Valhalla Boys: Marine Recon Sniper in Iraq

"Valhalla Boys is definitely a different read from what you would expect from a soldier's tale of fighting in Iraq. You really get inside the mind of the author. It's more about what it means to be a fighter than about Iraq... writing also makes it feel like a novel sometimes rather than an autobiography. It makes for a very distinctive tale." -Musings on Iraq

In 2006, the shock and awe campaign of securing the major cities had ended, and the Iraq War had moved into an alien phase for the operators of Black Flag One. With their motto "swift, silent, deadly," the Marine operators of 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion were trained for unconventional warfare but they were tasked with holding and securing swathes of the country, facing Insurgents who were adapting their tactics to kill as many Coalition soldiers as possible using IEDs. It was a terrifying new phase of the war where every disturbed patch of dirt, every piece of rubbish, every civilian acting oddly could mean instant death.

Into this cauldron of hate came a young Marine recon sniper. Brennan Morton had been fascinated by war and the military as long as he could remember, and had signed up for the Marines as an enlisted after 9/11. Developed from writing undertaken at the suggestion of his VA therapist, his immersive memoir takes the reader through selection and training and the first patrol sweeping for caches, to endless night watches, and deadly IED attacks.