2 New, Part 3 Fierce, Part 4 Grim, & Part 5 Tired. To a civilian who is not familiar to military and Marine jargon, the author includes a glossary that I found helpful because I had to keep referring back to it as I was reading.
The book is an excellent reference tool for leadership. To have gone from college into the Marines and trying to lead a platoon really shows the struggles that the author went thru. When he writes about love is when I lost it. Several times I had tears in my eyes and had to set the book down for a minute. I really liked the prayer and scripture that he used, in having the platoon pray before a mission. He really captures how the men work together as one. I strongly recommend this book to all young people.
Included in my Advance Reader's copy I did find a possible missing page. On page 246 on Chapter 29, the sentence does not flow. For the entire book, this was the only boo boo that I saw. Otherwise, I really did enjoy this book and highly recommend it.
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