The Lieutenants by W.E.B. Griffin
The Lieutenants by W.E.B. Griffin
I remember seeing the Brotherhood of War series in the bookstore back when I was in high school. I didn’t read it then, but read the whole series after I read Griffin’s The Corps some fifteen or twenty years later. I enjoyed it, but couldn’t have told you what the plots of the various books were in any detail and only a couple of scenes stood out vividly in my memory. But I just reread The Corps so I decided to give this series a second read as well, and I’m glad I did.
The Lieutenants begins during World War II and mostly follows three young soldiers who get commissioned as officers during the course of the stories. One of them is interested in intelligence work and is smart enough to figure out how to manipulate the system to get what he wants. One is a rich playboy who was drafted and just wants out, but discovers that he likes army life. And one is an enlisted man who wins the Congressional Medal of Honor and gets commissioned. After World War II two of the men get sent to train Greek forces to fight the communists—a very interesting circumstance that isn’t broadly known to have occurred.
The story is always interesting and at times is quite exciting, but there isn’t any real plot to speak of. It’s more of a look at the lives of these soldiers that will continue in the next novel.
