Disclaimer to Dave: Time Well Wasted is the name of the book,
not how I felt about the time I spent reading it. Recover soldier.
"Sometimes you see things you can never un-see...." D.S. HainesI like to read books about war. Specifically Desert Storm and The War in Iraq. Having served in Desert Storm with the 101st Airborne Air Assault Division, I needed a better understanding of what it was that I went through. As it stood, I only had my own experience to judge what happened to me in Desert Storm. By reading books like "Jarhead," "Blackhawk Down" and "Generation Kill" I was able to get a better and bigger understanding of what was happening not only in the war and in the world, but how the upper echelon of the Army handled war. More than anything, those books provided me with a sense of comfort and relief that my experience was not all that unique and all of the lower enlisted members of the Army felt the same way I did. We're not jaded, or anti-military, just a little baffled at how such major events in the world were really nothing more than one giant cluster fuck. Most of us went into the Army with a sense of duty and patriotism, things that are hard to hold fast to when you're being led into life and death situations by people who don't seem to know much more about anything that you do. Except that they are commissioned officers with 20+ years experience and you're just a lowly private.
I just finished reading the book "Time Well Wasted" by D.S. Haines and Tony Ciccone. It chronicles the so-called misadventures of the men of 1st Platoon, MP Company when they were deployed to Somalia, Africa in 1992 as a part of Operation Restore Hope. First and foremost, this book is the perfect precursor to "Black Hawk Down" by Mark Bowden. It cannot be a prequel because the events happen to two very different units and two very different set of soldiers. The men of 1st Platoon were some of the first U.S. Army soldiers in Somalia at the very beginning of America's occupation of the region. As they were told, they were going to Somalia not to fight, but to help it's citizens. They would feed starving children and help protect the people from the various gangs involved in the centuries old civil war that plagued the country. Led by officers and higher ranking non-commissioned officers, these men were dropped into what became a hot bed of violence in a country that was imploding in on itself with the men of 1st Platoon stuck in its core. These men saw Mogadishu go from a city on the verge of a civil war to a city raping and killing itself over and over on a daily basis. It's citizens running rampant with weapons, no sense of loyalty and no concern for survival. Most Somalians and everyone they knew was or would soon be dead so they fought with a recklessness never seen by the civilized American soldiers.
D.S. Haines and Tony Ciccone are not writers telling a soldier's story. They are soldiers who took up the art of writing because they had a story that had to be told. Some of the best stories/books are those written by "green" or unseasoned writers because they are full of a kind of honesty that seasoned writers often self-edit away. For me, reading this book was like getting reacquainted with an old Army buddy. Dave Haines and I have never met in person and only began emailing one another after I started reading a proof copy of the book (that I received because of a connection with one of Steve's buddies who I know as a My Space friend. Another ex-Army brother). I feel like I've known Dave for a lot longer than a few weeks. Why? Because his story isn't that much different from my own, but it is vastly different on so many other levels. The experience of the lower enlisted soldier is very much the same across the board, but his conditions and his experience in Somalia differ greatly from what I experienced in my time in Desert Storm.
I cannot implore you enough to read this book. It's a quick and easy read, though at times terrifying and shocking when you read the details of what these men were exposed to on a daily basis. They watched an entire civilization collapse in on itself right before their very eyes. They saw the human condition stripped down to the bare minimum of survival. They witnessed atrocities that most civilians only see in graphic horror films like "Saw." They lived like animals, being deprived of some of life's smallest luxuries like real food and running water. Each day they left the compound where they all slept in or around their HUMVEES, never knowing what awaited them and whether or not they would come back. Each night they dodged rocks thrown at them by children, as well as the gunfire of various snipers. What most of us would consider terrifying, was everyday life to them. They were pushed around, handed off and loaned out to other units by a team of commanders that often resembled the Three Stooges. Yet somehow, they still managed, as soldiers, to hold onto their sense of Duty, Honor and Country. To their credit, they were a great team of soldiers who brought each and every one of their men back home. They protected themselves, they protected each other. They went to Somalia together, they came home together. It's what happened in between that will shock you, terrify you and even make you laugh out loud.
"Time Well Wasted" is not just an amazing true story about the men of 1st Platoon and their ultimate sacrifice, it is also a gritty and often hard to stomach picture of Somalia as it unraveled. Nothing that will ever happen to us in America will compare to what happened and is still happening in Somalia. Haines' and Ciccone's book will show you what it was like to witness the country as it collapsed in on itself and then turned around exploded into a hotbed of murder, rape, pillaging, death and wild abandon. You can order "Time Well Wasted"by clicking HERE. You can view Dave's MySpace page HERE.
Here is a video of pictures from their time in Somalia.
Time Well Wasted
In the coming week, I will post interviews with Dave Haines, Tony Ciccone and their Platoon Leader LT. Worthington.
I just finished reading the book "Time Well Wasted" by D.S. Haines and Tony Ciccone. It chronicles the so-called misadventures of the men of 1st Platoon, MP Company when they were deployed to Somalia, Africa in 1992 as a part of Operation Restore Hope. First and foremost, this book is the perfect precursor to "Black Hawk Down" by Mark Bowden. It cannot be a prequel because the events happen to two very different units and two very different set of soldiers. The men of 1st Platoon were some of the first U.S. Army soldiers in Somalia at the very beginning of America's occupation of the region. As they were told, they were going to Somalia not to fight, but to help it's citizens. They would feed starving children and help protect the people from the various gangs involved in the centuries old civil war that plagued the country. Led by officers and higher ranking non-commissioned officers, these men were dropped into what became a hot bed of violence in a country that was imploding in on itself with the men of 1st Platoon stuck in its core. These men saw Mogadishu go from a city on the verge of a civil war to a city raping and killing itself over and over on a daily basis. It's citizens running rampant with weapons, no sense of loyalty and no concern for survival. Most Somalians and everyone they knew was or would soon be dead so they fought with a recklessness never seen by the civilized American soldiers.
D.S. Haines and Tony Ciccone are not writers telling a soldier's story. They are soldiers who took up the art of writing because they had a story that had to be told. Some of the best stories/books are those written by "green" or unseasoned writers because they are full of a kind of honesty that seasoned writers often self-edit away. For me, reading this book was like getting reacquainted with an old Army buddy. Dave Haines and I have never met in person and only began emailing one another after I started reading a proof copy of the book (that I received because of a connection with one of Steve's buddies who I know as a My Space friend. Another ex-Army brother). I feel like I've known Dave for a lot longer than a few weeks. Why? Because his story isn't that much different from my own, but it is vastly different on so many other levels. The experience of the lower enlisted soldier is very much the same across the board, but his conditions and his experience in Somalia differ greatly from what I experienced in my time in Desert Storm.
I cannot implore you enough to read this book. It's a quick and easy read, though at times terrifying and shocking when you read the details of what these men were exposed to on a daily basis. They watched an entire civilization collapse in on itself right before their very eyes. They saw the human condition stripped down to the bare minimum of survival. They witnessed atrocities that most civilians only see in graphic horror films like "Saw." They lived like animals, being deprived of some of life's smallest luxuries like real food and running water. Each day they left the compound where they all slept in or around their HUMVEES, never knowing what awaited them and whether or not they would come back. Each night they dodged rocks thrown at them by children, as well as the gunfire of various snipers. What most of us would consider terrifying, was everyday life to them. They were pushed around, handed off and loaned out to other units by a team of commanders that often resembled the Three Stooges. Yet somehow, they still managed, as soldiers, to hold onto their sense of Duty, Honor and Country. To their credit, they were a great team of soldiers who brought each and every one of their men back home. They protected themselves, they protected each other. They went to Somalia together, they came home together. It's what happened in between that will shock you, terrify you and even make you laugh out loud.
"Time Well Wasted" is not just an amazing true story about the men of 1st Platoon and their ultimate sacrifice, it is also a gritty and often hard to stomach picture of Somalia as it unraveled. Nothing that will ever happen to us in America will compare to what happened and is still happening in Somalia. Haines' and Ciccone's book will show you what it was like to witness the country as it collapsed in on itself and then turned around exploded into a hotbed of murder, rape, pillaging, death and wild abandon. You can order "Time Well Wasted"by clicking HERE. You can view Dave's MySpace page HERE.
Here is a video of pictures from their time in Somalia.
Time Well Wasted
In the coming week, I will post interviews with Dave Haines, Tony Ciccone and their Platoon Leader LT. Worthington.
