"Combat Officer" by Charles H. Walker. A Review

 

A treasure, in it's own right. Charles H. Walker (d. October 24, 2009) tells his story of being a combat officer in the South Pacific, rising through the ranks from 2nd Lieutenant to Major, in "Combat Officer: A Memoir of War in the South Pacific." He was a member of the 164th Army National Guard Infantry Regiment of North Dakota. A true citizen-soldier, he often served under the direction of regular Army officers and their West Point fraternity. A sore spot that is clear all the way through the book. 

Though the episodes Walker recounts are not gory, they are gritty and real. He narrates the fear, anger, frustrations, insensibleness, and sadness of being a combat officer leading his unit into harrowing situations. From the time he landed in New Caledonia in October of 1942 until his discharge in October 1945, the reader who plows through these pages walks with someone who saw, smelled, and heard live-fire combat. It was hard to put the book down.

The value of a volume like this comes from several areas. First, these living voices of living memory are nearly all gone. Those of us now in the 21st Century have less and less of a conception of what our ancestors went through in that second world war. Working through a volume like this will help to refresh our gratitude and remind us that American history has not always been light and fluffy. Second, it's a book of realities. Combat is not glorious, soldiers are not always the epitome of courage and virtue, leaders can make rotten decisions from a wide spectrum of motivations and limitations, the fog of war prevails, equipment and ammunition fail, favoritism and phantasy can cloud the reasoning of the higher ups, and so forth. It's a book of realities. Finally, these soldiers were human all the way through, and a first-person narrative like this one makes that very clear. As I stated when started out this review, "Combat Officer" is a treasure, in its own right. I recommend it.