Proud Legions: A Novel Of America's Next War

by John Antal

Currently assigned to the Pentagon, an active duty army officer captures the essence of modern land combat and tells of the incendiary situation along the Korean Demilitarized Zone with American soldiers in the line of fire. 10 maps.

Genres: Fiction, War, Military Fiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Colonel John Antal, US Army (Retired)served 30 years in the US Army as a leader, senior staff officer and commander. He commanded tank and combined arms combat units at platoon, company, battalion and regimental level. He is Airborne and Ranger qualified. He has served in sensitive joint, combined Army staff assignments in the US and overseas. He also served as the Special Assistant to the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. Since his retirement from the US Army in 2003, he has become a successful author, speaker, magazine editor, film adviser and personality, mass-market video game developer, explainer-integrator, journalist, and leadership expert.

Reviews

[Az Vera]

The depictions of tanker life and and company organisation/tactics was interesting, I felt especially interested with the logistics elements; the harsh realities of limited range and operational time thanks to concerns as banal as fuel and line-of-sight radios and the constant factor they are in every equation.

The rest of the book was American exceptionalism and some very characteristic 80s/90s anti-Asian attitudes. There's a bunch of contiguous pages of philosophical musing at the back about how weak liberal societies need to respect their hard-iron troops because in the end who will still save their way of life and while I don't think any of us believe complete disarmament of the military is a good idea it completely glosses over the fact the modern US military is entirely a weapon of neocolonialism. Dropping Agent Orange in Vietnam wasn't a radical act of preserving the American way of life and framing the military in such terms without analysing the reality is falling into the same propaganda Antal claims the North Koreans are. He's not wrong, but he's also ignorant.

Also the Japanese are a duplicitous and conniving bunch working against their own allies to supply the North Koreans with all their weapons *cough cough* US armed the Taliban.

Outside of the super jingoistic stuff, the book is entirely a pretty over-the-top self insert fanfiction. It's a mythical story of the Lt Col in charge of the 2-72, the exact same regiment the author himself commanded? The plot armour on the American forces borders on grating; I get the physical Chobham armour of the M1A2 is powerful, but every artillery strike and MLRS volley misses our intrepid hero company and it feels like half the enemy shots never even land a glancing blow yet every shot the seppos fire is true and perfect regardless of the confusion and heat of battle? There are a few lost American lives, but each as plot points rather than the course of battle.

Lastly the book severely needs better editing, not least for continuity. There's a few instances of ROK and NKPA being mixed up, a lot of seemingly impossible feats of physicality (outside their tank, they get shot at so they pull the hatch back down?), there's a bunch of times where a section heading:
* lists the time as 0100hrs yet the character looks at their watch and it's "past two in the morning"
* lists the location as "5km southeast of [location]" and the opening lines will say "Rodriguez checked his map, he was 10km north of [location].

[Anthony]

An interesting read comparitable to Harold Coyle but with too much predictable dialogue. If twentieth century warfare novels are your liking, especially armor, read "Team Yankee" by Harold Coyle if you have to pick.

[Christopher]

This book is about a US Army battalion in futuristic combat on the Korean Peninsula. Written in 1999, it highlights some mission command systems as they were intended to work. Today, the US Army has developed 1-2 generations past what is described here. Unfortunately, they are not as good as what is described. War remains the preview of uncertainty. The other theme centered around the unstoppable power of American technology. War is easy when you can stumble blindly into anything and win.

Certainly mind candy, this quick read was enjoyable but offered only a bit of insight into the realm of command in war. It offers a story in a simple environment - flanks are secured by mountains, the objective is to destroy the enemy, and American technology reigns. Despite all this, I enjoyed the read.

[Larold Aarence]

I must confess that I cringed.

[Chuck]

An excellent read, even more realistic today based on the actions of the North Koreans. A real look at the battlefield and the pressures of command in combat.

Recommend this highly for military thriller fans

[Keira F. Adams]

Fairly believable and compelling story about a new Korean war. Not a lot else I can say.