Grunt - Mary Roach

   2016; 272 pages.  Full Title: Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Military History; Scientific Research; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    There are all sorts of ways to get killed or horribly disabled while serving in the US Armed Forces.  The most obvious are the direct ones: the enemy can shoot you,  stab you, or blow you up with bombs which he can either drop on you, detonate under your vehicle, or launch at you from the side.

 

    The indirect ways are often the more lethal ones.  Horrible wounds such as loss of limbs leave the victim prone to infection and a long-term struggle to live a normal life.  And this assumes the medic who’s treating you on the battlefield remains level-headed and professional while giving you emergency first aid.

 

    Mother Nature can also be a killer.  Fighting in the desert heat affects a soldier’s performance, the loud noises of the machines of war can cause subtle hearing loss leading to lethal mistakes, and flies and diarrhea due to unclean conditions historically claim just as many lives as bombs and bullets.  Even birds, both alone and in groups, crash into Air Force jets thousands of times each year, usually at the most critical times: landing and taking-off.

 

    Serving in the navy has its own risks.  Ships can sink, making survivors floating shark bait.  Any mistake by a sleep-deprived sailor on a submarine can instantly create a death trap for all his shipmates.

 

    What sort of research is the military doing to deal with all this?  That’s what Mary Roach wanted to know, and Grunt details what she found out.

 

What’s To Like...

    Mary Roach divides her research efforts for Grunt into 14 chapters, plus an Introduction, each with a catchy title and subtitle.  A couple of examples:

    Chapter 1 : Second Skin: What to Wear to War

    Chapter 5 : It Could Get Weird: A Salute to Genital Transplants

    Chapter 8 : Leaky Seals: Diarrhea as a Threat to National Security

    Chapter 12 : That Sinking Feeling: When Things Go Wrong Under the Sea

 

    There’s a nice balance in the text between humor and seriousness.  Kevlar underwear made me chuckle, so did blue camouflage uniforms used by the US Navy (“so no one can see you if you fall overboard”).   But hearing from men who have lost limbs or are facing genital reconstruction (or a transplant?) was sobering, such as when a survivor describes what it’s like to step on an IED.

 

    Acronyms abound in the military.  Mary Roach had fun getting used to them, some of which are: BASH, BAM, FRACU, JUON, MRAP, WIAMan, TCAPs, WBGT, HULC, SALSA, JETT, and many more.  FYI, “BASH” stands for “Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard”.  You can learn what the rest mean either by reading the book or enlisting. 

 

    I particularly liked how the Scientific Method was applied in the studies.  How do you accurately evaluate the impact a turkey vulture has on a jet taking off?  How do you determine what attracts sharks to the water around a ship that’s just sunk?  How do you measure which type of clothing will keep you the coolest in the Iraqi desert?  The answer to that last one, BTW, is by using something called a Thermes rectal probe, which the author got to try out firsthand.

 

    Grunt is incredibly informative.  I enjoyed reading about the biochemistry of sweating.  The use of maggots as an anti-infection measure amazed me.  I rolled my eyes when I read the official “US Army Appearance and Grooming Policies”.  And both Mary Roach and I learned that the phrase “going kinetic” is Army-speak for “people are firing guns at you”.

 

     Each chapter begins with an intriguing and usually historical photograph or drawing.  There are lots of footnotes, which are both informative, and at a Terry Pratchett-level of witty.  Do not skip them!

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Sisyphean (adj.) : of a task such that it can never be completed.

Others: Wicks (as a verb).

 

Excerpts...

    The chicken gun has a sixty-foot barrel, putting it solidly in the class of an artillery plane.  While a four-pound chicken hurtling in excess of 400 miles per hour is a lethal projectile, the intent is not to kill.  On the contrary, the chicken gun was designed to keep people alive.  The carcasses are fired at jets, standing empty or occupied by “simulated crew” to test their ability to withstand what the Air Force and the aviation industry, with signature clipped machismo, call birdstrike.  The chickens are stunt doubles for geese, gulls, ducks, and the rest of the collective bird mass that three thousand or so times a year collide with Air Force jets.  (pg. 13, and the book's opening sentences)

 

    Jack passes me the M16.  “Have you shot a gun like this before?”  I shake my very heavy head.  He hands me a magazine and shows me where to load it.  I’ve seen this in movies – the quick slap with the heel of the hand.

    Hmm.

    “Other way.  So the bullets are facing forward.”  (pg. 67)

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 764 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.92/5 based on 17,129 ratings and 2,153 reviews.

 

“If you want to destroy every last bacterium and shred of dead tissue, a maggot is your man.”  (pg. 174)

    Grunt was my third Mary Roach book, and there’s never much to quibble about in any of her books.  If you’re utterly offended by cusswords in what you're reading, be aware that there were 20 or so instances here, most of which were in remarks uttered by servicemen and half of which referenced fecal matter.

 

    Naturally, I found some of the chapters more interesting than others.  Your faves will be different from mine.  The research into making stink bombs to drop on any enemy, anywhere seemed silly to me, and I wondered whether other submarines had the “sleep deprivation” problem to the same degree as Mary Roach observed during her time aboard the USS Tennessee.  There's a teaser about this at the end of this review.

 

    Overall, I found Grunt to be a fascinating read, easily on a par with the other two Mary Roach books I’ve read Bonk and Gulp (reviewed here and here).  Three more of her books are on my TBR shelf, but I do find one thing worrying:  per the Wikipedia page on her it seems like she hasn’t written any more books since Grunt came out in 2016.  I for one would be bummed if she’s discontinued her writing career.

 

    9 Stars.  The promised teaser:  What was the average daily sleep time on a US submarine when it was monitored in 1949?  And what was the average daily sleep time on the USS Tennessee when Mary Roach was doing her research?  Answers in the comments.