cover image The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat

The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat

James McDonough. Presidio Press, $18.95 (202pp) ISBN 978-0-89141-310-3

In this military primer, a recently deceased U.S. Army officer by the name of A. Tack Always is denied entrance into Valhalla and assigned to a purgatory-like base in the Nevada desert, where he is required to learn a vital lesson before being cleared for transfer to the final objective in the sky. A field-problem has been laid on for the lieutenant colonel, who abruptly finds himself commanding a ghostly unit built around Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The bulk of this curious, sometimes amusing tale has to do with the officer's escalating command problems in a furious battle against an ``aggressor force'' armed with the latest Soviet weapons and equipment. McDonough (Platoon Leader) provides a technically up-to-date picture of the way a U.S. mechanized battalion would be expected to perform if our forces were to tangle with their most imposing counterparts. War-college instructors will find the scenario useful as a textbook, but lay readers, other than hardcore military buffs, will find the book odd. (June)