'War Stories' Comic Now Tracks '73 Israeli Tank Crew

"War Stories" No. 4 from Avatar Press, wrap-around cover variant

In addition to more fantastic stories featuring such characters as Nick Furyand The Punisher, comic-book writer Garth Ennis has a long personal history of telling gritty, realistic, and fact-filled tales of war.

There are, for example, two four-issue mini-series with the title "War Stories," published by Vertigo in 2001 and 2003. And there are more than eight collected volumes of his "Battlefields" series, published by Dynamite Entertainment starting in 2008—each comprising quirky, fact-filled stories about lesser-known aspects of history, driven by memorable characters.

In three of those "Battlefields" volumes, for example, appeared stories of British tank crews, each headed by a veteran sergeant whose Tyneside dialect was thicker than the armor that protected them.

Seriously, Sgt. Stiles's dialogue is harder to interpret than reading Shakespeare. But much more fun.

The crew appears in three series or volumes, each written by Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra:

• "The Tankies" (Battlefields, Vol. 1): Cpl. Stiles and his crew man a British Churchill tank during the battle for Normandy.

• "The Firefly and His Majesty" (Battlefields, Vol. 5): Sgt. Stiles and a new crew man a new Sherman Firefly—no longer always outgunned, but still not a match for the German King Tiger that lies in wait for the Allied advance.

• "The Green Fields Beyond" (Battlefields, Vol. 10): World War II veteran Stiles continues fights on in the Korean War, as part of a Centurion tank crew assigned to the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.

The armored pedigree is important, insofar that it demonstrates not only that Ennis knows his way around a story, but that he knows his way around a tank as well. This is fiction, but fiction with a point—and the point is to illuminate history. Ennis aims toward realism, not sensationalism. These are not books for children.

"War Stories" No. 4, standard cover

Now arrives from Ennis a newly launched "War Stories" series, this time published by Avatar Press. In issue No. 4, on stands Jan. 7, starts "Children of Israel," a 3-part story of an Israeli tank crew on the Golan Heights in early October, 1973. The artist is Tomas Aira, who delivers serviceably expressive characters, along with technically appropriate military equipment. Nothing kills a war comic like in inaccurately rendered weapons.

The tank is again a Centurion, but its commander is a yet-unnamed sergeant who was a boy during World War II. The character remembers seeing the inside of a German tank—most likely a Panzer III—while living the Warsaw Ghetto, as well as being liberated by Soviet T-34s in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The first issue is heavy with exposition, but Ennis makes it all clank together nicely. The sergeant talks with his captain about the current strategic and political terrain. The latter has helpfully drawn a map in the sand for some visiting journalists. "You shouldn't talk to reporters, Captain," the sergeant advises. "It only encourages them."

The sergeant also talks about his crew, made up of reservists with no previous experience of war. In NCO staccato, he observes:

Chaim's the driver, a little bullet of a man from Nazareth. Not much seems to shake him [...] Gunner Daniel is a lethal shot, but lacks imagination. Independent action is beyond him. He'll never be promoted, never wonder why. The loader, Shlomo, is a nervous wreck.

Given the approachable ways that Ennis communicates military history, one hopes that he continues his armored march toward present day.

The "War Stories" series is currently only available in monthly issues. Check your local comic store, or on-line retailers. or digitally via Comixology. Note that there are multiple variant covers.

The Arsenal of Fun and Freedom

One of the great benefits of having younger children is the excuse to peruse the local toy shelves. AlphaDad's gotta maintain proficiency in the arms race happening out there in Superheroland and Barbiestan: Foam tomahawks. Gatling dart guns. Heroic helmets and warhammers. Playing war is a business, and business is good.

I love the smell of Nerf guns in the morning.

Like Sherpa at that age, 4-year-old Rain loves collecting miniature Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. I'm man enough to admit that I have a few mint-on-card vehicles stashed away in Sherpa's Footlocker of Military Memories: A couple of soft-sided Humvees, in both desert tan and woodland green. Military bulldozers and armored personnel carriers. And a 1965 Shelby Cobra that Hot Wheels inexplicably and fantastically painted out in olive drab.

That must've made for a wicked-fast command car. Like "Patton" meets "The Fast and the Furious." (The resulting film of which would be called ... "TFATF: Messina Drift.")

Back when I was hanging out with combat engineers, I took a liking to a Transformers character called "Bonecrusher." I'd never really gotten into the cartoon from the 1980s, but the rebooted movie was cool enough. And the fact the toy converted from robot to a "Buffalo"Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected ("M-RAP") engineering vehicle—complete with bomb-scooping "claw"—pretty much put the target-lock on my wallet.

Rain hasn't seen many of the original Transformer cartoons--and he's way too young for the more recent PG-13 blockbuster explosion-fests. Outside of my influence, however--I was still in uniform and out of town at the time--he dressed up like good-guy Transformer "Bumblebee" last Halloween. I guess the proverbial Energon Cube doesn't fall far from the tree.

So, given all this M-RAP love, imagine my glee when I recently discovered that Matchbox had issued a MaxxPro M-RAP truck lookalike painted as a law enforcement vehicle. I've got any number of Red Bull buddies who are also cops, and this toy seemed like it was right up our old Afghan I.E.D. alley. While I prefer the basic black version—it looks like Darth Vader's paddy wagon—a powder-blue variant reminds me of my youthful "U.N. peacekeeper" fantasies. How could something so cute possibly want to harm us?

Of course, an armored M-RAP truck would be about as useful in stateside law enforcement as shooting, moving, and communicating on the battlefield in that high-speed Shelby Cobra. (In another favorite example of questionable utility, Matchbox once produced a lime-green, racing-striped toy version of the B-2 stealth bomber!)

Consider the purple prose on the Matchbox "S.W.A.T. Truck" package:

Sirens are blaring as emergency forces surround the captured building. When the situation gets critical, it’s time to call in the SWAT Truck. Its high-tech interior and fully armored exterior will crush any obstacle that appears in its path! Time to restore the peace!

In reality, the MaxxPro is an ugly, top-heavy truck designed to survive driving over bombs. While I'm a big fan of mine-protected stuff, I'm not so sure I want my pre-schooler to yet contemplate a world in which roads explode and death is arbitrary.

I'll keep the mil-toys locked away for a couple of years, until Rain and I can talk about what they mean to me. And the Red Bull. It might prove to be a good, accessible way into the topic of Afghanistan. "You know, son, Dad used to ride around in one of these ..."

Generals may fight the last war, but toy companies play with it. Keeping an eye on how war is re-packaged and sold back to our kids is a perennial part of parental sentry duty.

In other words, war toys are two-edged swords. Even if they're made of foam. Or are 64 times smaller than real-life and painted powder blue.

Like G.I. Joe said: "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle."

The Roads Ahead for Iraq and the Red Bull

For those Midwesterners still paying attention to the war in Iraq this week--you know, since the last U.S. "combat units" allegedly left that country back in August 2010--President Barack Obama's Oct. 21 announcement that all remaining U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by year's end planted the hybrid seeds of hope and rumor.

"As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end—for the sake of our national security and to strengthen American leadership around the world," Obama said. "After taking office, I announced a new strategy that would end our combat mission in Iraq and remove all of our troops by the end of 2011."

In other words, "mission accomplished." Again.

The 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division, however, is still engaged in the fight, with approximately 2,600 soldiers of the Minnesota National Guard's 1st Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry Division (1-34th BCT) deployed to Kuwait since May.

Given Obama's words, Minnesota's Red Bull families were quick to add two and two together to get 2,600 back by Christmas. But Uncle Sam doesn't work that way.

Early Saturday morning, Minnesota National Guard public affairs officer Lt. Col. Kevin Olson had to counter the rumors via Facebook: "There is no indication that today's announcement by the President will affect the Minnesota National Guard," he wrote. "More than 2,600 Soldiers with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, stationed in Kuwait, are expected to remain until May 2012 performing their important duties of providing security for bases in Kuwait and facilitating the draw down of US military forces and equipment from Iraq."

It's political snipe-hunting season in the land of the caucuses, and hacks and critics quickly claimed that Obama was deserting the Iraqi people, abandoning the strategic advantages presented by locating troops on Iraqi soil, and dishonoring the memories of more than 4,000 troops killed during the U.S. occupation.

Diplomats have been negotiating for years regarding the political and legal status of U.S. forces in a post-2011 Iraq. The sticky-tipping point proved to be whether U.S. troops would be subject to Iraqi law. What would happen if U.S. troops were required to defend themselves in court every time they defended themselves with bullets? On the other hand, why would a host government struggling to impose rule of law subject itself to indefinite occupation?

Yes, it smells. But it smells like democracy. It's a republic, if they can keep it.

Let the pols and pundits argue over campaign scraps. For Red Bull Nation, Obama's decision is neither a big win or an epic fail. It's just another day overseas, on the road and on mission. For example, as of earlier this month, Minnesota's Charlie Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment (1-194th C.A.B.) has traveled more than 100,000 miles in Iraq and has escorted over 4,000 trucks safely through the desert land of Iraq.

“It was one of those things that I wouldn’t change for the world,” said Army Spc. Luke A. Peterson, an armor crewman from Duluth, Minn. “Twenty years down the line when I’m talking to my kids and grand kids I can tell them where I was on the 10th anniversary of 9/11—in Iraq, helping to finish this war.”

“We will never forget the lives lost that September morning ten years ago,” Capt. John M. Hobot, Charlie Company commander. “We are going to finish the job we started here last deployment during the troop surge and leave proud with what we have accomplished in Iraq. Today is a day to reflect on what we really have in the United States, a society that accepts political differences and diversity among it’s people which is protected by the blanket of freedom and democracy. I wish the same for the people of Iraq during this transitional time as they move closer to a democratic free society.”

Approximately 50,000 troops remain in Iraq, along with their equipment and vehicles. They need to move out in less than 90 days.

Last Red Bull in country, be sure to turn off the lights.

Bomb-resistant Truck Saves 3 Red Bull Lives

According to news reports and official releases, three soldiers of the Iowa Army National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th BCT) were wounded by an Improvised Explosive Device (I.E.D.) attack approximately 11:45 a.m. local Afghan time, Feb. 21 in Laghman Province. All survived, thanks in part to a half-million-dollar truck manufactured by a company based in the American Midwest.

The injured soldiers, all members of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry "Ironman" Regiment (1/133rd Inf.)--currently operating as "Task Force Ironman"--were evacuated to a U.S. military hospital at Bagram Airfield ("BAF") for medical treatment. Bagram is also the location of the 2-34th BCT headquarters. News reports attribute to the soldiers' respective family members that each is at least regarded as medically "stable."

The names of the injured are:

• Cpl. Adam P. Eilers, 23, of Garber, Iowa.
• Spc. Caleb J. Redell, 22, of Erie, Ill.
• Pfc. Andrew Zimmerman, 20, of Camanche, Iowa.

See the Des Moines Register's report regarding the injured soldiers here, and the official Iowa National Guard news release here.

According to a previously released news report from 2-34th BCT, one that overviews the actions of Alpha Company, 1/133rd Inf. since it arrived in Afghanistan last November, Spc. Zimmerman had previously been injured in an IED attack near Watangatu, a village south of Combat Outpost ("COP") Najil. Zimmerman had been briefly knocked unconscious and received stitches to his face following the Nov. 29 attack.

Radio Iowa reports that the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP, pronounced "em-rap") vehicle was a newer, smaller version called an "MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle" (M-ATV, pronounced "M.A.T.V."). The heavily armored M-ATV, manufactured by Osh Kosh Corp. of Osh Kosh, Wis., cost more than $450,000 each, and are designed to deflect bomb blasts away from the crew. "Certainly, this vehicle saved these soldiers' lives," Iowa National Guard Army Col. Greg Hapgood told Radio Iowa.

According to open news sources, COP Najil sits approximately 25 Kilometers to North North-West from Mehtar Lam, the provincial capital. It sits at the intersection of the Alishang, Dowlat Shah and Mayl Valleys. In a by-lined Army news report filed during the Christmas holiday season, Army Sgt. Ryan Matson described the Alpha Company outpost as "remote, small, and austere." He continued:

The COP is nestled along the base of a mountain, and there is no flat ground; everywhere the servicemembers walk is on a grade. Living conditions are tough, as water for showering and laundry is limited, and the bathrooms are tubes in the ground. There’s no post exchange to be found here; the soldiers are just happy to have power.

In late December, Alpha Company, 1/133rd Inf. successfully defended COP Najil using close-air support ("CAS," pronounced "caz"), skills it first tested the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif. (See earlier Red Bull Rising reports about Alpha Company training here.)

In the 2-34th BCT's only other previously reported combat injury, Sgt. Brian M. Pfeiler of Earlsville, Iowa, was injured in early January after stepping on a landmine in Laghman Province's Qarghayeed District. His right leg was amputated below the knee. Pfeiler is a member of Delta Company, 1/133rd Inf.

Elsewhere in Laghman Province this week, Charlie Company, 1/133rd Inf. supported Afghan National Army personnel in "Operation Brass Monkey," an attempt to locate a specific individual in Parwai village, Alingar District. Army news reports indicate that, while the "high-value target" (H.V.T.) was not located, six other persons of interest were detained. The coalition forces also reportedly located explosive device-making materials and intelligence regarding insurgent operations in the area.

Have Vest, Will Travel

"Are you a U.S citizen?" (Yes.)

"Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" (No.)

"Do you treat your mother right?" (WHAT?!)

Steve at BulletProofME.com of Austin, Texas, gives me a second hanging on the phone before letting me off the hook. "Believe it or not," he says, "I once asked that of a customer, and he not only answered 'yes,' but put his mother on the line, just to prove it."

After giving Steve more-humbling body measurements than I'd have needed to rent a tuxedo, I have just spent a substantial portion of this year's contribution to the Sherpa kids' college fund. I have purchased a bulletproof vest. A decidedly non-camouflaged, coyote-brown vest. One featuring a Kevlar lining that will stop small-caliber rounds and shrapnel, and capable of carrying thick ceramic plates that will stop a 7.62mm rifle round.

These are, of course, features I hope only to read about, and never to test myself.

It's less of an investment, and more of a statement. It's a commitment, a financial declaration that I'm about to try something that is either the most inspired thing I've ever done, or the most insipid: I'm about to try to follow my Red Bull buddies to Afghanistan, not as a citizen-soldier, but as a 100-percent citizen.

My kid brother doesn't understand this impulse, and asks whether I'm doing it for my buddies, or doing it for myself. The honest answer, I have to tell him, is both.

I'm a Journalism-school-trained reporter, but I left the newsprint grind years ago. For many years, I've been more at home with cushier magazine jobs, discussing trendy house-paint colors, how to remodel your kitchen on a budget, and landscape lighting techniques. A J-school professor of mine once punned that such "service" journalism was more like "surface journalism," but hey--it's helped keep a well-maintained roof over my family's head.

Besides, not all journalists can write about bringing the heat and light of democracy to the world--or can we?

I started the Red Bull Rising blog to help my kids understand, in later years, why Daddy had to leave them for a year of their young lives.

But, after more than 20 years wearing a U.S. Army uniform, I also know the National Guard deserves a little service journalism of its own. After all, I also started the blog to help tell the National Guard story, to explain and illuminate how much we, as a nation, have asked of our friends and neighbors in uniform.

We have asked these citizen-soldiers to drop their plows and their play-dates, to pick up their muskets, and to run toward the sounds of distant guns. We have asked them to re-make a foreign nation in our own image, to train and support a national government where none exists. And, given the number of right-sleeve combat patches seen in the ranks of the Red Bull, we have asked them to do this repeatedly.

So ponying up a few bucks for some personal protection seems like the least I could do.

If not for my peace of mind, at least for my mother's.

Mississippi MultiCam Media Madness

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division has sure been in the news a lot recently--and all it took was a change of clothes.

The Iowa Army National Guard unit was the first-ever to receive the full-issue of MultiCam uniforms and equipment. Astute observers of the Afghan theater of operations will have already noted the camouflage pattern in limited use downrange. There were test fieldings and other experiments. During a special screening of "Restrepo" earlier this year, Red Bull soldiers noted that the 173rd Airborne BCT was sporting the mud-colors back in 2007.

The news was big enough to warrant a personal visit to Camp Shelby from Sgt. Major of the Army Kenneth Preston.

While the commercial/civilian market still calls the textile MultiCam, the Army is calling it the "Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern" (O.C.P.) That's opposed to "Universal Camouflage Pattern" (U.C.P.), which apparently isn't as universal as first thought.

The uniform itself is called "Flame-Resistant Army Combat Pattern" (or "Frak-You"). No, I am not making this up.

The 7-color camouflage pattern tends to look like yellowish mud against the pine-green forests of Mississippi. (Parents of young children might be reminded of something else.) On the subdued "Red Bull" patch, the beloved bovine skull is now yellow-brown, rather than sage green. "How now, yellow-brown cow?"

The uniforms are flame-resistant and insect-repellant. Hook-and-loop fastener tape (aka "Velcro") has been replaced with old-school buttons. Collars and crotches have been reinforced. And the infrared tab has been hidden away in a better place.

Related equipment includes lower-rise mountain boots, and a "plate-carrier" harness that will allow soldiers to ditch some of their armor while still protecting vital organs from the big 7.62 mm bullets. That means that, as mission dictates, soldiers can drop 15 pounds of equipment weight. A "Tactical Assault Pack" ("TAP") distributes more magazines more evenly than the old gut-buster ammo pouches.

The new uniforms won't be worn until after the Red Bull rotate through a major training exercise in California later this year. Soldiers will be allowed to break in their new mountain boots, however.

The Army Combat Uniform (A.C.U.) isn't going anywhere. The Red Bull soldiers will return and exchange the OCP equipment for their standard sage-greens when they return from Afghanistan in 2011. The Army says it may continue evaluating camouflage patterns. Meanwhile, so that its personnel on the ground can continue to blend with their Army counterparts, the U.S. Air Force appears to be moving toward MultiCam in Afghanistan. It will be interesting to see what the "blue-suiters" deploying with the Red Bull end up being issued.

Here's a list of recent MultiCam Media Madness, featuring Red Bull soldiers:

Army News Service:"New uniform for OEF protects soldiers, hides them better"

Army Times:"Soldiers receive new MultiCam ACUs, gear"

Des Moines Register:"Iowa troops get new uniforms, but pack them away for now" (text; photo comparing OCP and UCP)

KCRG-TV9:"Iowa soldiers will be the first to wear new uniforms in Afghanistan" (text and video)

USA Today:"Military sees it's time for change in camouflage" (text, photo, infographic)

Achtung -- Panzer!

I had to say good-bye to Trooper the other day. He's moving out with one of advanced parties, tasked with setting up initial operations for the brigade headquarters. He doesn't get to participate in today's send-off ceremony. He's already on the job, down at Camp Shelby, Miss.

Guys don't do emotional moments very often, or well. Things end up either being left unsaid, or sounding like dialogue from a bad Mafia movie.

Trooper and I were on the same deployment back in 2003. We've seen and done some wacky stuff together. Take, for example, the time we hung out for hours drinking tea in a Middle Eastern hotel lobby, watching the people-scape change from day to night. The restaurant was closed, because of Ramadan, but Trooper had cracked the local hospitality code by ordering room service, and having it delivered to the registration desk. Stupid little insanities like that kept me sane, and Trooper made more than just a few of them happen.

In other words. Trooper is good people--for an Infantry guy.

Trooper reads people like books, and reads a lot of books, too. He's always joked that I should write the Great American novel about our Nothing Little Deployment to the Land of the Sand. I remind him--again and again and again--that I don't do fiction. I have a reputation for story-telling, but I am genetically incapable of making things up. I mean that.

"I'll see you on the flip side," I tell him this week, shaking his hand. In the afternoon sun of the U.S. Middle West, the parking lot is as stifling as our old Middle Eastern motorpool. I've just been reassigned--I'll tell you about that next week--and I don't know when I'm going to see him next. "I'm sorry I won't have your back on this one."

"Yeah, we would've made it fun somehow," he says. "If you ever do write that novel, you'll have to make me six-foot something, and chiseled. Chiseled like ... a Panzer commander."

And that's how he drove off: Into the sun, all dashing and chiseled and resolute, off to fight the Taliban. I can honestly say that he looked like a Panzer commander:

A tea-drinking Panzer commander, driving a Honda Civic.

Home Sweet Tank

As Household-6 will attest (and protest), I'm a chronic do-it-myselfer and home remodeler. For example, I've been working on finishing the basement for what seems to be nearly a decade now. I'd better get cracking if I want it done before I ship out.

I mentioned a few days ago that I've been attending some Army training here in Fort Indiantown Gap, Penn. It's a long way from push-to-talk radio stuff, but it's a lot about how the Army moves information around the battlefield these days. Lucky for me, it's as much hands-on as it is PowerPoint briefings, but I worry about retaining it all. We've been drinking from the proverbial firehose since we got here, and my brain was pretty much fried by the end of Tuesday's sessions.

Unfortunately, the Internet service to our barracks was equally fried much of Monday and Tuesday, and I couldn't e-mail friends and family. Just the first of many communications outages, I suppose, but it was frustrating.

With nothing to do on my computer--I didn't much feel like playing video games, because the modern Army makes video games seem like work--I tried watching TV in the barracks. I was pleased to find cable TV offerings such as Comedy Central, Speed, and the Military Channel, but would've really enjoyed kicking back with "This Old House" or some other home-improvement show.

Home-improvement shows are less about reality, I know, and more about fantasy: People always seem to get done in time and under budget. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?

Anyway, tonight I found the Army's apparent answer to do-it-yourselfing: The Military Channel was airing back-to-back episodes of "Tank Overhaul," a 2007 and 2009 TV show that tracks the efforts of hobbyists who rehabilitate old military hardware.

I still prefer Home Depot to the Army Depot, but, hey, any part (you heard me) in a storm.