Andrew Milburn - When the Tempest Gathers: From Mogadishu to the Fight Against ISIS, a Marine Special Operations Commander at War

When the Tempest Gathers

Give us Men!

Men who, when the tempest gathers,

Grasp the standard of their fathers

In the thickest fight; []

Josiah Gilbert Holland

From Mogadishu to the Fight Against ISIS, a Marine Special Operations Commander at War

Andrew Milburn

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Pen & Sword Military

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Andrew Milburn 2020

ISBN 978 1 52675 055 6

eISBN 978 1 52675 056 3

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52675 057 0

The right of Andrew Milburn to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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I wouldnt be in a position to make acknowledgments at all, were it not for the help of several people:

Worth Parker took great pains to go through several drafts with me, giving up his weekends to do so. Worth is one of those rare individuals who excels in every one of his lifes roles: Marine officer, endurance runner, writer, husband and father, and combines formidable talent with unstinting generosity. I am proud to count him as a friend.

I first met Anne Garrels, long-time NPR correspondent famous for her clear-eyed reporting of the Iraq war, in Fallujah some 15 years ago where, true to form, she was very much at the sharp end. Anne offered to read an early (very rough) draft of the manuscript, and returned it to me with invaluable feedback. Her enthusiastic support meant more to me at the time than she probably realizes.

Bing West has been a mentor since the early days of the Marine advisor mission described in this book. From the time that I first mentioned my plans to write a book, he has provided unfailing encouragement, persuading me to persevere at a time when, battered by rejection, I might otherwise have given up.

Ben Connable, former Marine officer and senior political analyst at the Rand Corporation, also read an early draft of the book, and provided the type of input that made me wish that I had thought of it myself. It was Ben who persuaded me to include some of the more difficult aspects of my story and I am very grateful to him for doing so.

I am delighted to have this book published by Pen & Sword, whose team Chris Evans, (Senior Editor in the US), Amy Jordan and Tara Moran have helped me considerably with their patience, professionalism and wise counsel.

To thank my wife Jess for her support, would be quite inadequate. In all her roles, she has always been an inspiration to me, and continues to make an immeasurable contribution to my life and work.

My children, Siobhan, Marcus and Sophia have spent much of their lives without a father, but have flourished nevertheless (perhaps because of that fact). I hope that this story will, in some small way, atone for my frequent absence. I promise now to do better.

And lastly, an acknowledgement of the debt that I owe to the men and women with whom I have served. They are quite simply the reason why I remained a Marine as long as I did.

T his is simply the finest war memoir to emerge from the past two decades of constant fighting. Andy Milburn was in the thick of the action from Somalia to Colombia to Ethiopia to Liberia to Iraq to Libya, then back to Iraq and on to Afghanistan. Along the way, he commanded a Marine platoon, a company, a battalion, a regiment and a Special Operations Joint Task Force. And at various ranks he led teams advising that is, fighting alongside Iraqi, Kurdish and Afghan regular and commando units.

There are no boring interludes in this book. The action is non-stop, as Milburn plunges into one chaotic battle after another. He has a novelists sense of pace and immediacy, literally dragging the reader along with him from one danger-filled scene to another. As the chapters unfold, the reader begins to understand the internal rhythms of battlefields, how to sense peril, evaluate the enemy, lead the troops, cajole allies, accommodate higher headquarters and accomplish the mission.

Milburn has a keen eye and writes in vivid detail. His exceptional skill is telling each story of battle and then knitting them into a coherent whole. By the end of the book, the reader understands what happened on the ground in the wars against terrorists over the past twenty years. He brings the reader on the victorious march to Baghdad in 2003, then returns to the grinding street-by-street battle for Fallujah. After that, its off to the Syrian border, then back to street fighting in Mosul. The reader comes to understand the deep sectarian divide between the Sunnis and Shiites, and the malignant influence of Al Qaeda.

Milburn accomplishes this task without ever writing a dry or boring sentence. His story is that of a combat leader who accomplished each task at hand with the American and foreign soldiers under his influence, if not his direct command. He is forever getting into trouble, by nature enthusiastic and risk-taking. Fortunately for him and for his readers, the Marine Corps fosters and promotes mavericks who get results, even when they disobey the rules. In the Marines, rules are more like guide posts than walls. You can ignore them, and if you succeed, you will be commended. If you fail, well, then you should have followed the guidelines. In Milburns case, he slid off from a stateside unit to go to war, he posed as a British citizen to rescue two American families and he frequently had radio communication failures to call fire upon the enemy when higher headquarters was unwilling to do so.

This is a factual book about a remarkable career, written neither in anger nor in zest. The action itself carries the reader along. What emerges is a portrait of how infantry forces Marines, Special Forces from many countries, Iraqi and Afghan soldiers fight a modern war against Islamic zealots determined to resurrect a mythical medieval caliphate. On the battlefield, there is no compromise position or political settlement. The reader marvels at how Milburn and thousands like him maintain such steel tenacity year after year, deployment after deployment, loss after loss. The personal toll is great and Milburn doesnt gloss over the pain of divorce and the tragedy on the home front.