They Called Us "Lucky": The Life and Afterlife of the Iraq War's Hardest Hit Unit

by Ruben Gallego, Jim DeFelice

Overview

From Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a "powerful" and "searing" memoir of his journey from childhood poverty to Harvard to the Marine Corps, where served in the hardest-hit unit of the Iraq War

At first, they were “Lucky Lima.” Infantryman Ruben Gallego and his brothers in Lima Company—3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, young men drawn from blue-collar towns, immigrant households, Navajo reservations—returned unscathed on patrol after patrol through the increasingly violent al Anbar region of Iraq. After two months, Lima didn't have a casualty, not a single Purple Heart, no injury worse than a blister.

Then, in May 2005, Lima’s fortunes flipped. Unknown to Ruben and his fellow grunts, al Anbar had recently become a haven for al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The bin Laden-sponsored group had recruited radicals from all over the world for jihad against the Americans. On one fateful day, they were lured into a death house; the ambush cost the lives of two men, including a platoon sergeant. Two days later, Ruben’s best friend, Jonathon Grant, died in an IED attack, along with several others. Events worsened from there. A disastrous operation in Haditha in August claimed the lives of thirteen Marines when an IED destroyed their amphibious vehicle. It was the worst single-day loss for the Marines since the 1983 Beirut bombings. By the time 3/25 went home in November, it had lost more men than any other single unit in the war. Forty-six Marines and two Navy Corpsmen serving with the battalion in Iraq were killed in action during their roughly nine-month activation.

They Called Us “Lucky” details Ruben Gallego’s journey and includes harrowing accounts of some of the war’s most costly battles. It details the struggles and the successes of Ruben and the rest of Lima Company following Iraq, examining the complicated matter of PTSD. And it serves as a tribute to Ruben’s fallen comrades, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063045828
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/09/2021
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	35 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ruben Gallego (D, AZ) represents the 7th District of Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives. A son of Hispanic immigrants, Representative Gallego was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from Harvard University with a degree in international relations. While an undergrad, Gallego enlisted as an infantryman in the Marine Corps Reserve. Corporal Gallego deployed to Iraq in 2005, where he and the other members of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Elected to Congress in 2014 as a Democrat, Gallego is a member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the House Armed Services Committee, where he serves as chairman of the Intelligence and Special Operations subcommittee. Gallego lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and son.

Jim DeFelice is the author of sixteen New York Times bestsellers, including American Sniper, the basis for Bradley Cooper’s blockbuster movie of the same name. Some of his other credits include Every Man a Hero, a bestselling account of Army medic Ray Lambert’s heroics at D-Day in World War Two, and They Called Us Lucky, the story of Lima 3/25, the Marine Corps’ hardest hit unit in the Iraq War and the life of Congressman Ruben Gallego, a Harvard undergrad who joined the Corps to serve as an enlisted grunt.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Were We in Combat? 1

I Harvard Marine 7

II Flying In 39

III In the Suck 81

IV Lucky Lima 113

V Desolation 143

VI We Just Keep Dying 179

VII The Worst Road in Iraq 209

VIII Dead Man Walking 229

IX Back to Me 243

X Eleven is My Favorite Number 271

Postscript: The Lucky and the Dead 303

Coda: Democracy Survives-The Insurrection, January 6, 2021 307

Collaborator's Note: There is No Such Thing as a "Part-Time" Marine 315

Sources 321

Thanks 325

Editorial Reviews

"Gallego enlisted in the Marine Corps and later served as an infantryman in Iraq, where he saw extensive combat as part of a company that went on to suffer some of the highest casualties of any Marine company during the conflict. ... Gallego’s memoir of his war experience, They Called Us Lucky, is an emotional and at times angry book that emphasizes the tenacity of combat trauma in his own life and in the lives of his fellow-soldiers." — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker

"A powerful, grunt’s-eye view of modern combat and the struggle to readjust to life back home. ... This searing autobiography leaves a mark." — Publishers Weekly

“A deeply felt, swift-moving account of war and its complex aftermath.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A striking account of the men and women who defend our great nation. A great gift for anyone who values their dedication and sacrifice." — Scott Kelly

“A forthright memoir about a man who fought enemies, both external and internal. The journey of the soldier doesn’t end when they are discharged, as Gallego shows, the adjustment is constant. The scars of war permeate even the toughest of soldiers and Gallego’s memoir proves that with empathy and sympathy.” — San Francisco Book Review

"An outstanding entry in the field of military memoir, Gallego's colloquial narrative stays on target throughout his many grim experiences with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines in the Iraq War. ... Ruben Gallego offers a spellbinding account of his 'spur of the moment' decision to enlist and his devastating experiences at the height of the Iraq War." — Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

"A striking account of the men and women who defend our great nation. A great gift for anyone who values their dedication and sacrifice."

Scott Kelly

"An outstanding entry in the field of military memoir, Gallego's colloquial narrative stays on target throughout his many grim experiences with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines in the Iraq War. ... Ruben Gallego offers a spellbinding account of his 'spur of the moment' decision to enlist and his devastating experiences at the height of the Iraq War."

Shelf Awareness

A forthright memoir about a man who fought enemies, both external and internal. The journey of the soldier doesn’t end when they are discharged, as Gallego shows, the adjustment is constant. The scars of war permeate even the toughest of soldiers and Gallego’s memoir proves that with empathy and sympathy.

San Francisco Book Review

★ 2021-09-29
A Marine-turned-politician recounts his time under fire in Iraq.

An ambitious but poor youngChicagoan, Gallego worked his way to a Harvard scholarship—and then, as he readily allows, partied hard enough to be asked to leave. Aimless, he joined the Marine Corps after 9/11 and was packed off to boot camp, where he tried to keep the Harvard connection quiet. His drill instructor found out and upbraided him: “Why the hell aren’t you an officer?...Are you stupid?” The author’s well-reasoned response in this agile memoir is to note that the division between Marine recruit and Harvard undergrad isn’t the political one of conservative versus liberal but instead a more abiding one of class and, to some extent, ethnicity. “Statistically,” writes Gallego, “you won’t find many young Latino males raised by single women in households with sketchy backgrounds getting college degrees, let alone from Harvard. The odds were far better that I’d be in prison, or even dead.” By the odd logic of the Marine Corps, Gallego was assigned to a reserve unit in New Mexico and sent to Iraq, where, for a time, his company was dubbed “Lucky Lima” for not having taken casualties. That luck soon ran out. Toward the end of Gallego's tour, Lima “had the dubious honor of being the hardest hit unit in the Marine Corps since the bombing at Beirut.” Gallego writes affectingly of his friendship with a young Navajo man who died there, one reason that, now a liberal Democrat and Arizona congressman, he takes an active legislative interest in Native American affairs. Condemning the Iraq misadventure as a political stunt—of a visiting Dick Cheney, he writes, “This asshole pushed us into a war that we didn’t need and then didn’t get us the armor that we did need”—the author notes that his training has helped put discipline in his life. It also saved others on Jan. 6, when he and fellow veterans helped their congressional colleagues escape the insurrectionary mob.

A deeply felt, swift-moving account of war and its complex aftermath.

Kirkus Reviews