mary roach grunt the curious science of humans at war

She further visits and participates in an exercise in stress testing at a “combat trauma management course” run by a former action-film producer who has constructed a simulated Afghan village in Southern California near Camp Pendleton. And she proceeds, between the jokes, to both ask and answer sensible questions like “Why not prescribe antibiotics more widely?” if they alleviate intestinal distress. Mark Riddle about the dangers of diarrhea for servicemen who are frequently posted to “places where you don’t want to be drinking the water.” We learn, as she does, that Riddle’s study found that 77 percent of combatants in Iraq and 54 percent in Afghanistan had contracted the malady.

military base, Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti, to learn from Capt.

She freely admits that her aim in tackling military science is not to plumb strategy and weapons or to produce a journalistic expose, but to celebrate those military men and women who fight “the quiet, esoteric battles with less considered adversaries: exhaustion, shock, bacteria, panic, ducks.” This seemingly modest aim and the sort of easy rapport with the reader can mask the deep-dive research she engages in to emerge with the pearl that will help the layperson understand complex subjects. The worst ones, seem to have been demoted to footnotes, at least. Her MO is to parachute into a foreign field, gamely undertake tasks beyond her ability and report back to us her research, observations and experiences from the point of view of a self-deprecating but sensible everyperson.Īnd she’s an extremely likable everyperson, generous with a compliment (a Pentagon researcher is “gorgeous,” a former Marine has a “superhero jaw,” a public affairs officer is “droll and adorable”) and quick with a quip, good or bad.

Mary roach grunt the curious science of humans at war