Monday, April 16, 2012

REVIEW: Soldier / Geek


Title: Soldier / Geek: An Army Science Advisor’s Journal of the War in Afghanistan
Author: Glenn Dean
Genre: non-fiction, war
Price: $4.99 (ebook) / $12.99 (trade paperback)
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781470187897
Point of Sale: Smashwords CreateSpace
Reviewed by: Chris Gerrib

In 2009, Army Major Glenn Dean deployed to Afghanistan. His job was to represent an alphabet-soup of Army commands charged with developing and fielding weapons for soldiers. Dean would spend six months in Afghanistan, traveling to various remote bases and seeing how well (or how poorly) our equipment was working, and what other equipment was needed. While he was deployed, he kept a journal.

Soldier / Geek is Dean’s journal, with some editorial effort made to translate Army-speak into standard English, as well as some editorial comments about problems he identified at the time. I found it a very interesting read, and I highly recommend it to anybody interested in current affairs. Dean tells his story simply, in chronological order, outlining what happened where. He did not see combat during his tour, despite a number of trips “outside the wire” to where the fighting was occurring. Despite that, I found Soldier / Geek a very interesting book.


Rating: 8/10

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