The Brotherhood of War is a series of novels written by W. E. B. Griffin, about the United States Army from the Second World War through the Vietnam War. The story centers on the careers of four U.S. Army officers who became lieutenants in the closing stages of World War II and the late 1940s. The series is notable for the amount of attention it does not devote to combat. Rather than skipping forward, it follows the main characters though their peacetime service as the army evolves in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the development of Army Aviation and the Special Forces.
Novels Book I, The Lieutenants (North Africa, Germany, Greece, CONUS 1942–1950) Book II, The Captains (Korea 1950–1953) Book III, The Majors (French Indochina, Algeria, CONUS 1954–1958) Book IV, The Colonels (Vietnam, Cuba, Germany, CONUS 1958–1961) Book V, The Berets (Vietnam, Germany, CONUS, 1961–1962) Book VI, The Generals (Vietnam, CONUS, 1962–1985) Book VII, The New Breed (Congo, CONUS, 1963–1964) Book VIII, The Aviators (Vietnam, Congo, CONUS 1963–1965) Book IX, Special Ops (Congo, Argentina, CONUS, 1965–1967)
Primary cast of characters
Colonel Sanford "Sandy" Thaddeus Felter, USA
Sandy Felter is a son of Jewish immigrants. He resigns while a cadet corporal during his third year at the United States Military Academy (or West Point), to accept a direct commission as a second lieutenant and a German and Russian linguist in the last year of World War II. While doing so, he is instrumental in locating a group of Allied POWs being held by the Russians and assists in their rescue. (One of those POWs was Bob Bellmon, who would become a friend and mentor to Felter.) He subsequently goes to Parachute School and the Ranger course, and serves as a first lieutenant in Greece under Lt. Col. Paul T Hanrahan and with 2nd Lt. Craig W Lowell, who becomes his best friend.
Afterwards, Felter serves in Berlin as an intelligence officer. While stationed there, he discovers the whereabouts of Oberst Graf von Grieffenberg and arranges his repatriation. The Graf and Felter become close personal friends, which gives him a direct line into West German intelligence.
During the Korean War, he commands a covert, behind-the-lines operation with Captain Rudolph G. MacMillan, earning a Distinguished Service Cross for his combat valor. Felter subsequently becomes a counselor to the president for four U.S. presidents, from Eisenhower through Nixon. Though Felter tries several times to return to the conventional army, he is kept on in his role as Counselor to the President due to his uncanny ability to correctly predict the actions of the nation's enemies and to spot trouble before it happens. Perhaps the best example of this is Operation Earnest, a Special Forces mission authorized by President Johnson and commanded by Felter that prevented Che Guevara from taking over the Republic of the Congo as his first step in taking over South America.
In the books, Felter is respected, feared, and even hated because of the clout he wields with the President and his analytical and espionage abilities, as he usually has information before anyone else and is sometimes the only one to analyze that information correctly. Despite his short stature and unimposing appearance (earning him the nickname, "Mouse"), he is a highly capable, even ruthless, officer. Felter is an expert in tactics and one of the most combat-effective characters in the series. He prefers short range weapons such as the M1911 pistol, the Winchester Model 1897 12 gauge pump shotgun, and the Thompson submachine gun. He is literally a dead shot with the M1911, using a two hand stance long before this was the norm.
In the Epilogue of The Generals, Felter reaches the rank of lieutenant general, and ends his career as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Colonel Rudolph George "Mac" MacMillan, USA
Mac MacMillan was a Regular Army Sergeant assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, who received a battlefield commission while participating in Operation Market Garden, although he was taken prisoner before he learned of it. For his actions in that abortive river crossing, he was later awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman.
He was the senior NCO of the prisoners of war in the same POW camp as Bob Bellmon and after the officers were removed from the camp, organized a successful mass escape ahead of the invading Russians, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
MacMillan qualifies as an aviator prior to the Korean War, although his flying escapades are limited largely to The Captains. He works with Mouse Felter running Task Force Able, an intelligence-gathering and sabotage operation, in the Korean War.
MacMillan is better off financially than many suspect. He is a silent partner with his brother in an automobile dealership in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania in present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and also in a truck stop they jointly own. However, he much prefers life as an army officer, and because of his Medal of Honor can pretty much serve for as long as he chooses.
Following an altercation with another officer in an officers' club in the pages of The Colonels, Mac is assigned as Red Hanrahan's deputy at the Special Warfare Center. Mac dies, apparently of a stroke, in the final pages of The Generals during Operation Monte Cristo, a raid to rescue American prisoners of war held by the North Vietnamese.
The Epilogue to The Generals says he is buried, with full military honors, in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.
His wife Roxanne ("Roxy") responded to President Jimmy Carter's granting amnesty to the Vietnam War-era draft dodgers by sending him all of Mac's medals, including his Medal of Honor, accompanied by a nasty letter. They were returned to her by the White House along with a form letter stating that the President could not accept a present of any military medals, no matter the motivation of the sender.
Colonel Craig W. "the Duke" Lowell, USA
Craig Lowell is an extremely wealthy Harvard drop-out (he was actually expelled) who was drafted and sent to the US occupation forces in Germany, where his duties include being the Constabulary golf pro. Because of his polo-playing skills, he, as a Private First Class, was assigned to manage the polo team for the commanding general, "Porky" Waterford. Since he was essential to the general's team, and since a game against the French could only be played by officers, the General orders Mac MacMillan to get Lowell commissioned before the game. He is commissioned into the Finance Corps and detailed Armor.
When the general dies during the polo match, General Waterford's replacement, disgusted by the direct commissioning of Lowell just to play polo (which the replacement views as a breach of military ethics) uses Lowell to fill a levy for an advisor to the Greek Army in the Greek Civil War. Lowell had not been an officer long enough to rate an efficiency report, and the colonel in question did not want to go to the trouble of convening a Board of Officers to throw him out of the army.
There, Lowell meets Sandy Felter and serves under Paul "Red" Hanrahan. During heavy action in which all of the Greek officers and many soldiers in the unit to which Lowell is assigned are killed, despite serious wounds Lowell takes command and the survivors successfully hold the position. He is eventually awarded the (fictional) Order of St. George and St. Andrew, the highest award for bravery that Greece can bestow on a foreigner. When he is medevaced to Germany, he marries Ilse von Grieffenberg, whom he had known in both the literal and Biblical senses before his assignment to the Military Assistance Advisory Group Greece.
Upon his return to the US, Lowell remains in the army for a couple of years until his service obligation expires, most of the time at the Armor Board at Fort Knox working on the M3 90mm high velocity tank gun project. His son Peter-Paul was born at Knox, and he makes a close friend in Philip Sheriden Parker IV, his roommate during the Basic Officer's Course.
After being released from active duty, Lowell is accepted to, and graduates with a master's degree from, the Wharton School of Business without first having attaining a baccalaureate degree, normally a prerequisite for attending Wharton. (Lowell observed to Mouse Felter that Wharton makes exceptions for people who own banks.Griffin, W.E.B. The Brotherhood of War: The Lieutenants, page 367.) While there, he joins the Pennsylvania Army National Guard where he is given command of a tank company and a promotion to captain. He is one of the first officers recalled to active duty when the Korean War breaks out.
In Korea, Lowell commands an element of the (fictional) 73rd Heavy Tank Battalion, "Task Force Lowell", so well that he is promoted to major at the age of 24 and rewarded with a Distinguished Service Cross. Task Force Lowell spearheaded the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter and made a deep strike far behind the North Korean lines, disrupting their supply chain and forcing the diversion of forces to deal with "the Duke," the nickname given him by his men.
Upon returning to the United States, Lowell attends the Advanced Armor Officer's course at Fort Knox, where one of his studies (in a Kafkaesque twist) includes analyzing and recommending improvements to the organization and operations of Task Force Lowell in Korea. He privately tells Sandy Felter that he felt he did it correctly the first time.Griffin, The Captains, page 371
An incident with a visiting movie star in Korea, his appearing as a witness for the defense of Phil Parker during Parker's murder trial, his smart mouth, and a penchant for circumventing the rules when it suits him all hurt Lowell's career. When he is given a series of dead-end assignments to encourage him to resign his commission, he transfers to Army Aviation. Working independently, he begins developing combat tactics for the improved helicopters he is sure are in the equipment pipeline. Lowell singlehandedly saves the army's tank-busting helicopter project (and coincidentally, his career) by destroying half a dozen captured Soviet T-34 tanks at Ed Greer's funeral after Greer was killed by malfunctioning ordnance when the project was unveiled.
He is finally promoted to lieutenant colonel, after rescuing Sandy Felter and an "A" Team during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. His promotion was personally ordered by President Kennedy as a reward for rescuing Felter. At the same time, he acquires a "rabbi" in General E.Z. Black, who oversees an officer he regards as brilliant if unorthodox.
Around the same time, Lowell was caught up in "Operation Bootstrap." Army regulations required that commissioned officers hold bachelor's degrees. (There are exceptions, but very few.) A number of good officers did not have such degrees; so the army sent them, still on active duty and all expenses paid, to college for up to two years to get one. Lowell went to Norwich University in Vermont and in 18 months took a bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, in Foreign Languages (German and Russian), while continuing to work for Army Aviation on the q.t. in his spare time. General Bellmon (who regarded Operation Bootstrap as idiotic) recounted the story of going to visit Lowell in Vermont to buck him up, and finding him on the ski slopes dressed in the height of European skiing fashion, surrounded by bevies of admiring snow bunnies.Griffin, W.E.B. The Brotherhood of War: The Aviators (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons), 1988.