Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army: Young, Female and in the U.S. Army [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

As a fellow Arabic linguist deployed during the war, I was very interested to read this book. I actually read the entire book in one sitting. That is not, however, because Williams had anything interesting or enlightening to say about her experiences. It was purely out of amazement that such a whiny, petty story found a publisher. For someone who claims to be so intelligent, with a degree in literature, Williams need serious work on her writing skills. The book read like a catty, 16-year old's diary.

Beyond that, I found her self-importance grating on me with every word. She writes as if she should be heralded MERELY FOR DOING HER JOB! And while I agree, the military has its fair share of problems, including plenty of imcompetent supervisors, I find it disgusting that she saw fit to name in the book, everyone who crossed paths with her and ended up on her bad side. I'm sure they have more than a few words to say about her performance as well. After 2 hours of reading how horrible everyone was at their jobs, I found her supposedly heartfelt thanks to fellow servicemebers at the end shallow, cheap, and meaningless.

And as for her claims of sexual harrassment, I have to wonder how much is based in truth, and how much is more drama queen whining. In all honesty, if you have to wake up a year later and remind yourself that you are not a slut, that says to me that you have done some things to make you feel that way about yourself.

It saddens me to think that civilians will read this book and think it is an accurate description of women's life in the military. Maybe it represents some women. In general, those are the women that I am happy get the hell out after their minimum obligation is served.

Read this book if you want the perfect account of a self-important female soldier who overestimates her own intelligence.

Williams opens her memoir by declaring that all Army females are either a bitch (they won't sleep with you) or a slut (they'll sleep with everyone but you). She stayed a bitch during her tour in the Army, but that didn't stop her from being the subject of some nasty rumors.

Williams is a bit older than your typical enlistee, she's college-educated, and she's dated a Muslim man, so she provides a unique perspective on the Army and her deployment to Muslim Iraq. She's stationed for some time with 18-year-old infantry grunts, and while she has a much different (and understanding) attitude toward the locals, she understands how someone defending a position and getting attacked can do nothing but hate every Iraqi man, woman, and child as a potential insurgent.

Again and again, Williams questions the plan as a whole. Stop points and roadblocks are erected with no Arabic signage, Muslim women are afraid of strange men, and the last military in the country (Saddam's) consisted of ruthless killers, so how are local Iraqi villages supposed to understand what is going on at roadblocks? Then again, there have been plenty of female suicide bombers, so what are the soldiers supposed to expect? Williams has to use underground circuits to get her vegetarian kosher/halal meals, even though most soldiers hate them and abandon them with the trash, because she can't officially get religious meals due to a "personal dietary" (vegetarian) preference. In one heartbreaking scene, Williams interprets during the search of a Catholic monastery. Her superiors are hot-headed, interrupting service, destroying property, and ignoring the priest who reaches out to them as a brother. Later, she gets someone to do a good turn for the monastery, which leaves the reader with some hope.

Williams also deals repeatedly with female leaders who put their soldiers at risk, don't understand the mission, don't grasp the political situation, and are incompetent when it comes to dealing with her group's equipment. Williams disagrees with the military system of promoting people due to time in grade unless something really bad happens. She comes across too many people promoted to leadership roles who don't have the skills to back their position up, but they happened to have served long enough to move up. In her closing comments, she discusses how the Army gives you no incentive to excel at your job--the bare minimum is just fine, and it will get you promoted just fine.

Williams provides an unparalleled view of life on the ground floor of the war in Iraq. She never provides any solid answers, choosing instead to reveal how confused and frustrated she was, yet how rewarding some parts of the experience were. Another reviewer commented that the memoir might be a little early, when her anger over certain situations was still too fresh. I rather like the fact that she is honest about her love/hate relationship with the Army and the mission in Iraq, and she transports the reader to the point of view of a foot solider. I would have liked to learn a little more about what her tasks were doing signal intelligence for 12-hour shifts (on occasion), but perhaps she got legal advice not to reveal those secrets of the US Army.

I read this book with great interest because both Williams and I were deployed witht he 101st and I thought it would be interesting to see the war from another 101st soldier's perspective. What I got was angry, wondering really, what war did Williams go to. I spent my year the only female in an all male unit and did not once get groped, leered at, or attacked. I went out everyday with the guys and was expected to pull my weight. The only part of William's book I found myself connecting with was the last chapter about coming home. That chapter was spot on. Otherwise William's story is not a accurate description of what it is like to be female in the military but should be subtitled The Story of One Young Female Soldier in the Army.