Scars of War
From War-torn Iraq and Afghanistan to the Battlefield Within
Jason Gibney
Scars of war is the story by a young Australian Infantry soldier who deployed three times to wars in the Middle East. The first tour of duty was to Iraq as a member of a Security Detachment (SECDET 14), whose primary task was to provide security to the Australian embassy in Baghdad, much in the notorious IED alley of the ‘Green Zone’. Following further training courses back in Australia including linguistic training, the author next deployed Afghanistan, from a different Infantry battalion, as part of Mentoring Task Force 4. That entity had the prime task of conducting security operations in conjunction with 4th Brigade Afghan National Army to assist the latter acquire the necessary skills to eventually carry out their own operations. His third deployment was in 2021, this time to Kabul as part of humanitarian effort to evacuate as many eligible Afghan citizens as possible by 31 August of that year. The aggregate experiences generated, as it did for many soldiers, significant PTSD, and the author’s personal experiences and a wider coverage of related issues including his path to healing are addressed.
This is Jason Gibney’s first book. Like many of us, he joined up as an enthusiastic 17 year old, ready to accept what he was taught, serve his country, do the right thing. Willingly. His story includes detailed description of his training for whatever might lay ahead. It is very accurate and insightful; the reviewer being a fellow Infantryman and ex-Chief Instructor 1 RTB, can attest to that. The narrative of the daily duties and threats faced in Iraq is both incisive and attention holding. So too is the coverage of his service in Afghanistan. Both of these tours of duty were as an integral member of formed combat sub-units, and his narrative of the day to day operations, including his additional work as a linguist and combat first aider, is excellent. Even a reader without military experience will follow what it must have been like. The author’s linguist skill is the reason he was deployed at very short notice to Kabul where he experienced harrowing events that combine with some previous shocks associated with war. No one could to face these accumulated experiences and not be adversely affected by them. In short, he is eminently suitable to tell this story, and the book is very well titled indeed.
Scars of war has a six-chapter structure. The chapters address the deployments, preparation for them and their consequences. In my view this is a most successful way of not only telling the story but also building up to the penultimate package that this book neatly delivers. One can read the deployment chapters as standalone narratives. All three are extremely well-written and vivid in their description of what it was like on the ground. These chapters are even more informative given the author’s additional roles as a linguist and a combat first aider, force multiplier skills to those of a well-trained and highly motivated Infantryman he already was. These chapters also demonstrate an accumulating set of experiences that reflect battlefield trauma – including among non-combatants – the frustration, shame and anxiety over not being able to achieve what many soldiers believed they were deployed to fight for and achieve. As events were to prove, the odds were stacked against those deployed, and a lot of people in power might reflect on their own role.
The fifth chapter is devoted to the consequences of the tours of duty. Aptly titled ‘Broken’, the author addresses the difficulty dealing with the accumulated disappointments. These include the psychological screening and the following struggles, both on-base and off-base, with seeking help to try to deal with the situation he finds himself in. Extremely insightful sections address the author’s perspective of Australian society’s ailments of this time ranging from political correctness to the shallowness of the political process. This is not seeking excuses for why soldiers might develop PTSD. It is hard-hitting and evidence-based dialogue, the consistency and quality of which is remarkable. Frankly, every politician and other community leader involved in force projection these days would do well to read this book. By learning what our troops currently face when sent to wars that seem to have no clear mandate to win it might make such people think very carefully about how future commitments of troops to war might be managed better.
The final chapter demonstrates the remarkable capacity for dealing with one’s demons individually and contextualizing why the author found himself in the condition that his deployments led him to. I found this chapter particularly compelling, honest, and of extremely high learning value. For in it lies perhaps the measure of success of the book and its’ residual message. All wars leave scars, and those scars are not shared equally. The author, like many others one knows of and can conjecture about, has experienced his personal scars. This is a remarkable story about how he must now cope with them after the gunfire has ceased.
The author has turned an accurate light on many deep ailments in how Australia has treated – or perhaps NOT treated – its veterans. Excellent imagery, references including publications made within the past twelve months support an extremely well-written book. Jason Gibney has not just recorded another soldier’s story; that in itself is one of the best publications of its type that I have had the pleasure to read. He has delivered a telling message to our nation’s leaders. It will appeal to the lay reader as an honest story of a soldier who stood up, served his country, and was then discharged as medically unfit.
You do not want to miss reading Scars of War. It is one of the best I have read which has been written by a field soldier of junior rank but superior intellect and devotion to duty. My encouragement to Jason is to present the public with another book. This one addresses the scars of the author’s personal war, scars similar to those carried by so many of his fellow veterans. And those of the innocents caught up in war. Readers from a wide range of persuasions are strongly recommended to read it. And for those with the power to deploy Australia’s young Service personnel, to better understand the consequences of deploying troops to ‘limited’ outcome operations. Fight to win, or not fight at all.
Reviewer: Lieutenant Colonel Russell Linwood, ASM (Retd)
