A literary novel and a quick read at 173 pages.
A six man reconnaissance unit of the 10th Mountain Division is in Somalia (unnamed), in "The City", calling in fire missions on the outskirts of town. The fire missions are intended to scare the warlords into compliance. Observing from atop the tallest multi-story building in town the soldiers kill a couple people coming up the stairs through flash and shrapnel grenade booby traps. In the dark the soldiers could not tell that the culprits were kids. The unit goes to the soccer stadium for a helicopter extraction but the aircraft are shot up and to leave. The unit has to escape on foot, hunted as child-killers, and slowly loses members along the way.
"Lean yet lyrical" story of modern war. "Fast paced moving [story] of the fog of war". According to some interviewer on Barnes and Noble at least. Yech. The author even refers to metaphor in the book during the interview.
One of those coming of age, Heart of Darkness journey, crazy guys along for the ride, moral ambiguity novels. But, it was well written and a good story. Eck is from Kansas. Story "loosely inspired" by service in Africa.
There is a Matt Eck real estate agent who works in Sedgewick County, I wonder if he is related. No links to the author off the real estate page.
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