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crack_van2012-03-04 07:04 pm
alethialia.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2012-03-04 07:04 pm
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Fandom Overview: Generation Kill
Hello! I shall be driving the Generation Kill Humvee this month. Before I get to that, I thought I'd introduce you to the world and the many, many characters therein.
"Man, we Marines are so homoerotic. It's all we talk about. You ever realize how homoerotic this whole thing is?" -Espera
OVERVIEW
In 2003, reporter Evan Wright embedded with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the US Marine Corps as they prepared to invade Iraq and stayed with them through the completion of their mission. From the experience he wrote a series of articles for Rolling Stone, which then became the basis of his book, Generation Kill.
That book became the Generation Kill miniseries, written and produced by David Simon and Ed Burns (of The Wire), with Evan Wright as a consultant. The seven-hour miniseries aired on HBO in the summer of 2008.
The result is the single best fictionalized account of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to date. One of its biggest strengths is it takes no political position; it simply offers events as they happened and it lets viewers draw their own conclusions.
From the book:
Recon Marines
Swift, Silent, Deadly
Recon Marines are the most highly trained in the Corps. Numbering fewer than a thousand, Corps-wide, they are the best of the best, put through the same training as Navy SEALs and the Army's special forces. And then they get more training.
The men are warriors, among the few that can claim that title unironically.
Their specialty is stealth. They infiltrate enemy lines, gather intelligence, and leave without detection. Their nickname is "the quiet professionals." Generally, if a shot gets fired, their mission has failed.
As much as any Marine can be, they're also the independent operators of the Corps. These are the cowboys, expected to think and act without officers' direct orders. In the field, the most senior person is usually a Sergeant.
Which is why barreling through Iraq in unarmored, open-top Humvees with their officers right alongside them is so completely foreign to their training and experience.
But they're Marines; they make do.
It all sounds terribly serious and humorless, right? Turns out, not so much. These Marines are the most hilarious, offensive, profane, no-bullshit, take-no-prisoners screwballs in the history of competent badassery.
Here's an example of their dynamic—Ray, Brad, and Trombley in a scene about why they each joined the Marine Corps:
Yeah.
Be forewarned: at times it's racist, misogynistic, homophobic...and basically every other—ist form of offensiveness there is. It's incredibly dense. It doesn't hold your hand or make it easy for you. That said, it isn't particularly gory or graphic; I see more gore on broadcast crime dramas.
It is so very worth it.
CHARACTERS
BRAVO 2
Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick
25. Bravo 2 Platoon Commander. Reports to Encino Man. His journey through the miniseries is the loss of idealism, from belief to despair. Nate served as an infantry officer during the invasion of Afghanistan, after which he joined Recon and served in Iraq. In Afghanistan, he and Espera served in the same company; he's one of the few enlisted men Fick quotes in his book. Before Afghanistan, Nate flew a Black Hawk rescue mission with Espera. Back in college, he attended a talk by Tom Ricks, which inspired him to join the military. Former altar boy. Double-majored in political science and classics at Dartmouth. Originally from Baltimore.
After Iraq, Nate came home, got promoted to Captain, and left the Corps. He went to Harvard where he got dual graduate degrees: his MBA and his Master in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government. He then went on to run the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) where he is, wait for it, Tom Ricks' boss. Because life is funny like that.
BRAVO 2-1 ALPHA
Humvee #1
Sergeant Brad Colbert
Iceman
28. Bravo 2's top team leader. His is the lead Humvee, Bravo 2-1 Alpha. Brad is, in short, a Recon god, revered by the other enlisted men and sought after by Nate for advice. He's a sarcastic tech geek who—according to the book—shuns the brotherhood of Marines, saying he'd never socialize with these people if they weren't in the Corps. He led Kocher and Pappy's Recon team in Afghanistan. In his personal life, he was engaged to his junior high girlfriend until she left him to marry his best friend since junior high; they're all still friends (for a given definition of the word). Now the only relationship with women he deems acceptable is with prostitutes.
He has a large tattoo on his back inspired by a Louis Royo illustration of a warrior princess from Heavy Metal magazine. He loves to race his motorcycle—the only thing he misses from back home—and listen to Barry Manilow and Air Supply. He really hates country music. His specialty is deep-sea diving. Adopted by an upper-middleclass Jewish family. Republican. Originally from San Diego, Brad's parents put him in a military academy in high school.
After Iraq, Brad went to England for a two-year exchange program with the Royal Marines. He's still a Recon god.
Corporal Joshua Ray Person
22. Driver and radio operator (RTO) for the lead Humvee. He never stops talking (or singing), offering hilariously insightful observations about anything and everything. The brilliance coming out of his mouth needs to be seen to be believed; it is that fantastic. He tweaks his way through the invasion, high on Ripped Fuel, chewing tobacco, and instant coffee crystals. Brad considers him one of the most competent Marines in the platoon. A genius with radios. Loves NASCAR. Was on the debate team in high school. Had his own band (which sucked). A veteran of Afghanistan. Has a girlfriend back home. Originally from Nevada, Missouri.
Got home and left the Corps.
Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley
Whopper Jr.
19. The youngest Marine in Bravo 2. Rides behind Ray in the lead Humvee. Obsessed with getting to shoot his SAW machine gun. Is only a Recon Marine on paper because he hasn't yet completed the Basic Reconnaissance Course. Somewhat of an outsider. Immature. Married with a son on the way. Originally from Michigan.
Corporal Walter Hasser
23. Heavy-weapons gunner first on 2-1 Bravo, then traded to 2-1 Alpha because he had more experience on the Mark-19. One of the most well-liked Marines in the platoon. Loves country music and has a great voice. On occasion, Brad will even make an exception to his no-country-music rule and let Walt sing. He and Ray compose songs together. Originally from Taylorstown, Virginia.
Evan Wright
Reporter, Scribe, War Scribe
Reporter for Rolling Stone, embedded with First Recon. He approached Nate at Camp Mathilda because Nate's was the only one whose name he remembered. Nate places him under Brad's care in team one. Only because of Brad's cooperation does Wright get real access to the other enlisted men. Though his job is to observe, when they're in real danger even he picks up a gun, for which he has the men's respect. Used to write for Hustler, which immediately endeared him to many in the platoon. Has a girlfriend, whose picture he lent to the platoon; he never got it back.
BRAVO 2-1 BRAVO
Humvee #2
Sergeant Antonio Espera
Poke
30. 2-1 assistant team leader, but he actually commands his own Humvee, 2-1 Bravo. He spends his time railing against the white man and philosophizing. His diatribes are tongue-in-cheek, meant to be humorous, but not everyone gets that (i.e. the Corps). He joined the Corps after working as a repo man in LA. Came to Recon at the same time as Nate; Brad pulled strings to get him into Recon as his assistant team leader. Espera's one of Brad's closest friends, though he declares he's only friends with Brad to piss him off. Turned down a degree from his community college. Married with kids. Big family-man. Originally from Riverside, California.
Corporal Gabriel Garza
22. Heavy-weapons gunner first on 2-1 Alpha, then traded to 2-1 Bravo. Mans a .50-cal in Espera's Humvee. Is incredibly strong and works out all the time. Rarely talks, but everyone likes him. Raised by his grandmother in south Texas.
Corporal Jason Lilley
23. Driver of 2-1 Bravo. Brings a videocamera to war, hoping to get footage to sell on CNN. Not particularly religious, but found himself praying through the ambushes anyway. Married. His wife joined the Marines so they could be closer, to his surprise and displeasure. Lilley compiled the ending video montage.
Lance Corporal Nathan Christopher
23. The only Recon Marine to join in the battalion chaplain's prayer service. Was happy to get to help people in Iraq, carrying a baby through their roadblock.
Corporal Hector Leon
Mexican. Films the action for Lilley. Really not much about him.
BRAVO 2-2
Humvee #3
Sergeant Larry Shawn Patrick
Pappy
28. 2-2 team leader. He and Rudy serve as one of the platoon's sniper teams. The others call him the coldest killer in the platoon. Famous for nonsense wisdom like "don't pet a burning dog." Mild-mannered. He doesn't have the bloodlust of the others and doesn't want to talk about his sniper kills. He'd be just as happy to go home, but he wants to be there to help the rest of the men through it. Is the only Marine in Bravo 2 casevaced, shot in the foot at Al Muwaffaqiyah. Originally from a small mountain town in North Carolina.
Sergeant Rudy Reyes
Fruity Rudy
31. 2-2's driver and assistant team leader, Rudy is Bravo 2's best martial-arts fighter. He also serves as Pappy's spotter in their role as one of the platoon's sniper teams. He's often ogled by the other men for being unbelievably beautiful. Relentlessly cheerful and positive, he's the platoon's unofficial fitness guru. He brought with him luxury items like an espresso pot to brew Starbucks coffee. He cleans up Pappy when he's missed a spot shaving; the two are very close, with Rudy even joking they're like husband and wife. Married. New Age-y. Originally from Kansas City, where he grew up in boys' homes.
Corporal Anthony Jacks
Manimal
23. 2-2's heavy-weapons gunner. Missing two front teeth. Quite the misogynist asshole. Married with kids. His wife is leaving him.
Corporal James Chaffin
22. Uses lots of racial slurs, which gets him into spats with Stafford, whom he calls a "fucking wigger." Despite that, they're close friends. Also close with Manimal.
Sergeant Michael Brunmeier
Budweiser
Well, he likes alcohol. He had about two lines and wasn't referenced in the book, so yeah, I got nothing.
COMMAND VEHICLE
Humvee #4
Gunnery Sergeant Mike Wynn
Gunny
35. Driver of Bravo 2's Command Vehicle and Nate's right-hand man. The oldest man in the platoon and one of its most experienced Marines. In his role as the platoon Sergeant, he's a bit like the mom of the group. He led a sniper team in Somalia with quite a few confirmed kills, which impresses the others. Staunch conservative. Married. Originally from Texas.
Corporal Evan Stafford
Q-tip
20. Nicknamed Q-tip because of his blond hair. Projects absolute cool almost all the time, for which the other Marines look up to him. Identifies strongly with black culture and decries the others' racist comments. Often gets into it with Chaffin over his racist shit. Despite that, he and Chaffin are close friends. Goes around saying "screwby," even though no one quite knows what it means. Originally from Tampa, Florida.
Private First Class John Christeson
19. The newest guy in the platoon. He and Q-tip spend 12 to 20 hours a day in the back of Nate's vehicle, singing. Nelly's "Hot in Herre" is a particular favorite. His tour in Iraq is the first time he's been outside the US. He received an appointment to go to the Naval Academy, but after 9/11 decided to enlist instead. Originally from Lebanon, Illinois.
BRAVO 2-3
Humvee #5
Sergeant Steven Lovell
26. 2-3 team leader. An expert sniper. Wright says he has a "sly, rural wit." Went to college for chemical engineering, but didn't like being around eggheads. Originally from a town outside Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Navy Hospitalman Second Class Robert Timothy Bryan
Doc
29. Bravo 2's medical corpsman, he rides with Lovell's team in 2-3. He's gone through the Navy's most elite special-warfare training and could have chosen either the Navy SEALs or Recon. He's always pissed off at something and calls himself an asshole. He's unafraid to tell Encino Man the truth, calling him incompetent to his face. He's bitter about the war and their role in it, even while they're still there. A self-made man, he was the first of his family to go to college. Has a Master's in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Originally from a small town outside Philadelphia.
Immediately post-Iraq, he stayed in the military, despite his misgivings, because he didn't trust someone else to make good decisions in his place.
Sergeant Leandro Baptista
Shady B
2-3's driver. When he gets excited, his English goes to shit and starts speaking Portuguese on the comms (which none of the guys can understand). He's teaching some of the others Portuguese. Originally from Brazil.
Corporal Michael Stinetorf
Stiney
21. 2-3's heavy weapons gunner. Livid about officers blowing up civilians. Often served as Doc's assistant. Don't know a lot about him.
Corporal Teren Holsey
T
20. Laughs off the others' racial slurs as Marine humor. Reading War & Peace. Learning Portuguese from Baptista. Don't know a lot about him.
BRAVO 3
Captain Dave McGraw
Captain America
31. Bravo 3 Platoon Commandeer. Reports to Encino Man. His men think he's certifiable. Prone to hysterics. Spends his time in Iraq hunting for Iraqi military uniforms as souvenirs, which the men believe is unprofessional. Makes Kocher angry enough to openly defy his (crackpot) orders. Married.
Sergeant Eric Kocher
23. Top team leader in Bravo 3. Reports to Captain America. Spends much of his time with Bravo 2 because he served with Brad and Pappy in Afghanistan. Is very close friends with Brad. Married; his wife's civil affairs unit is in Nasiriyah. He keeps a "bitter journal" to describe events as they actually happened (rather than the sugar-coating they get by others) in case something happens to him.
COMMAND
Captain Craig Schwetje
Encino Man
Early 30s. Bravo's Company Commander. Ex-football star who was an intelligence analyst before taking command of Bravo. Likable enough, but untrusted as a commander. Considered a dimwit by his men. He's also stubborn. When he loses face in front of the men, he digs in deeper, causing more problems.
Gunnery Sergeant Ray Griego
Casey Kasem
Late 30s. Bravo Company operations chief and Bravo's most senior enlisted man. Rides with Encino Man. Like the officers, he normally wouldn't deploy to the field. His job is to make sure that the men have the supplies they need, a job at which he failed utterly. There's a lot of hostility toward him for that fact, exacerbated by the way he passive-aggressively tries to undermine Nate's authority. He also brought a videocamera and hopes to sell a documentary from the footage, which only pisses the men off more. He's a certified combat stress instructor.
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Ferrando
Godfather
42. Commander of First Recon. Reports to General Mattis. Called "Godfather" because of his raspy voice, the result of throat cancer. Constantly worried that First Recon won't 'be in the game' of the war. Obsessed with maintaining the Grooming Standard. Never been in combat before. Often refers to himself in the third-person. As a commander he's bold to the point of recklessness.
Sergeant Major John Sixta
Mid-40s. Most senior enlisted man in First Recon and Godfather's right-hand man. His job is to enforce the rules within the enlisted ranks, including that of Godfather's Grooming Standard. As Pappy succinctly puts it: "Sergeant Major Sixta's job is to be an asshole, and he excels at the position."
Major General James Mattis
Chaos
Commander of the First Marine Division, which includes First Recon. Revered by officers and enlisted alike. He crafted First Recon's role as "shock troops," a grand experiment in maneuver warfare that had the Marines charging ahead of all other forces without stopping. Relieved Colonel Dowdy of command in the field, a highly unusual move. You do not fuck with this man.
OTHERS
Meesh
19. First Recon's translator. Yes, the only one for the whole battalion. He's an overweight Kuwaiti who speaks English like he learned it from MTV. Every time he translates, he forces the Iraqis to hand over anything valuable they have—from cigarettes to homebrewed beer to a goat. His obliviousness to danger endears him to the men, even as they don't entirely trust what he says. He supposedly works for the CIA.
Captain Bryan Patterson
32. Alpha's Company Commander. Holds the same slot as Encino Man, only in Bravo's sister company, Alpha. The exact opposite of Encino Man; he's a wise leader the men trust and admire. Calm, articulate, supremely respectful of his men. Graduated from the Naval Academy. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana.
Colonel Joe Dowdy
Commander of RCT-1, a Regimental Combat Team of 6,000 Marines. First Recon served as their advance element. Was relieved of command by General Mattis due to his indecision over how to take Nasiriyah.
BY THE NUMBERS
374 Marines in First Recon
4 companies: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Headquarters & Support (H&S)
160 Recon Marines in First Recon spread across Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie companies
21 enlisted Marines in each platoon
1 Navy medical corpsman in each platoon
1 commander in each platoon
3 teams to a platoon, each team led by a sergeant
4 heavy weapons gunners in each platoon, manning a .50-caliber machine gun or a
MK-19
48 days spent in the field before the war begins
FANDOM
GK has a small, tight-knit fandom that's been steadily producing some amazing fic since 2008. While Brad/Nate is the biggest pairing, you can find most others and there's no contentiousness between the various 'ships. The fandom on the whole is refreshingly drama-free, full of mature, thoughtful, hilarious, talented people. In a word: awesome.
It's a fandom big on its research and doing justice to what we saw on screen. One of the things for which GK is lauded is that it gets the details right—likely because they had some of the real Marines as their technical advisers—and writers in the fandom try to do the same.
As an illustrative example, some of our writers did Dissection of an MRE posts where they tried eating MREs. Which is just one of the many reasons I so adore my fandom.
A NOTE ABOUT CANON
Strictly-speaking, canon is what we see on screen. That's certainly true, but the miniseries is incredibly dense and can be confusing, especially to newcomers. Several other sources are regularly used to fill in the blank spaces (or figure out just what the hell is going on).
Generation Kill, the book, is incredibly helpful. While the miniseries takes much directly from the book (especially in terms of dialogue), the book includes a lot of background and backstory and explanation for what we see on screen. I used it extensively for the above character summaries and many writers also do so for stories.
"The Killer Elite" series of Rolling Stone articles form the basis of what became the Generation Kill book, so they're also useful.
One Bullet Away is the book written by Nathaniel Fick about his training, deployment to Afghanistan, and deployment to Iraq. It's very helpful in illuminating what was going on within the officer ranks, which we don't see a lot of; since Wright was embedded with the enlisted men he writes largely from that perspective. It's also fascinating to track the similarities and differences in how Wright and Fick write about the same material. It's not a great book, and Fick admits it could have been better, but it's a compelling look inside his head and makes some of his actions more understandable.
Those four form the main sources of info that many writers use. There are also others: HBO's roundtable with the real Marines, Rudy's book, Tom Ricks' blog, CNAS' white papers and panels, general Marine Corps news...really, the sky's the limit here. As I said above, this is a research-heavy fandom where writers do a lot of work. And it shows in the fic.
Readers don't have to read all these sources—though they are good reads with lots of info you'll likely see peppered throughout the fic—but I think they're especially valuable for writers tackling this fandom.
RESOURCES
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
generation_kill The main comm. It's a small fandom, so pretty much everything gets linked to here. Fic is locked to the comm, so you must join to access it.
combat_jack Challenge comm
yagkyas Holiday Fic Exchange comm
Generation Kill Links List atgeneration_kill (must join the comm to access)
After Action, put together by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oxoniensis. Fan-generated transcripts of the episodes, along with maps, a timeline, screencaps, and a much more comprehensive list of characters (because yeah, there are even more).
Generation Kill Starter Kit put together bytemplemarker. Exactly what it says it is—a great place to start.
Recs
Generation Kill Primer + Picspam + Recs put together bysnarkaddict.
Themed Recs atgeneration_kill (must join the comm to access)
combat_jack has the Friday Five themed rec lists
GK Recs over atrecs
GK Recs atmkrecs
Brad/Nate AU Master List over atswing_set13au (must join the comm to access)
AU master list for all of the other pairings, including gen (must join the comm to access)
GK rec list bypommederis
10k+ GK recs bymementis
...and there are many more. That'll get you started as far as recs go.
Official-type stuff
Mo Ryan (then of the Chicago-Tribune) posted many of HBO's press materials, which can be found here: 'Generation Kill': Everything you need to know about who's who and what's what. You can dl a chart of the chain of command, charts of who's in each Humvee, along with many other resources. Very helpful for newcomers.
HBO's official GK site
GK at IMDB. The cast list is especially helpful.
"Man, we Marines are so homoerotic. It's all we talk about. You ever realize how homoerotic this whole thing is?" -Espera
OVERVIEW
In 2003, reporter Evan Wright embedded with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the US Marine Corps as they prepared to invade Iraq and stayed with them through the completion of their mission. From the experience he wrote a series of articles for Rolling Stone, which then became the basis of his book, Generation Kill.
That book became the Generation Kill miniseries, written and produced by David Simon and Ed Burns (of The Wire), with Evan Wright as a consultant. The seven-hour miniseries aired on HBO in the summer of 2008.
The result is the single best fictionalized account of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to date. One of its biggest strengths is it takes no political position; it simply offers events as they happened and it lets viewers draw their own conclusions.
From the book:
In the coming weeks, it will fall on the men in this platoon and their battalion to lead significant portions of the American invasion of Iraq. They belong to an elite unit, First Reconnaissance Battalion, which includes fewer than 380 Marines. Outfitted with lightly armored or open-top Humvees that resemble oversized dune buggies, they will race ahead of the much larger, better-equipped primary Marine forces in Iraq. Their mission will be to seek out enemy ambushes by literally driving into them.
...
By the end of the campaign, Marines will dub their unit "First Suicide Battalion."
Recon Marines
Swift, Silent, Deadly
Recon Marines are the most highly trained in the Corps. Numbering fewer than a thousand, Corps-wide, they are the best of the best, put through the same training as Navy SEALs and the Army's special forces. And then they get more training.
The men are warriors, among the few that can claim that title unironically.
Their specialty is stealth. They infiltrate enemy lines, gather intelligence, and leave without detection. Their nickname is "the quiet professionals." Generally, if a shot gets fired, their mission has failed.
As much as any Marine can be, they're also the independent operators of the Corps. These are the cowboys, expected to think and act without officers' direct orders. In the field, the most senior person is usually a Sergeant.
Which is why barreling through Iraq in unarmored, open-top Humvees with their officers right alongside them is so completely foreign to their training and experience.
But they're Marines; they make do.
It all sounds terribly serious and humorless, right? Turns out, not so much. These Marines are the most hilarious, offensive, profane, no-bullshit, take-no-prisoners screwballs in the history of competent badassery.
Here's an example of their dynamic—Ray, Brad, and Trombley in a scene about why they each joined the Marine Corps:
Yeah.
Be forewarned: at times it's racist, misogynistic, homophobic...and basically every other—ist form of offensiveness there is. It's incredibly dense. It doesn't hold your hand or make it easy for you. That said, it isn't particularly gory or graphic; I see more gore on broadcast crime dramas.
It is so very worth it.
CHARACTERS
BRAVO 2
Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick
25. Bravo 2 Platoon Commander. Reports to Encino Man. His journey through the miniseries is the loss of idealism, from belief to despair. Nate served as an infantry officer during the invasion of Afghanistan, after which he joined Recon and served in Iraq. In Afghanistan, he and Espera served in the same company; he's one of the few enlisted men Fick quotes in his book. Before Afghanistan, Nate flew a Black Hawk rescue mission with Espera. Back in college, he attended a talk by Tom Ricks, which inspired him to join the military. Former altar boy. Double-majored in political science and classics at Dartmouth. Originally from Baltimore.
After Iraq, Nate came home, got promoted to Captain, and left the Corps. He went to Harvard where he got dual graduate degrees: his MBA and his Master in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government. He then went on to run the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) where he is, wait for it, Tom Ricks' boss. Because life is funny like that.
BRAVO 2-1 ALPHA
Humvee #1
Sergeant Brad Colbert
Iceman
28. Bravo 2's top team leader. His is the lead Humvee, Bravo 2-1 Alpha. Brad is, in short, a Recon god, revered by the other enlisted men and sought after by Nate for advice. He's a sarcastic tech geek who—according to the book—shuns the brotherhood of Marines, saying he'd never socialize with these people if they weren't in the Corps. He led Kocher and Pappy's Recon team in Afghanistan. In his personal life, he was engaged to his junior high girlfriend until she left him to marry his best friend since junior high; they're all still friends (for a given definition of the word). Now the only relationship with women he deems acceptable is with prostitutes.
He has a large tattoo on his back inspired by a Louis Royo illustration of a warrior princess from Heavy Metal magazine. He loves to race his motorcycle—the only thing he misses from back home—and listen to Barry Manilow and Air Supply. He really hates country music. His specialty is deep-sea diving. Adopted by an upper-middleclass Jewish family. Republican. Originally from San Diego, Brad's parents put him in a military academy in high school.
After Iraq, Brad went to England for a two-year exchange program with the Royal Marines. He's still a Recon god.
Corporal Joshua Ray Person
22. Driver and radio operator (RTO) for the lead Humvee. He never stops talking (or singing), offering hilariously insightful observations about anything and everything. The brilliance coming out of his mouth needs to be seen to be believed; it is that fantastic. He tweaks his way through the invasion, high on Ripped Fuel, chewing tobacco, and instant coffee crystals. Brad considers him one of the most competent Marines in the platoon. A genius with radios. Loves NASCAR. Was on the debate team in high school. Had his own band (which sucked). A veteran of Afghanistan. Has a girlfriend back home. Originally from Nevada, Missouri.
Got home and left the Corps.
Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley
Whopper Jr.
19. The youngest Marine in Bravo 2. Rides behind Ray in the lead Humvee. Obsessed with getting to shoot his SAW machine gun. Is only a Recon Marine on paper because he hasn't yet completed the Basic Reconnaissance Course. Somewhat of an outsider. Immature. Married with a son on the way. Originally from Michigan.
Corporal Walter Hasser
23. Heavy-weapons gunner first on 2-1 Bravo, then traded to 2-1 Alpha because he had more experience on the Mark-19. One of the most well-liked Marines in the platoon. Loves country music and has a great voice. On occasion, Brad will even make an exception to his no-country-music rule and let Walt sing. He and Ray compose songs together. Originally from Taylorstown, Virginia.
Evan Wright
Reporter, Scribe, War Scribe
Reporter for Rolling Stone, embedded with First Recon. He approached Nate at Camp Mathilda because Nate's was the only one whose name he remembered. Nate places him under Brad's care in team one. Only because of Brad's cooperation does Wright get real access to the other enlisted men. Though his job is to observe, when they're in real danger even he picks up a gun, for which he has the men's respect. Used to write for Hustler, which immediately endeared him to many in the platoon. Has a girlfriend, whose picture he lent to the platoon; he never got it back.
BRAVO 2-1 BRAVO
Humvee #2
Sergeant Antonio Espera
Poke
30. 2-1 assistant team leader, but he actually commands his own Humvee, 2-1 Bravo. He spends his time railing against the white man and philosophizing. His diatribes are tongue-in-cheek, meant to be humorous, but not everyone gets that (i.e. the Corps). He joined the Corps after working as a repo man in LA. Came to Recon at the same time as Nate; Brad pulled strings to get him into Recon as his assistant team leader. Espera's one of Brad's closest friends, though he declares he's only friends with Brad to piss him off. Turned down a degree from his community college. Married with kids. Big family-man. Originally from Riverside, California.
Corporal Gabriel Garza
22. Heavy-weapons gunner first on 2-1 Alpha, then traded to 2-1 Bravo. Mans a .50-cal in Espera's Humvee. Is incredibly strong and works out all the time. Rarely talks, but everyone likes him. Raised by his grandmother in south Texas.
Corporal Jason Lilley
23. Driver of 2-1 Bravo. Brings a videocamera to war, hoping to get footage to sell on CNN. Not particularly religious, but found himself praying through the ambushes anyway. Married. His wife joined the Marines so they could be closer, to his surprise and displeasure. Lilley compiled the ending video montage.
Lance Corporal Nathan Christopher
23. The only Recon Marine to join in the battalion chaplain's prayer service. Was happy to get to help people in Iraq, carrying a baby through their roadblock.
Corporal Hector Leon
Mexican. Films the action for Lilley. Really not much about him.
BRAVO 2-2
Humvee #3
Sergeant Larry Shawn Patrick
Pappy
28. 2-2 team leader. He and Rudy serve as one of the platoon's sniper teams. The others call him the coldest killer in the platoon. Famous for nonsense wisdom like "don't pet a burning dog." Mild-mannered. He doesn't have the bloodlust of the others and doesn't want to talk about his sniper kills. He'd be just as happy to go home, but he wants to be there to help the rest of the men through it. Is the only Marine in Bravo 2 casevaced, shot in the foot at Al Muwaffaqiyah. Originally from a small mountain town in North Carolina.
Sergeant Rudy Reyes
Fruity Rudy
31. 2-2's driver and assistant team leader, Rudy is Bravo 2's best martial-arts fighter. He also serves as Pappy's spotter in their role as one of the platoon's sniper teams. He's often ogled by the other men for being unbelievably beautiful. Relentlessly cheerful and positive, he's the platoon's unofficial fitness guru. He brought with him luxury items like an espresso pot to brew Starbucks coffee. He cleans up Pappy when he's missed a spot shaving; the two are very close, with Rudy even joking they're like husband and wife. Married. New Age-y. Originally from Kansas City, where he grew up in boys' homes.
Corporal Anthony Jacks
Manimal
23. 2-2's heavy-weapons gunner. Missing two front teeth. Quite the misogynist asshole. Married with kids. His wife is leaving him.
Corporal James Chaffin
22. Uses lots of racial slurs, which gets him into spats with Stafford, whom he calls a "fucking wigger." Despite that, they're close friends. Also close with Manimal.
Sergeant Michael Brunmeier
Budweiser
Well, he likes alcohol. He had about two lines and wasn't referenced in the book, so yeah, I got nothing.
COMMAND VEHICLE
Humvee #4
Gunnery Sergeant Mike Wynn
Gunny
35. Driver of Bravo 2's Command Vehicle and Nate's right-hand man. The oldest man in the platoon and one of its most experienced Marines. In his role as the platoon Sergeant, he's a bit like the mom of the group. He led a sniper team in Somalia with quite a few confirmed kills, which impresses the others. Staunch conservative. Married. Originally from Texas.
Corporal Evan Stafford
Q-tip
20. Nicknamed Q-tip because of his blond hair. Projects absolute cool almost all the time, for which the other Marines look up to him. Identifies strongly with black culture and decries the others' racist comments. Often gets into it with Chaffin over his racist shit. Despite that, he and Chaffin are close friends. Goes around saying "screwby," even though no one quite knows what it means. Originally from Tampa, Florida.
Private First Class John Christeson
19. The newest guy in the platoon. He and Q-tip spend 12 to 20 hours a day in the back of Nate's vehicle, singing. Nelly's "Hot in Herre" is a particular favorite. His tour in Iraq is the first time he's been outside the US. He received an appointment to go to the Naval Academy, but after 9/11 decided to enlist instead. Originally from Lebanon, Illinois.
BRAVO 2-3
Humvee #5
Sergeant Steven Lovell
26. 2-3 team leader. An expert sniper. Wright says he has a "sly, rural wit." Went to college for chemical engineering, but didn't like being around eggheads. Originally from a town outside Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Navy Hospitalman Second Class Robert Timothy Bryan
Doc
29. Bravo 2's medical corpsman, he rides with Lovell's team in 2-3. He's gone through the Navy's most elite special-warfare training and could have chosen either the Navy SEALs or Recon. He's always pissed off at something and calls himself an asshole. He's unafraid to tell Encino Man the truth, calling him incompetent to his face. He's bitter about the war and their role in it, even while they're still there. A self-made man, he was the first of his family to go to college. Has a Master's in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Originally from a small town outside Philadelphia.
Immediately post-Iraq, he stayed in the military, despite his misgivings, because he didn't trust someone else to make good decisions in his place.
Sergeant Leandro Baptista
Shady B
2-3's driver. When he gets excited, his English goes to shit and starts speaking Portuguese on the comms (which none of the guys can understand). He's teaching some of the others Portuguese. Originally from Brazil.
Corporal Michael Stinetorf
Stiney
21. 2-3's heavy weapons gunner. Livid about officers blowing up civilians. Often served as Doc's assistant. Don't know a lot about him.
Corporal Teren Holsey
T
20. Laughs off the others' racial slurs as Marine humor. Reading War & Peace. Learning Portuguese from Baptista. Don't know a lot about him.
BRAVO 3
Captain Dave McGraw
Captain America
31. Bravo 3 Platoon Commandeer. Reports to Encino Man. His men think he's certifiable. Prone to hysterics. Spends his time in Iraq hunting for Iraqi military uniforms as souvenirs, which the men believe is unprofessional. Makes Kocher angry enough to openly defy his (crackpot) orders. Married.
Sergeant Eric Kocher
23. Top team leader in Bravo 3. Reports to Captain America. Spends much of his time with Bravo 2 because he served with Brad and Pappy in Afghanistan. Is very close friends with Brad. Married; his wife's civil affairs unit is in Nasiriyah. He keeps a "bitter journal" to describe events as they actually happened (rather than the sugar-coating they get by others) in case something happens to him.
COMMAND
Captain Craig Schwetje
Encino Man
Early 30s. Bravo's Company Commander. Ex-football star who was an intelligence analyst before taking command of Bravo. Likable enough, but untrusted as a commander. Considered a dimwit by his men. He's also stubborn. When he loses face in front of the men, he digs in deeper, causing more problems.
Gunnery Sergeant Ray Griego
Casey Kasem
Late 30s. Bravo Company operations chief and Bravo's most senior enlisted man. Rides with Encino Man. Like the officers, he normally wouldn't deploy to the field. His job is to make sure that the men have the supplies they need, a job at which he failed utterly. There's a lot of hostility toward him for that fact, exacerbated by the way he passive-aggressively tries to undermine Nate's authority. He also brought a videocamera and hopes to sell a documentary from the footage, which only pisses the men off more. He's a certified combat stress instructor.
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Ferrando
Godfather
42. Commander of First Recon. Reports to General Mattis. Called "Godfather" because of his raspy voice, the result of throat cancer. Constantly worried that First Recon won't 'be in the game' of the war. Obsessed with maintaining the Grooming Standard. Never been in combat before. Often refers to himself in the third-person. As a commander he's bold to the point of recklessness.
Sergeant Major John Sixta
Mid-40s. Most senior enlisted man in First Recon and Godfather's right-hand man. His job is to enforce the rules within the enlisted ranks, including that of Godfather's Grooming Standard. As Pappy succinctly puts it: "Sergeant Major Sixta's job is to be an asshole, and he excels at the position."
Major General James Mattis
Chaos
Commander of the First Marine Division, which includes First Recon. Revered by officers and enlisted alike. He crafted First Recon's role as "shock troops," a grand experiment in maneuver warfare that had the Marines charging ahead of all other forces without stopping. Relieved Colonel Dowdy of command in the field, a highly unusual move. You do not fuck with this man.
OTHERS
Meesh
19. First Recon's translator. Yes, the only one for the whole battalion. He's an overweight Kuwaiti who speaks English like he learned it from MTV. Every time he translates, he forces the Iraqis to hand over anything valuable they have—from cigarettes to homebrewed beer to a goat. His obliviousness to danger endears him to the men, even as they don't entirely trust what he says. He supposedly works for the CIA.
Captain Bryan Patterson
32. Alpha's Company Commander. Holds the same slot as Encino Man, only in Bravo's sister company, Alpha. The exact opposite of Encino Man; he's a wise leader the men trust and admire. Calm, articulate, supremely respectful of his men. Graduated from the Naval Academy. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana.
Colonel Joe Dowdy
Commander of RCT-1, a Regimental Combat Team of 6,000 Marines. First Recon served as their advance element. Was relieved of command by General Mattis due to his indecision over how to take Nasiriyah.
BY THE NUMBERS
374 Marines in First Recon
4 companies: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Headquarters & Support (H&S)
160 Recon Marines in First Recon spread across Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie companies
21 enlisted Marines in each platoon
1 Navy medical corpsman in each platoon
1 commander in each platoon
3 teams to a platoon, each team led by a sergeant
4 heavy weapons gunners in each platoon, manning a .50-caliber machine gun or a
MK-19
48 days spent in the field before the war begins
FANDOM
GK has a small, tight-knit fandom that's been steadily producing some amazing fic since 2008. While Brad/Nate is the biggest pairing, you can find most others and there's no contentiousness between the various 'ships. The fandom on the whole is refreshingly drama-free, full of mature, thoughtful, hilarious, talented people. In a word: awesome.
It's a fandom big on its research and doing justice to what we saw on screen. One of the things for which GK is lauded is that it gets the details right—likely because they had some of the real Marines as their technical advisers—and writers in the fandom try to do the same.
As an illustrative example, some of our writers did Dissection of an MRE posts where they tried eating MREs. Which is just one of the many reasons I so adore my fandom.
A NOTE ABOUT CANON
Strictly-speaking, canon is what we see on screen. That's certainly true, but the miniseries is incredibly dense and can be confusing, especially to newcomers. Several other sources are regularly used to fill in the blank spaces (or figure out just what the hell is going on).
Generation Kill, the book, is incredibly helpful. While the miniseries takes much directly from the book (especially in terms of dialogue), the book includes a lot of background and backstory and explanation for what we see on screen. I used it extensively for the above character summaries and many writers also do so for stories.
"The Killer Elite" series of Rolling Stone articles form the basis of what became the Generation Kill book, so they're also useful.
One Bullet Away is the book written by Nathaniel Fick about his training, deployment to Afghanistan, and deployment to Iraq. It's very helpful in illuminating what was going on within the officer ranks, which we don't see a lot of; since Wright was embedded with the enlisted men he writes largely from that perspective. It's also fascinating to track the similarities and differences in how Wright and Fick write about the same material. It's not a great book, and Fick admits it could have been better, but it's a compelling look inside his head and makes some of his actions more understandable.
Those four form the main sources of info that many writers use. There are also others: HBO's roundtable with the real Marines, Rudy's book, Tom Ricks' blog, CNAS' white papers and panels, general Marine Corps news...really, the sky's the limit here. As I said above, this is a research-heavy fandom where writers do a lot of work. And it shows in the fic.
Readers don't have to read all these sources—though they are good reads with lots of info you'll likely see peppered throughout the fic—but I think they're especially valuable for writers tackling this fandom.
RESOURCES
generation_kill The main comm. It's a small fandom, so pretty much everything gets linked to here. Fic is locked to the comm, so you must join to access it. combat_jack Challenge commyagkyas Holiday Fic Exchange commGeneration Kill Links List at
generation_kill (must join the comm to access)After Action, put together by
oxoniensis. Fan-generated transcripts of the episodes, along with maps, a timeline, screencaps, and a much more comprehensive list of characters (because yeah, there are even more). Generation Kill Starter Kit put together by
templemarker. Exactly what it says it is—a great place to start. Recs
Generation Kill Primer + Picspam + Recs put together by
snarkaddict.Themed Recs at
generation_kill (must join the comm to access)combat_jack has the Friday Five themed rec listsGK Recs over at
recsGK Recs at
mkrecsBrad/Nate AU Master List over at
swing_set13au (must join the comm to access)AU master list for all of the other pairings, including gen (must join the comm to access)
GK rec list by
pommederis10k+ GK recs by
mementis...and there are many more. That'll get you started as far as recs go.
Official-type stuff
Mo Ryan (then of the Chicago-Tribune) posted many of HBO's press materials, which can be found here: 'Generation Kill': Everything you need to know about who's who and what's what. You can dl a chart of the chain of command, charts of who's in each Humvee, along with many other resources. Very helpful for newcomers.
HBO's official GK site
GK at IMDB. The cast list is especially helpful.
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