The Mental Side of Combat---Impossible to put it down | House to House

Couldnt put it down | House to House | David Bellavia

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	• House to House David Bellavia Free Press, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 145 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Can't Put This Book Down!!

What an amazingly written book! SSG Bellavia writes about his experiences in the war zone so well it was hard to put this book down. My eyes could be weary from reading so many pages, my body could be telling me I need to go to sleep, but I just couldn't find a good place to put this book down. I wanted to turn the next page, I wanted to find out what happened next. Amazing book about sacrifice, honor and TONS of courage. A must read!!

The Mental Side of Combat---Impossible to put it down

The action in House to House is non-stop. I needed to see what was going to happen next; I ended up reading late into the night, and finished it in just two days. The real strength of this book was the extent to which Sgt. Bellavia lets you get inside his head. Without giving away specifics, I have NEVER read any book that gave this kind of an internal (mental) description of combat. It really helps that Bellavia has a phenomenal memory, so he is constantly giving you details about how he thought through and felt in the situations that confronted him. But don't be put off if you like lots of action, because this is the best action book you'll read this year (or in the next few years). However, the realism is pretty gritty, so I would not recommend it for younger readers, or for those who might have a hard time with graphic descriptions. Having said that, NOTHING in this book is done for shock value. This is just one man's honest description of combat. I would respectfully suggest that the next time you pass an American serviceman, you step up and say "thank you." It is the least we can do for the great men and ladies who wear the uniform of our nation.

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Couldnt put it down

I enjoyed this book. Bellavia did a very good job at recording the little things, like when they are clearing houses & they find a MIG 22 being used as a giant house born IED, and the insurgents line the inside walls with propane tanks so if you fire & miss the whole house will go up with you in it & also they use little shards of glass mounted on shelves around corners so they can see exactly when your gonna peak around the corner & take a chunk out of your shoulder.
Very informative.Dont wanna give too much away. Worth the purchase all the way.

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Contradictions of War

I opened this book with a sympathetic perspective, but as I read I became more and more impressed by Bellavia's lack of reflection on some important points. The problems the book has stem from Bellavia's myopic view of operations with the infantry a world unto itself. He also has too much an inclination to ignore proportionality. One cannot help admiring him for his truthfulness about his own feelings and the hell he went through. However, if I were an officer in Iraq, I would think twice about having this NCO under my command. On the one hand, he self-consciously portrays himself as a demanding sergeant who will not tolerate hints of insubordination among his charges. On the other, he brags about disrespecting a major from another unit who happened upon him. (And he doesn't seem to notice the contradiction separated by only a few pages.) He knew nothing about this major apart from the officer's clean appearance, his vehicle, his unit, and his voice. He decided the major was a remf. He did not know if perhaps the day before the major had pulled a wounded soldier from a burning vehicle while under fire--he could not have known. Ballavia drew some conclusions and then stooped to the typical knuckle-dragger reaction of dismissing the officer's credibility out of hand, a hackneyed prop for self-elavation. "Look at me, I'm SSG ROCK," it says, "in contrast to this remf." But what about respecting the fact that the officer was THERE, IN Iraq, IN THE COMBAT ZONE, in a vehicle, could easily bleed out in the next minute from an IED attack? Ballavia's attitude on this point is corrosive to the team spirit of those who have to share the burdens of the war. His attitude as portrayed is amateurish, a self-defeating psychology. The other problem of proportionality is something SSG B may not be able to relate to. In an insurgency, restraint is a critically important force multiplier. SSG B's inclination to overkill is symptomatic of poor preparation for phase IV (stability operations) of a counterinsurgency. Lack of restraint erodes legitimacy and spawns new enemies, preventing the indiginous population from coming over to the counterinsurgent's side. One does not expect, in the heat of battle, for a soldier to hold back; but as a leader, SSG B should have tried to be a moderating influence understanding the COIN environment, knowing that excess breeds its own kharma that will have to be met down the road. Three-stars for a gripping narative. H2H is too raw to rank five stars.

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Required Reading

This book should be required reading for all Americans. It will fill you with pride and compel you to try and understand what so many of our countrymen go through as armed service men and women. No book has painted such a vivid picture of combat and Bellavia shares all the details including the fear, adreneline, and fatigue. When he shares the satellite phone call he had with his 3 year old son I was crying as his son told him to 'fight bad guys'. That's exactly what my boy would say if I had half the courage to do what these brave men did in this book. My son will read this book when he's old enough and hopefully people will set politics aside to appreciate the bravery of this generation of soldiers. Marcus Lutrell (Lone Survivor) and David Bellavia, two men we should all know about.

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