I didn’t think I could have an even greater appreciation for the military than I already had until I read Johnny Joey Jones’s book, Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship. Recently I heard about his book, and was intrigued to know more about the Marines who signed up for Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD (the bomb squad): what motivated them to join the military, and particularly EOD, what that team demanded of them, and how they responded to the call.

Jones included not only parts of his own story in this book, but the stories of about one dozen men and one woman who served with him. Many of them wrote their own essays, and Jones offered his own commentary to their essays.

Relationships

Nearly everyone in the book shared the importance of their relationships with each other, their bonds, commitments, and the brotherhood that formed. One young Marine lost his Marine brother early on, and his brother’s team rallied to “take care” of him:

Adam was being a good older brother and bringing Amos around to the EOD shop. On the day I learned of Adam’s death, I thought, We have to take care of Amos now. His brother’s gone, but he’s got all of us. He’s still welcome here. He’s one of us even if he is still a grunt. The kid needs a place where he can go and hang out and get away or find a place where he belongs. That was true in 2009, and it’s true now in 2023.

Jones shares the importance of the relationships that bonded the teams, particularly the EOD teams. The courage, mindset, and commitment that the job required brought them all together in a way that no other service did:

The concept of brotherhood goes far beyond male bravado or acts of masculine performance. A brotherhood is a shared experience, and a reliance on others to be there for you, to understand what you’ re going through, and to offer help when you need it. In fact, the brotherhood of EOD, regardless of service, includes many women who do the job heroically alongside their brothers in arms.

Service

Nearly every Marine talked about the importance of service and having a purpose. They wanted to give back to the country that had provided them with so much. They wanted to serve the American people and felt called to do just that. Here is one description of what it meant to serve:

Choosing to serve offers people a path to a chosen family, an interwoven network of brothers and sisters who will have your back in adversity. Not the family one is born into, but blood brothers nonetheless. Not because they have the same blood in their veins, but because they’ve spilt blood on faraway battlefields for the same purpose. It’s a family that’s one phone call away for the rest of your life.

One of the people that Jones came to know was black, and he described how his father had grown up during the Jim Crow period. But his father had a dream for his children, and he never gave up on that dream. He understood the importance of service and the role the military could play:

That dream was for each of us to be able to do more. And the way you do more is by serving your country, because life in the military and being of service cuts through race, religion, color, and creed. That’s because service is service. It has no color. The bond is the bond among those who serve regardless of skin color or background. My father saw that the military was a place of equality and a means to make things better for the next.

Leadership

One commanding officer’s devotion may have been unmatched by any other leader in EOD. He made no secret of how he cared about the men who served with him, and he would not compromise watching out for them. He let everyone know that no matter what happened to them, he would be there for them:

In 2011, we were gone for seven months. I made good on that promise. That was one of the most dangerous deployments we’d been through together. I spent more than twenty nights at field hospitals. I stood by the bedsides of men with gunshot wounds, some with catastrophic wounds from ordnance. It didn’t matter what, didn’t matter if they were conscious, asleep, awake, or if they knew I was there and acknowledged it or not. I kept my promise.

Faith

Many Marines described their experience of God, whether they were hunting in a deer blind and considering suicide, or whether they were slowly healing from devastating wounds in the hospital:

I’m grateful for God’s love, grace, and mercy through all my struggles. I remember one of the first church services I attended through my struggles while trying to find healing. The pastor said, ‘If you are struggling with God, why don’t you look up the meaning of your name? God put your name in your parents’ head because of the plan He had for your life, and there is a reason why you are named what you are.’ So I looked mine up. ‘Amos’ biblically means ‘able to carry.’

Joey Jones closed the book with these words directed to all of us:

Our unbroken bonds, forged on many battlefields, are not the lingering resentment of wars but the resolute resilience of those who fight them. Now it’s your turn. Find brothers and sisters in tragedies and triumphs God and life throw your way. Lean in to those who choose to fight with you and let those who might be willing help you get back up when you’re knocked down. Be there for them as well, as warriors are for one another. Find your unbroken bonds in the battle of life and tell stories of victory and defeat, long into old age, as we hope to do. 

May we all feel called to take up this challenge in our own lives.

Image: Book cover.