Mr. Matt's Reviews > Conroy's First Command

On the dusty, half-wild Kansas frontier, the young Lt. Tom Conroy is left in charge of K Company. His CO, Stark, thinks the independent command will be good for him - a growth opportunity. Conroy will have a chance to get a feel for what it means to lead soldiers and also a chance to earn their respect. After the defeat of Cheyenne, what could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, just about everything can go wrong. The jaded, experienced men of K Company don't respect the young Conroy. Nor do the rough and tumble civilians at the relay station where they are stationed. Conroy struggles to exert his will. The men are shirkers and drunkards, and the civilians take advantage of his youth and inexperience to rob the US government blind at every turn. And then the norther Cheyenne, inspired by Man Alone, attack.

Conroy and the relay station are cut off and surrounded by hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors. The young lieutenant must organize the defense despite the challenges. Some of the civilians want to rob and rape a wealthy madame on her way to open a salloon in Denver. Some of the soldiers just want to rob her. One of the civilians just wants to kill Conroy over a perceived slight. Other soldiers just wants to get drunk. Thankfully, Linc and Mad Dog, two experienced and deadly veterans are there and support Conroy as the young commander finds his spine and leads the spirited and ultimately effective defense. When Stark returns to the burned out station, Conroy is a new man.

One of the things I like about these K Company books is that they are relatively small in scope. Nowhere do you get the impression that the fate of the dusty American West is in the hands of these men. Rather, they are stories of survival. These hard scrabble men are simply trying to make it through meaningless scrapes, the distant government caring little as to whether they live or die. A nice change of pace from story after story where the fate of everything hinges on what a few characters happen to be doing.

Three and a half stars rounded down to three. I really enjoyed this book. The story is fast paced, fun and action packed. High fiction it is not, but thoroughly enjoyable. If you like 'adventure' type stories, you'll probably enjoy these K Company books. The only real knock I have on them is that they are a bit to predictable.