Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death

I was assigned to MiTT Team 4 (2nd BCT, 101st ABN) and lived/worked/fought with all the men in this book from 2005-2006; I knew them well enough to know they wouldn't pull any punches and Jim Frederick did a great job of capturing the madness of the 2005-2006 deployment. What matters to me more than anything is that the fight that those guys fought was recorded for posterity while it was still fresh; their sacrifices and their risks and their love for each other were overshadowed by the awful events of a few, and all of their hard work was overshadowed by what followed. We hear Fallujah and Tal Afar talked about as household names but no one knows about Rusdi Mullah, the JSB and Route Sportster-- no one who wasn't there and suffered through it...except those who read this book.

Well written, and no pulled punches. Everyone takes their lumps equally-- Ebel, Kunk, Goodwin, Norton, Fenalson-- all of them are part of this and no one gets off scot free. Even so, no one is painted as the only bad leader or the only good apple in the bunch. He captures the aspects of all of them-- Kunk's personality, Captain Goodwin sleeping in his plaid flannel pajama pants in his folding chair in the TOC, Fenalson's demeanor, the frustration of the platoon sergeants, the anger of the men, the sense of hopelessness...it is as real as it gets. I could almost hear the crackle of the radios, hear Sergeant Loper on the mic in the TOC or SFC Laskoski telling someone they were stupid or hear Biggers laugh as someone was caught doing something stupid on the J-Lens.

The criminals who raped and killed are portrayed accurately, too-- shown for all that they were and were not and the leadership decisions that were made or failed to be made that directly led to the events of February 2006. The author does a great job of humanizing an inhuman act. It was all right there, in the book.

I had to put the book down several times and take a break. I would have loved to read it cover to cover but it was like drinking from an emotional firehose. So much came rushing back. I've been to the house where the rape occurred and seen the burn marks; I've sat on the TCPs on Sportster; I've drank crappy coffee at the TCP on the corner of Mulla Fayad. I know the places and the men and the author captures them as well as possible.

If you are a veteran of OIF, served south of Baghdad or were in an infantry company at war, this book will be like gazing into your past. If you are a vet of the Strike Brigade-- especially First Strike-- and have not confronted your personal demons before reading this book, this may be too much to handle on your own. I was glad to have my wife and friends who served there too so I could talk about what I was remembering; it is a very real and personal book that I highly recommend to anyone who was there, or wants to know what it was like.

Jim Frederick's "Black Hearts" chronicles two headline-grabbing, extremely negative events from the Iraq War in 2006: the ambush and murder of three 101st Screaming Eagles soldiers near Yusufiyah and then the news of a horrific murder-rape of a teenage Iraqi girl, who was murdered along with her parents and five-year-old sister by four troops from the same unit.

I had just returned from a combat tour in Iraq in late 2005, and was therefore intrigued by the backstory of the two events not so evident in the immediate news accounts and coverage of the soldiers' violent deaths and those of the Iraqi civilians. I hoped this book would put that unit's challenges and struggles in context. It does just that and more, telling an important story in what I feel is a balanced, even-handed manner.

Frederick interviewed just about everyone involved from the platoon level all the way up through brigade and while the actions of the leaders and individuals is often damning, one can never truly comprehend the kind of stress these men were under.

Frederick's book lays out the facts and details surrounding the platoon of Army soldiers involved, and how failures of leadership at nearly every level, exacerbated by a herculean and often undefined mission in one of the most dangerous places in Iraq at the time, came together to form an imperfect storm out of which one unit of about 30 troops found themselves at the center of a disastrous deployment, and one that had a negative strategic impact on U.S. efforts there at a time when the Iraq War was spiraling out of control.

The book is powerful because it deftly tells the story of an infantry platoon that seemed set up for failure from the get-go. It reveals that the men and women of our military are not infallible, and that yes, the ranks are seeded with those who lack the morals and values that we as Americans expect from our warriors. And while 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1-502d had its bad apples, Frederick also brings out the stories of those soldiers who were there and did their level best in a tough situation.

This is not a good news story, but it's one that needs to be told. War is an ugly business carried out by imperfect people, but I think that Frederick handles the events the right way in what is a well-written, fast-paced account. It's tough not to sit in judgment of those involved after reading a book such as this, but I respect the author's attempts to give everyone their say.

Not everyone is going to appreciate this book or its conclusions. I would imagine those closest to the protagonists may have some issues with Frederick's portrayals of the people and events. But, having served under and with personalities Frederick described like the battalion commander, sergeant major, company commander and platoon sergeant, as well as some of the soldiers at the heart of the events, I can certainly see how so much could go wrong in Yusufiyah the way it did. I wasn't there, but those who were know the real truth.

I suspect that Frederick's book is pretty close.

There are two reasons I purchased this book. The first is that enough time has passed in the Iraq War that a well-researched author can start to provide some historical perspective on the various events of the war (including how unspeakable war crimes like this one can happen). The second is that I have known the author personally, though I've not spoken with him in well over a decade (we attended one of the same schools). People change as they go through life of course... The whole point of my stating this is to drive home the point that I have no agenda here and have never spoken to Jim about any professional project, including this one.

I simply discovered a book on Amazon that covers a subject I wanted to know more about, which happens to be written by an old classmate whom I always respected. Jim Frederick the editor was always honest, extremely diligent in his research and preparations for a project, and he was tireless. It seems, based on what I found in this book, Jim has lost none of those traits as an author. He has much to be proud of...

...I have to confess: I rarely read books of this length and when I do, it often takes me a good month to finish. Despite best intentions, my attention wanders or I get lazy and turn on the TV, etc. I read this book in 4 days. The story that Jim conveys is equal parts dismaying, tragic, and anger-inducing. There were even a few moments of muffled laughter as I tried to keep quiet while my wife slept (Army types are nothing if not supremely gifted with the expletives). But it was the kind of laughter you feel when you gather with friends and family after an unexpected death and start exchanging stories... you don't want to laugh because (in this case), what's happening through the 9 or so months of the deployment is anything but good, but somehow the mind copes with laughter. I would laugh and immediately feel regret because of what these men were dealing with on a daily basis (and surely many others like them in both Iraq and Afghanistan). Today, when I read "Allied soldiers killed in _____," it evokes a different reaction than it did 5 days ago. I was always sad to hear the news (and appreciative of their sacrifices), but now I am appreciative in a different way.

What I love about this book:
1) You get to know the men of Bravo... to understand from the moment they deployed until after it was over, what happened to them as individuals, and as a team that slowly became dysfunctional. You start to see the men for who they are, including several of the commanding officers. Mind you these are NOT judgements the author makes. Like any good journalistic writer, he laid out the facts as he understood them, so the reader can judge for themselves. To be honest, I'm not sure how he remained detached in his writing; I doubt I could have.

2) The gritty details: the heated dialogs; the total frustration of the men; the things they did every day; even the geography, poverty and unpredictability of the place they served. This is the right way to "keep it real" without going overboard or letting it become a gratuitous exercise in "shock value". In an ideal world, Jim should assemble a team to research and write an hour's worth of news for us every week; we'd all be a hell of a lot more educated and better off for it. So refreshing to skip the fluff, the vapid soundbites, and the spin that the mainstream (especially television) media crams down our throats. I learned more about the Iraq war in the last 4 days reading this book than the last four YEARS of watching the news. That says something both about the author and our television media. If you want to learn anything substantial, turn off the television and READ.

3) Gaining a better understanding of modern warfare... the confusion, the valor, the locals, the incompetence, all of it. You learn real quick the military is not the simple machine we are taught to believe, with four cogs or moving parts (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) and everyone following orders all of the time. The human dynamics are laid bare and suddenly you understand: these aren't automatons... they are (mostly) well-meaning, dedicated, flawed, sometimes fearless, or even selfish and scared human beings. War is not only hell; it is human chaos and this book shows you why.

What could have been better:
1) The book was a bit difficult to follow in a few spots, partly because I don't have a great understanding of military hierarchies, and partly because there is quite a bit of back and forth as events unfold. It can be confusing to know who was where on the "org chart", who was responsible for which guys, etc. The good news is there is information in the back of the book about how the Army units are subdivided from Division down to the squad level, including typical ranks of those who lead each unit... but you don't know it's there until the end. Similarly there were only a couple maps. I think if the Army backgrounder were shown near the start of the story somewhere, and there were maps and pictures interspersed throughout (this was likely a publisher decision based on budgets and printing press issues), it would have been easier to follow.

2) Almost too large a cast of characters, however it is almost unavoidable because in order to truly understand the dynamic --which guys' decisions are acting upon the other players and what results-- you have to cover many people and understand their take on things as the story evolves.

3) Some chapters skip around too much. You get into one line of thinking, following a particular squad of guys, and then suddenly you jump to something (as a lay person) that seems unrelated, but which may not be. IOW it can be difficult to connect the dots at certain points. But never so much so that you lose the big picture; that sticks with you well after you put the book down for the night... that's why I read this in 4 days. I genuinely *needed* to understand what was happening as things lead up to this nightmare.

Overall, the minor flaws of this book are easily overlooked IMO. If you stick with it you will be rewarded with a better understanding of how it is these men and women sacrifice for their country (and for another country), as well as a better understanding of the military and how war crimes like this can take place. Definitely recommended if you have an interest in these types of subjects. This is NOT a work of fiction in any sense of the word, and is not about "entertainment", so if that's what you're looking for, go read whichever author has displaced Tom Clancy as the military novelist of the day (I honestly don't know the answer to that question). :)

While reading this book. I found myself becoming more and more frustrated and angry with the lack of solid leadership that was on displayed during the units rotation to Iraq. There are two culprits to this criminal act:

The Battalion Commander Tom Kunk did not care about his soldiers one bit. His tactics were atrocious and failed to adjust the battalion's battle plan. His lack of professionalism was evident when he blamed the platoon when two of their soldiers were killed, and by the way he turned on the entire platoon when the scandal broke out. He tossed every single soldier under the bus. This is what happens when you put the village idiot in charge of a battalion. He is a disgrace to the Army.

A lower ranking officer was quoted as saying "For Tom Kunk, there were two types of people. There were ‘his boys’ and there were 'the other people.' And if you were one of ‘the other people’ it didn’t matter how great your performance was or what you did, he was going to punch you in the balls every chance that he had. Every time you sat down for a meeting, he was going to embarrass you."---Stellar leadership Tom!

What was worse was the Battalion Sergeant Major. He was more concerned about cigarette butts rather than general welfare issues. Before the unit deployed the company First Sergeants asked him to intervene. He failed as a Senior Noncommissioned Officer to take care of HIS soldiers! He should have asked how are his men are doing. Most of all he needed to show some moral courage and advise his Battalion Commander how that his approach was dangerous. Instead he let his moral cowardice get the best of him.

It has been said that there are no bad soldiers; only bad leaders. This book demonstrates that that quote was alive and well in the 1/502nd during their tour of duty in Iraq. This should be required reading for future leaders on what happens when incompetent, self-serving leaders are placed in charge!

When I was finished with this book. All I wanted to do is ask Kunk how does he sleep at night?

Frederick's work is really first rate reporting. One of the best accounts of infantrymen in day to day operations to come out of the Iraq war. Frederick's well-researched and well-developed reporting of first platoon, B Company 1/502 is deeply troubling. The first platoon was unfit to go into combat by all accounts, but went anyway. The chain of command failed this platoon, although I suspect some of the soldiers (an unknown number) were simply unfit to serve in the U.S. Army in the first place and should never have been allowed to enlist, much less complete basic and AIT and subsequently deploy as infantrymen into combat. No amount of hands-on leadership and direct supervision can change a psychopath into a decent soldier.

The 1/502 battalion commander was clearly a 'nut job' of the first order; the company commander weak and woefully inadquate as a unit leader. The expected NCO leadership within the platoon was noticeably absent. There was a systemic failure of leadership from battalion down to squad level.

It is easy to critize the platoon, but the real responsibility rests at the top - the President and SecDef Rumsfeld - for giving the division an unstated mission, with no clear guidence, and inadequate resources. I was there in Iraq at the same time (Dec. 2004-May 2006), to include the time of the "abduction" of the three soldiers from first platoon. It is not easy to explain to the reader the complex, uncertain political-military situation that existed at the time, or the oppressive heat, dust, and general stench of Iraq, or the deepening distrust and dislike that developed between U.S. forces and the Iraqis. IEDs were the main source of frustration - and it was widely believed that Iraqi army and police forces were active participants in the planning and execution of the insurgent IED campaign. The longer one stayed in Iraq, the less trust and goodwill was extended to the Iraqis.

Frederick does an excellent job in tying together the "big picture" with the day to day activities of the first platoon, that will eventually result in the rape and murder of an Iraqi family. Frederick lays out this sordid crime in detail. It was this rape/murder, coupled with the significant breach in security and lack of supervision that shortly thereafter resulted in the "abduction" of the three soldiers from the first platoon.

There was a very well written short article by former lieutenant Frederick Downs called "Death and the Dark Side of Command" that was published in Parameters some twenty years ago. Frederick's work Black Hearts just reinforces in greater detail Downs' earlier observation that some soldiers in the U.S. Army are deceitful, untrustworthy, malcontents, criminal in conduct, and even psychopathic in personality. It is the responsibility of the chain of command to identify and separate these persons at the earliest opportunity.

Clearly, the battalion and company chain of command failed to provide the proper leadership needed during the deployment. First platoon B-1/502 was in many respects a disaster just waiting to happen. It finally happened one day in March 2006 when this disfunctional unit went badly off-course.

I found Black Hearts to be military writing of the highest order. One of the best books to come out of the Iraq war to date. Anyone interested in small unit leadership will want to read this book.

As a journalist I am trying to figure out how Jim Frederick could have taken such an amazing story and made it such a laborious read. Frederick certainly has plenty of information - perhaps too much and probably a lack of a really good book editor to turn this into a book with a better pace. Too often Frederick and the reader become bogged down in excessive detail. Yes, it is very important to understand the nature of these men and their histories, but it could have been written in a more compelling way. I would have also liked to have learned more about the victims, the child burtally gangraped by this platoon before being executed and burned, her family, their hopes, dreams and aspirations and how they coped or didn't with US occupation in their land.
For anyone interested in this troubling history then this book should be read, but regrettably it is not a must read.

My son was in B Company during this deployment to Iraq. From what he wrote to me while he was there, I could tell this book was an accurate collection of what was going on with 1/502nd and especially with the soldiers of B Company. How the commanders were more worried about picking up cigarette butts and whether the men were clean shaven and properly dressed than they were about them getting a few hours of shut-eye or some food in their stomachs before they had to go out and risk their lives again. It wasn't difficult to see how they would feel like they were the "forgotten" after requesting just the basic needs and being turned down time after time, and how silly it seemed to the soldiers that they had to have gravel at the Battalion so they wouldn't get their boots muddy was first priority! The combat stress team was totally ineffective - especially when the treatment of the day was Ambien and/or Seroquel and send them on their way. Even when red flags were sent up about Green, upper command dismissed it. Losing so many of their good friends day after day was taking a toll even on the guys that had been on several tours, let alone the first tour soldiers.

Thank you Jim Frederick for a glimpse into what these soldiers went through. The thought and honest interpretation of just what these guys were thinking and feeling rang true and I hope that people everywhere will get a chance to read your book.

I just finished reading "Black Hearts" and while I have to say it is not a "pleasure" to read, it is a deeply thought provoking and troubling account of how a group of young American soldiers wound up committing a horrific war crime, the rape of a young Iraqi girl and the murder of her family.

I'm an Army veteran myself (more on that later), and I recognize a lot of things that the author talks about in terms of unit culture and how soldiers act and behave. Unfortunately, the "bad" leaders that the author describes in "Black Hearts" ring particularly true.

So does another thing in the book, the frequent tendency in the military to put their subordinates in impossible situations by placing unrealistic mission burdens upon them. I can't count the number of times when I was on active duty, the units I was in were stretched to the breaking point by their various commitments and obligations. Efforts to get senior leaders to say in effect, "Hey, we can't place any further burdens on our guys" got brushed away with cliches like "let's do more with less" or "let's work smarter, not harder."

And the particularly dismaying result of overburdening troops is that it forces them to deviate from the rules and command guidance they should live by in order to get the job done. People start to lie and take shortcuts. I think that a lot of senior officers tolerate this so long as it doesn't blow up in their faces. When it does, as it did so many times in the case of the tragic series of events in "Black Hearts," the senior leaders throw their subordinates under the bus and tear them to pieces for not adhering to rules and SOPs that common sense should have told them their troops could not comply with and still get the mission done.

On another note, I commend the author for documenting his book much better than many other books about deeply controversial events are documented (if they are at all). He has source notes, bibliography, details about sourcing, good photographs, and adequate maps. I just wish that the story had not been so tragic. I also did disagree with him on some questions about how widespread detainee abuse in Iraq was and the culpability of certain units but that is a minor point.

Also, for those interested in other cases from the annals of military justice, I can recommend two.

[[ASIN:0312929196 A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story That Changed the Course of the Vietnam War]]

[[ASIN:0451165667 Fatal Vision]]

Jim Frederick's "Black Hearts" tells the gripping and disturbing story of one dysfunctional platoon's tour in Iraq in 2005-2006. The platoon endured heavy casualties during its deployment but is most noted for two infamous incidents during its tour: the raping of a 14 year-old Iraqi girl and murder of her and her family by four of its members, and the capture (and killing) of two of its members a few months later. "Black Hearts" is an engaging, gritty, uncensored story of brutality and an essential read for anyone interested in the current war in Iraq.

The book is based on extensive interviews with many members of that platoon along with the official investigations into many of the events in this book. Frederick draws out the personal stories of most of the platoon members and he paints real, balanced pictures of each of them. He avoids any shallow caricatures of the participants as "good guys" and "bad guys."

At times, this book reads like a clichéd story from the Vietnam War - with soldiers using drugs and alcohol, slapping around the locals, and going crazy from the stress and wanting to kill the local civilians. On one level his is the story of how men will deteriorate in extended combat, especially men without troubled backgrounds. On another level this book is an indictment of the platoon's leadership at every level and how the Army failed to support them or give them the resources needed to accomplish their missions. And finally, this is the story of how their country failed these men by putting them in such untenable situations, by senior leadership in the Army and civilian leadership that did not understand the war or the right way to fight it (by trying to fight a counterinsurgency campaign with so few soldiers and without understanding the need to win the support of the local people).

This is an important book that shows how men can breakdown in extended combat and how leaders can fail their men. It is an intense and troubling read that will linger with me for a long time. All members of the military should read it to learn those lessons, as well as anyone truly interested in an on-the-ground view of the war in Iraq.

I am the author of four books about the 101st Airborne Division in WWII, (one of which was cited in the Bibliogaphy of 'Black Hearts' by its author).
Being the author of a book of 'forbidden tales' regarding the WWII 101st Airborne and currently working on a sequel of all-true tales of misadventures, this work was of particular interest to me.

I have also been in Afghanistan twice, in 2008 and 2010, as a journalist embedded with the 506th Infantry. As such, I realize how difficult it is to get soldiers to open-up and talk with you. This was one of the amazing things about 'Black Hearts', that the author was able to get so many veterans of this company to tell their views and stories. The fact that this was accomplished almost guaranteed that this book would be much more than an exploitation book about a sensationalistic subject. It is so much more-a real explanation of the dynamics, situation and personalities of that time and place, and an objective, well-researched documentation of a war crime and what led-up to it.

A lot of readers would probably be surprised to know that in my 40 years of research on the 101st Airborne Division in WWII,(involving over 1,000 interviews), I have learned of two rape-murders and an additional rape in which the husband of the victim was killed by the perpetrator. WAR is the culprit, formenting stimuli, circumstances and opportunities to do such ghastly things, which would not normally arise in any civilian context. Sadly, in all wars, all armies have witnessed similar incidents, regardless of the nationalities of the actors and even in the context of the 'Good War' of WWII.
Being conversant with the mechanics of producing such a difficult and sensitive work, I am highly impressed with 'Black Hearts' and I feel the author has set the bar high for any similar attempts by other researchers. Mr Frederick's book is a top-notch example of research and writing. One reviewer lamented that more detail wasn't given about the rape victim's prior life, aspirations, family etc. Getting in-depth info of that sort from a village or relatives that were devastated by the event itself would understandably be 'mission impossible'. I am amazed at how much info the author managed to get from former soldiers and I believe he got as much as was possible (for an American journalist to get), on the Iraqi side, given the circumstances.
Out of the many books written about the current war, this is one of the very best.