First Day, First Firefight

Combat Journal 2 (Abridged Edition) (Memoirs From Operation Iraqi Freedom)

The war began the moment they crossed the berm into Iraq.

In FIRST DAY, FIRST FIREFIGHT, Lieutenant Colonel John J. McBrearty recounts the moment when preparation ended and combat began for an American armor battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Within hours of entering Iraq, the soldiers of California’s Army National Guard encounter their first enemy contact. The firefight that follows marks the battalion’s true entry into war.

Through the eyes of Battalion Executive Officer Major Darby Hillcrest, readers experience the weight of command in combat—where every decision can mean life or death.

But the deeper the battalion moves into Iraq, the clearer the truth becomes: The first firefight is only the beginning.

When the unit suffers its first Killed in Action, the battalion confronts the reality that war demands a price no training can prepare them to pay.

Written from a real combat journal kept inside the war zone, this memoir preserves the lived experience of modern warfare.

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