Hellfires and “Half-Smashed Bugs” in Sadr City
As a platoon searched for bombs, the enemy tried to attack them. It didn’t end well.
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DonateAugusto Giacoman served as an infantry officer with 1/5 Infantry and 1/2 Stryker Cavalry, deploying twice to Iraq in 2005, and 2007-2008. He currently works at the management consultancy Strategy&, and is chairperson of the board at Service to School, a nonprofit helping veterans achieve their educational goals.
As a platoon searched for bombs, the enemy tried to attack them. It didn’t end well.
Not everyone is fit for the Army, but a loophole overlooks that.
Back from a deployment and triggered by the mundane, a former infantry officer discovers his unprovoked rage.
There are many moments in war—the surprises, the close calls. A former infantry officer reflects on one that had both.
A former infantry officer contemplates the numbing effects of war and inhumanity.
Augusto Giacoman danced to Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” as his convoy patrolled Mosul, Iraq. And then the IED exploded.
A midnight raid on a West Point dorm in which Augusto Giacoman was armed with hot sauce prepared him for war better than West Point’s rigid rules.
Augusto Giacoman went in for a haircut, high and tight. Then things went terribly wrong.
Augusto Giacoman parked his Stryker under the streetlights and then the bomb exploded. What happened next is a hazy mixture of memory and nightmare.