The Eyes of Orion

Five Tank Lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War

By: Alex Vernon, Neal Creighton Jr., Greg Downey, Rob Holmes, David Trybula

Narrated by: Ralph Morocco

Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award, The Eyes of Orion is a highly personal account of the day-to-day experiences of five platoon leaders who served in the same tank battalion in the 24th Infantry Division during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

While professional soldiers and historians will undoubtedly glean much from this narrative, the heart of the account concerns the experiences of the five young lieutenants as they prepared for and served in combat - from their deployment to Saudi Arabia through their six months in the desert training for war, their four days in combat and several weeks of occupation in Iraq, and finally their homecoming. The authors treat their combat experience in Saudi and Kuwait from the perspective of junior officers, all in their twenties and just out of college (four are graduates of West Point and one received his commission through an ROTC program), who served on the front line - facing physical, personal, moral, and leadership challenges.

©1999 The Kent State University Press (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The single best book on the Persian Gulf War on the market today." ( Military Heritage)

A must read for ROTC Cadets

Any additional comments?

I was an Army lieutenant 1974 - 1978. Never went to war like these lieutenants did. But I had many of the same anxieties these five lieutenants had. These guys are reflecting back several years after the war. They each have their own thoughts and experiences. A couple lived in a bachelor pad. One stayed in the BOQ. One was a scout platoon leader, the others leading tank platoons. Some had great platoon sergeants, one had a horrid PSG. Some loved their company C.O.'s, some had weak C.O.'s. All had one great fear (as I did) "to let their men down." These guys are honest with their feelings, about the SNAFU's in the Army and about the growing up they did. Most of them won "Combat V's". If I were an ROTC instructor, I would make this book required reading for cadets...and then we would honestly talk about it. The reader is a little dry, by the story is so compelling.

Good story, great lessons, awful narrator

Would you be willing to try another one of Ralph Morocco’s performances?

Nope. Narrator sounded like a deep-voiced version of a cars' GPS. Thank god most of the book was written journal-style with minimal dialogue. Any human interactions were made super awkward and unnatural.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. Quite dull (as was the nature of Desert Shield) but still a good book.

Any additional comments?

Good story with great lessons for new LTs, but the book does not lend itself well to the audio-format. With 1 author drawing on 5 experiences, it goes back and forth from first and 3rd person as the primary author gives a brief intro then lets the other author tell it. Very confusing with such a monotone narrator, though I'm sure it would be plainly obvious because of the formatting changes.

OMG. this was painful to listen to

Terrible oration on an otherwise dry story. if there was some profound element here i never found it.