They Called Us "Lucky"
The Life and Afterlife of the Iraq War's Hardest Hit Unit
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From Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a "powerful" and "searing" memoir of his journey from childhood poverty to Harvard to the Marine Corps, where served in the hardest-hit unit of the Iraq War
At first, they were “Lucky Lima.” Infantryman Ruben Gallego and his brothers in Lima Company—3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, young men drawn from blue-collar towns, immigrant households, Navajo reservations—returned unscathed on patrol after patrol through the increasingly violent al Anbar region of Iraq. After two months, Lima didn't have a casualty, not a single Purple Heart, no injury worse than a blister.
Then, in May 2005, Lima’s fortunes flipped. Unknown to Ruben and his fellow grunts, al Anbar had recently become a haven for al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The bin Laden-sponsored group had recruited radicals from all over the world for jihad against the Americans. On one fateful day, they were lured into a death house; the ambush cost the lives of two men, including a platoon sergeant. Two days later, Ruben’s best friend, Jonathon Grant, died in an IED attack, along with several others. Events worsened from there. A disastrous operation in Haditha in August claimed the lives of thirteen Marines when an IED destroyed their amphibious vehicle. It was the worst single-day loss for the Marines since the 1983 Beirut bombings. By the time 3/25 went home in November, it had lost more men than any other single unit in the war. Forty-six Marines and two Navy Corpsmen serving with the battalion in Iraq were killed in action during their roughly nine-month activation.
They Called Us “Lucky” details Ruben Gallego’s journey and includes harrowing accounts of some of the war’s most costly battles. It details the struggles and the successes of Ruben and the rest of Lima Company following Iraq, examining the complicated matter of PTSD. And it serves as a tribute to Ruben’s fallen comrades, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
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Arizona congressman Gallego and DeFelice (coauthor, American Sniper) deliver a powerful, grunt's-eye view of modern combat and the struggle to readjust to life back home. After his parents' divorce, Gallego, a Democrat, was raised by his mother in Illinois, where he and his three sisters lived in an apartment "so tiny that I slept on the floor of the living room rather than a bed." He dedicated himself to getting into Harvard, but "flamed out" and was on an "enforced ‘pause' " in 2000 when he made the impulsive decision to enlist in the Marines Corps Reserves. His unit was deployed to Iraq in 2005, and though unscathed by the first two months of combat, Lima Company's luck soon changed for the worse; 23 company members were eventually killed in action. Gallego vividly documents the deaths of friends and comrades, and his own brushes with death, including the time his amphibious assault vehicle failed to trigger an IED. Combat scenes alternate with Gallego's desperate race in 2007 to get help for a fellow Lima Company veteran before he attempted suicide. Gallego also details his own struggles with PTSD, and calls out deficiencies in military planning and equipment that he believes cost lives. This searing autobiography leaves a mark.
