This is a dark story but a good read. Think that you still have to read with a degree of skepticism but it is an informative book.

I preordered Jon Krakauer's WHERE MEN WIN GLORY so I could read it soon after it came out. I expected to read details about Pat Tillman’s experience and that this book would be as well written as Krakauer's previous books.

Pat Tillman, for those who many have been living in a tunnel a couple of years after 9/11, was the NFL football player who gave up a $3 million job to join the Army Rangers not long after 9/11. He was killed in Afghanistan by what the Army claimed was enemy fire only to admit later that Tillman was killed by “friendly fire,” by men from his own platoon.

I thought WHERE MEN WIN GLORY dealt with this, and it does. Unfortunately, though, it also wasted a lot of time telling me things I didn’t care about.

Most of the first 200 pages of WHERE MEN WIN GLORY told me more than I wanted to know about Tillman. I didn’t care about the high school football jock or about his scores in his college games. I also didn’t need details about how the mess in Afghanistan got started; I already knew.

But if you persevere and get to about page 250, Krakauer does deliver what he promised. And I can honestly say I’m glad I stuck with the book that long. It was worth it to read the details of what happened with Tillman’s platoon that lead to his death in Afghanistan, to know who said what, and to discover how the Army dealt with it for years after.

I recommend the book for it’s later chapters but warn you that you may be in for some preliminary bordom.