House to House

House To House
Bellavia, SSG David
Knitting Sticks: 5!!!!!


I had to think about this review for several days after completing this book. I just had to let it "digest" for a time before putting my thoughts on paper, so to speak.

I believe that in the years to come, when we talk about battles that have been bravely fought by our men and women in uniform, we will add a name to the list of places already in our lexicon of war. We speak with hushed and reverent tones of Bunker Hill, Verdun, Belleau Wood, the Somme, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal. We will also say the name Fallujah. Because of the MSM and their firm insistence that the war is lost, that there is nothing to be gained by speaking of the wins in the war, that there is nothing good that CAN be spoken of Iraq, most people do not know the sacrifice and heroism that is Fallujah. The battles that were fought street to street and often face to face.

SSG David Bellavia served with Third Platoon, Alpha Company, Army Task Force 2/2 during the battle of Fallujah in November 2004. They entered a city where the enemy had been, for weeks, preparing for battle by booby trapping houses and stock piling weapons. They met an enemy who willingly sacrificed themselves and innocent bystanders in order to kill the American soldiers that they encountered. This is the memoir of those first two weeks of hard fighting, house to house. Of wounds and death, of killing. I don't want to go into too much detail because I want you to find this book and read it. Then I want you to think about what the men and women who serve in our military are asked to do to keep you safe in your nice warm house.

This book is often hard to read. Not because it is full of big words but because it is full of pain and love for his fellow soldier and dealing with having to kill a fellow human being who is actively trying to kill you and will stop at nothing to accomplish that end. But however hard I found this book to read I am glad that I did.