''Heavy Metal: A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad'' is a book by

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Jason Conroy and Ron Martz, published in 2005 by

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. The book provides a personal account of the fighting that took place during the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, following Charlie Company from its home base at

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, to training in the deserts of

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and

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

, and through the battles on the road to

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

. The book describes the challenges that Conroy and his soldiers faced, such as supply shortages, intelligence failures, and difficult weather conditions. It also details the tactics used by Iraqi militias and

Fedayeen Saddam Fedayeen Saddam () was a paramilitary Fedayeen organization loyal to the Ba'athist Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The name was chosen to mean "Saddam's Men of Sacrifice". At its height, the group had 30,000–40,000 members. Irregular force ...

, including suicide attacks, to try to stop the tanks. The book recounts how Charlie Company engaged in a battle with

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

-made T-72 tanks at point-blank range near Baghdad, a tactic that was not part of Army doctrine and for which the soldiers were not trained. Conroy and Martz include information about the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, including how museum employees and others hid most of the artifacts before the fighting began and how the number of stolen items was exaggerated by a member of the museum staff in interviews with international media.

Authors

Captain Jason Conroy, a 14-year veteran of the

, was the Charlie Company Commander, 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment. Ron Martz writes on defense issues for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was named writer of the year by the Atlanta Press Club and

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and finished second to the staff of

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in the National Headliner Awards for his coverage of the

war in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. Other armed conflicts involving Iraq * Wars during Mandatory Iraq ** Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921 * Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery confli ...

. He is the co-author of three previous books on military history.

Editions

* {{ISBN, 1-57488-856-0

External links

Book Photos and Video from Operation Iraqi Freedom

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2005 non-fiction books Iraq War books