No Warriors, No Glory

In reading "No Warriors, No Glory", one cannot help but be immediately reminded of Pat Tillman's untimely death in Iraq from friendly fire, and what we later found out to be an attempt by the authorities to cover up the real cause of his death. Sound familiar? In this rendition, Coyle's Captain Dixon wants to uncover the truth but is stymied when he gets little if any cooperation from the deceased's C.O., the drone manufacturer, or the victim's peers. The good captain, having recently returned from active service, where he was wounded, suffering still from his war injuries and bouts of occasional nightmares, finds himself with an assignment that is disturbing and confusing since his intent is misconstrued by those he contacts for the facts to help avoid a future similar occurrence. A thought provoking writing. E.J. Walden, author of "Operation Snow Owl"

While recovering from his wounds received in the Philippines, Nathan Dixon is called before the Chief of Staff and offered a position on his staff. Nathan's first assignment is to investigate a friendly fire incident involving the Army's new automated combat vehicles. Coyle explores the use of unmanned vehicles in a combat situation and what happens when they go wrong. This continues the Dixon family saga that started with Team Yankee. The saga is interesting but is getting long in the tooth. It is a good read and I wonder if Nathan is going to join Strategic Solutions Inc. the other series that Coyle co-writes.

Excellent read, completes the saga and brings it to a fine conclusion.No Warriors, No Glory

I had been an avid reader of Harold Coyle's books but lost touch with them some years ago. It is a very good plot and has good characters in it. He has a good feel for soldiers' humour and of the interaction between officers and senior ranks. Armour is dirty, oily, smelly work, as I found out in the 80s! This comes over very well in the plot. Great stuff!

US Army Captain Nathan Dixon is still limping from his war injuries and suffering nightmares as he does a tour at the pentagon. Colonel Kaplan reminds him that the army runs on Vince Lombardi Standard time, which means "if you're on time, you're late" before Dixon meets with the Chief of Staff General Stevens, who adds him on to his staff at a time when the army struggles with two brutal wars and radical transformation. Nathan is assigned to review a friendly fire incident. Having been in combat, he understands the harrowing chaotic fog of war leads to mistakes in spite of the military emphasis to eliminate these deadly errors; he also knows his probe is not to pin accountability in order to punish someone, but to determine the cause, ascertain if it is systemic, and come up with CALL lessons learned to remove any future errors. The incident was caused by an unmanned ground combat vehicle (UGV) during a test; a type of war machine he does not know anything about. He obtains an education on vested interests as the C.O. knows his career is teetering; the manufacturer contractor does not want production on hold as he will be unemployed; and the victim's peers prefer to conceal the truth mostly Dixon assumes out of fear of retaliatory ends to their careers. Dixon understands his mission is to uncover the truth, but no one cooperates. This is a terrific timely look at the modern army through the eyes of a career officer still suffering from PTSD whose current assignment is more difficult in many ways than combat because his brothers and sisters in arms do not want to talk. Fans will make comparisons to the Pat Tillman tragedy that raised awareness of friendly fire incidents, but Dixon's case is different as this inquiry is into a training event involving drones. This super military investigative thriller provides a powerful glimpse at the modern military in which increasingly means NO WARRIORS, NO GLORY or salutes to Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. Harriet Klausner