Morton, Brennan, Valhalla Boys, Marine Recon Sniper in Iraq, Casemate, 2025
Valhalla Boys by Brennan Morton is unique for a firsthand account by U.S. troops serving in Iraq. That’s because the author has a real literary flair and most of his writing focuses upon him reflecting upon his experiences instead of just explaining his day to day routine. In fact it starts with Morton talking about how he read what people like Hemmingway, Heller and Vonnegut said about war and ends with him responding to them. They warned that war could darken a person’s soul and that’s what happened to the author.
Morton begins by talking about how he was always fascinated with the military since he was a little kid. As he got older he read works of literature about it and saw it as a personal challenge to see if he could become a warrior. He was no gung ho alpha male but rather a nonchalant guy who liked books. What he read about fighting would come to haunt him when he finished his deployment in Iraq.
Nearly half the book is taken up with stories about going through basic training. One of the main things he learned was that each Marine had to sacrifice for the group so that they could survive in combat. For instance, his platoon was going to participate in a march competition and Morton realized he was not good at it. He came up with the idea to tell his drill sergeant he was suddenly sick so he could get an exemption from marching and not bring his unit down. His sergeant not only approved but told him to convince several others in the platoon to do the same. One refused however and during a fighting exercise the author snapped his wrist so that he had to go to the hospital and miss the competition whether he liked it or not. Later on the recruit realized that the unit was more important than himself. It was those bonds that he made during training that would carry him through Iraq because each man would do anything for the others. It would also lead to great pain.
Valhalla Boys’ description of Iraq is original because he never mentions what year it was or where he went. Instead it focuses upon his inner thoughts and emotions while he was deployed. It’s not really about combat either but rather short vignettes. One time for instance his squad took over an Iraqi house and put the family in a room for the night. While Morton was going the bathroom a 4 year old boy walked out of the room and the author pulled his rifle on him not knowing who it was. He kept on telling the baby to go back to sleep but the kid just said “Okay Mistah” over and over before finally heading back to bed. Morton felt like he could’ve killed this innocent child.
Towards the end of the book it finally gets to the author’s thoughts on Iraq. He wrote:
Without clear battles lines or a uniform enemy there could never be a sense of accomplishment. It felt like trying to keep water out of a hole dug at the beach. No matter how fast we scooped out the salt water filling the hole more would just seep in and take its place eventually. There was no definitive win scenario.
When his tour was up Morton felt utterly frustrated. Patrols, doing guard duty, setting up ambushes, making the occasional arrest meant nothing in the big picture. What he was left with was his utter sense of despair as he had lost half the men he trained with. He also knew he was a killer. He finishes by apologizing to the authors he read who warned him about the darkness people could find in war. He didn’t listen.
Valhalla Boys is definitely a different read from what you would expect from a soldier’s tale of fighting in Iraq. You really get inside the mind of the author. It’s more about what it means to be a fighter than about Iraq. There’s the people he met in training and bonded with and then all the experiences he went through with them when he went to war which brings them even closer together because they are facing death. When people were killed it ate away at the author until a sense of loss was one of the only things he felt. The writing also makes it feel like a novel sometimes rather than an autobiography. It makes for a very distinctive tale.
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