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MWSA Review On John Spencer’s second tour of duty to Iraq, he took command of a company in dire need of leadership. He found vast differences in building unit cohesion from his first tour five years earlier. Technology had entered the picture to the detriment of bonding among the ranks. What was missing? These men were not able to process the trauma of battle by sharing experiences and feelings. While on their computers, the men were communicating with family back home. Unable to share their deepest disturbing thoughts from being in battle, they had no outlet for their fear, anxiety, and trauma. How could a family snug at home relate? As Spencer observed his men, all deeply concentrating on a computer screen, he viewed technology as a threat to his unit’s cohesion.
In his previous deployment as a second lieutenant, Spencer had learned that development of a brotherhood helped a soldier survive, both physically and mentally. During the platoon’s downtime, they talked through each experience and processed the trauma. Now he was faced with the challenge of turning around a “black sheep” platoon into one capable of accolades. This story is told in an honest, forthright manner. The tools Spencer employed to achieve his goals were innovative.
After his tour of duty, Spencer returned home and faced another challenge when his wife was deployed. He became a stay-at-home dad in charge of three small children—in some aspects, a more difficult task. Spencer had an epiphany when he realized the value of the internet connection he and his kids had with his wife for much-needed daily visits.
Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War by John Spencer should be on the required reading list for any active military person potentially in a leadership position. If you have any doubt about that, read the endorsements for this book from Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal.
Review by Nancy Panko (May 2023)
Author's Synopsis
John Spencer was a new second lieutenant in 2003 when he parachuted into Iraq leading a platoon of infantry soldiers into battle. During that combat tour, he learned how important unit cohesion was to surviving a war, both physically and mentally. He observed that this cohesion developed as the soldiers experienced the horrors of combat as a group, spending their downtime together and processing their shared experiences.
When Spencer returned to Iraq five years later to take command of a troubled company, he found that his lessons on how to build unit cohesion were no longer as applicable. Rather than bonding and processing trauma as a group, soldiers now spent their downtime separately, on computers communicating with family back home. Spencer came to see the internet as a threat to unit cohesion, but when he returned home and his wife was deployed, the internet connected him and his children to his wife on a daily basis.
In Connected Soldiers Spencer delivers lessons learned about effective methods for building teams in a way that overcomes the distractions of home and the outside world, without reducing the benefits gained from connections to family.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 280
Word Count: 90,200