In a Time of War

"Alternately inspiring and heartbreaking . . . At the ground level, wars are fought by painfully young men and women—and by the junior officers who lead them. In a Time of War movingly profiles some of those officers, and as combat veterans grow more rare in American society, books like Murphy's become more important."—The Washington Post

"Outstanding . . . Murphy weaves the tiny moments that make a life into an astonishingly well-written and compelling tapestry."—The Seattle Times

"In a Time of War is not a critique of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not a book such as Thomas E. Ricks' Fiasco, bound to start arguments and end friendships. It is not a book that either candidate in the current presidential campaign is likely to grab as a prop to wave over his head at a town hall meeting. This is not a book for anyone whose opinion about American foreign policy is set in stone, never to be revisited or revised. This is a book for the rest of us—for those who aren't exactly sure how to feel about the war but who find ourselves wondering, at the end of the day, what kind of people devote their lives to military service, during a time of such controversy and uncertainty. The soldiers about whom Murphy writes were members of the West Point Class of 2002. Because that year marked the 200th anniversary of the service academy, this class ‘was constantly touted as the new face of West Point,’ the author notes, ‘linking two centuries of tradition with a bright American future.’ They arrived in 1998, when America was at peace. Then came Sept. 11, 2001. But there was something else that set this class apart, Murphy says. Something much subtler than a terrorist attack. By the time Todd Bryant and Drew Sloan—two of the soldiers upon whom the author focuses—graduate, 'the common measure of civic responsibility had shifted. A huge gulf had opened between those who served in the military and those who didn't. Americans no longer believed they had to serve their country in the military in order to be good citizens.' The book follows these soldiers and others, too, as they finish their training at West Point and head to war. They come across as ordinary Americans—that is, they're not great brains or super-athletes—who do one extraordinary thing: They decide to devote their lives to protecting and defending their country. Murphy's careful reporting and gentle storytelling style make Bryant, Sloan and all the others somehow more, not less, heroic. There's no bravado in this book, no flash. And that makes it far more memorable than it would have been had Murphy spiced it up with melodrama. When one of the main characters dies from his wounds, the sorrow is profound. We've come to know and like this soldier in the course of the book. We’ve also come to understand West Point, which, despite the changes intended to make it less arduous and more attractive to a new generation of students, remains a place very much apart from the world."—Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

"In A Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002, the author convincingly describes the peril and the anguish of loss."—Bing West, Forbes

"West Point continues to fascinate a lot of good American writer. Back in 1989, Rick Atkinson gave us The Long Gray Line, covering West Point's class of '66 for two decades. Then in 2003, Rolling Stone's David Lipsky gave us Absolutely American, an upbeat look at life as a West Point cadet before 9/11. Now comes a worthy successor, Bill Murphy, Jr., with In a Time of War, subtitled The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002. Murphy's book covers less time than Atkinson's, and it takes a lot less upbeat tone than Lipsky's. But like the two earlier works, it's fascinating reading . . . The author served as an Army Reserve officer, so he brings good credentials for siding with graduates who opt out of uniform after their five-year obligation. Old-time West Pointers who stuck it out in uniform for two or three decades tend to wring their hands at this bleeding away of young officers. But when you listen to the officers and their wives whom Murphy interviewed, and when you read the letters and e-mails they exchanged between Iraq and Back Home, you sense that maybe for a nation at war, we are asking too much of far too few people. It's one thing to put one of those 'Support Our Troops' magnets on the back of your car. It's quite another to be one of those troops, far from your loved ones at home and facing a daily diet of roadside bombs and rifle-propelled grenades. In a Time of War ought to be required reading for the civilian leaders who make decisions that send young Americans off to war. For the rest of us, it's gripping reading."—Harry Lewis, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"The West Point class of 2002 was the first in a generation to graduate into armed combat. Murphy offers remarkable insights into a handful of soldiers' lives during a time of upheaval and division, focusing on two members of the class of 2002 in particular: Todd Bryant, a witty Californian from a family with a military tradition, and Drew Sloan, the hardworking son of liberal parents from Arkansas. Drawing on more than 200 interviews with the officers, their families and the soldiers they served with, this is a sympathetic picture of the struggles faced by the military men and their families as they face separation, anxiety, fear, and pride."—Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Tucson Citizen

"West Point's 2002 class of 'Golden Children' are followed through drilling, studying, football games in Michie Stadium and romantic weekends in Manhattan. Not long after President Bush addressed the class, they were lieutenants leading platoons in Iraq. There was Todd Bryant, from a military family in California; Drew Sloane, an Eagle Scout from Arkansas; Tim Moshier, from upstate New York, who dreamed of piloting an Apache attack helicopter; Will Tucker, from Alabama, who preferred the safety of an Abram tank. There was little defense against the deadly bombs that insurgents placed along the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah. Wives and girlfriends heard from the soldiers by cell phone and e-mail. When the calls and mail stopped, officers delivered the bad news to the homes of families. A reader is glued to the pages of this heartbreaking story, wondering which of the young lieutenants will be the next to die. He does not have long to wait."—Tom Mackin, The Star-Ledger (Newark)

"The heavy toll of fighting on two fronts, as experienced by the first United States Military Academy class to graduate into active combat since Vietnam. West Point's 2002 graduates were special, points out the author, a former Army reserve officer who reported from Iraq for the Washington Post in 2007. Their graduation coincided with the Academy's celebration of its bicentennial, but these new lieutenants were also headed for a war in progress. The Point broke with tradition by allowing the class of 2002 to stay in their original companies for all four years, instead of reassigning them to new companies halfway through. An unusual camaraderie and closeness was the result, Murphy notes. He plumbed these associations for several years to produce this slice of military life that focuses on a handful of 2002 classmates, most acquainted with each other, who endured as many as three deployments to the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Affable Californian Todd Bryant opted for an armored brigade that the Army actually sent to Iraq without its tanks; married and a new father, Bryant died in a patrolling Humvee hit by an IED. Drew Sloan from Arkansas was luckier in Afghanistan, but wounds suffered in a Taliban attack required more than a year of multiple surgeries and left his face and body scarred. Murphy stresses that these young Army officers, often leading platoons into hostile territory day after day, made the sacrifices and suffered the brunt of a brutal, violent conflict that America tried its best to ignore, marked as it was by mismanagement at multiple levels and actively opposed by many from the start . . . effectively underscores the widely reported disaffection of recent West Point classes with the military."—Kirkus Reviews