camilopedrozafoto

nathaniel fick, recon marine (basically usmc special forces) platoon commander, had just left for a routine deployment and was in australia on september 11, 2001. the ship he was on immediately moved toward afghanistan as part of the initial task force that conducted a 300-mile amphibious assault to camp rhino. shortly after having returned from OEF, fick transfered to reconnaissance and deployed again to lead (geographically) the initial invasion into Iraq. Having driven from um qasar to baghdad, fick's unit saw much action. one bullet away is a very realistic account, from a lieutenant's perspective, of modern war. he doesn't seem to bullshit the reader, neither celebrating nor glorifying war notably in either direction. some parts of war are, no doubt, chaotic. fick's interpretation is surely overly-organized relative to an untrained observer witnessing the same events. Such an observer, evan wright (journalist for rolling stone), was imbedded with the platoon during the duration of the deployment and wrote a civilian's version of fick's book entitled, "generation kill." it's been recommended to me to read both as a pair. adding gk it to my "to-read" list now...

2023-03-01 15:09