Joker One

Still reading Joker One and it is a pretty good book. Like I was saying last time, Campbell wanted something more so he joined the Marines.  He ended up going to Iraq for a year as a computer guy, not really fighting as he'd hoped.  He then got returned to the states and was told that he'd be in charge of a sniper recon platoon 2/4.  He originally joined the Marines to lead men into battle, to see if he could handle that kind of pressure.  Well he got to Camp Golf, where he would take over 2/4 snipers and was told that they didn't need an officer but they did need a good computer guy, so once again he found himself in a meaningless role.  Eventually someone of higher rank came to the camp and became the computer guy so Campbell was given his chance to lead; but he wasn't given a sniper command, no he was put in charge of a platoon of infantry.  He resented this at first but he would soon learn that to be in charge of an infantry platoon would truly be a test of his ability to command.  When he arrived to take command, none of his men were there yet so he just sat at his desk confused as to what he was supposed to be doing until the Ox came in.  The Ox is a higher ranking officer in command of a fire team, and he is also courageous and has no care for his own safety.......that being said he also has no common sense and is somewhat crazy. For example, on a training exercise they were told to assault a bunker, two of the three squads flanked the bunker and so on and so forth.  Not the Ox though, he decided to charge straight at the bunker, going through barbed wire and such, all the while the "enemy" is "shooting" at them.  Basically he killed the entire squad because he did the "brave thing".  Yes the Ox is a good leader in that he is brave, and he's a bad leader for that exact same reason. And ya guess I'll leave off there for no so, till the beginning..........