
5 Fun Facts About the Making of Mary Roach’s GRUNT
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- Inspiration for the book came from the Indian Defense Ministry.
- The Pentagon wasn’t nearly as secretive as you might expect.
- The most difficult trip of the book was a visit to a nuclear submarine to learn about the effects of sleep deprivation on soldiers.
“I was reporting on sleep deprivation, so there was a good story to be told, but nonetheless it took a long time to find out who’s swim lane this is in, who has to sign off. That took a while. There were a couple very, very helpful people at the Naval Medical Submarine Research laboratory who were like, “I want to make this happen.”
Even if you found the admiral who was willing to say yes, then you had to find the submarine commander who would say, “I’ll let her on my boat.” I don’t think they were about me seeing classified information, I think it’s just a bother – they’ve got enough work as it is to sort of worry about having a guest on board. That one was the most time-consuming to set up. Persistence, it pays off.”
- The “biggest reporting challenge” of her career was trying to interview a Special Ops soldier about bowel movements.
- Mary Roach has enough ideas for other war-related topics to write another book.
- MediVacs – “I tried to embed and go along on a MediVac. The problem was that I was applying to do that during the drawdown in Afghanistan and, happily, there were so many fewer medical evacuations going on.”
- Blood – “I thought there’d be a chapter on blood because getting blood where it’s needed quickly – it’s a perishable item – it’s tricky logistically to get enough blood where you need it. There wasn’t really a way to be on the scene and cover it.”
- Chaplains – “I thought I would embed with the Chaplains Corps, I did get approved for that by the U.S. military, but then ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), the coalition organization, said no. The chaplains are offering spiritual and emotional support … I don’t report a lot on psychology or spirituality, but I would have done that.”
- Special Operations Weather Unit – “I thought that would be a way to go along on a Special Operations mission – yeah right! I actually called the Special Operations Command public affairs office and was like, ‘I’d like to tag along with the weather guy,’ and he was like ‘Mary, these are classified missions!’ I was disappointed, i thought that’d be an interesting take on Special Operations.”