Funny thing about this book...I was reading a copy of Leatherneck magazine, and in the Book Review section in the back was a review on this book.  I thought to myself, I should get this ASAP.  About 3 days later, a package arrived on my doorstep from my Grandfather in PA.  He is an grungy ole 'gyrene' who fought in the Pacific in WWII.  He had found the book, recognized the unit, read and added his own notes and forwarded to me.  I have read the book and highly reprehend it to anyone who is interested in a first person perspective of a LAV Vehicle Commander's view of the Gulf War.  I had the pleasure of serving along side the author as a Vehicle Commander of a LAV-AT attached to his company.  Although I would describe things slightly different simply because no two people see things the same way.  A good read, and hard to put down.  Here is my review which I left on the Amazon.com website along with a few others in regard to this book.

I was in the author's unit as well. He depicts the events so realistically it brought back many memories once thought forgotten. I enjoyed the book and think it should be a 'must read' for all those interested in the Gulf War as well as any who served 'over there' specifically in 1st LAI Bn. Check my member page for information in seeing my web site, lots of LAI Bn photo's.

~Ken Lieuwen

As a member of Charlie Company, it is my opinion that the author was overly critical of Charlie Company. And I did notice one major discrepancy with the participants and their roles in one specific event. However, having said that, it was also a refreshing reminder of names and places I thought I would never forget, but had. I also think it's encouraging to see an NCO take the initiative of publishing something like this, and am curious as to how this reflects on his current enlistment. I really give the book a 4 but felt obligated to defend Charlie.
-Craig Tomko 

It is seldom that students of war get a coherent, literate account of the life of a non-commissioned officer in a combat zone. This is just such an account, and, as such, it is required reading for anyone who is interested in small-unit leadership. As the 2nd Platoon Commander in the author's company during the Gulf War, I can testify to the overall accuracy of his account. I have only minor criticisms. First, the author is too kind to some of the leaders of our battalion, men who deserve to be excoriated for their role in the friendly-fire deaths of eleven of our Marines. Second, in several areas of the book he writes with a naive simplicity about the political realities that led to the war. These are minor complaints, however, and they do not detract at all from the important heart of the book. The author admirably captures the difficulties of operating in the desert and the anxieties of a combat leader for the life of his troops. It is full of lessons that any military leader needs to learn, chief among them to train to the limits of endurance and to trust your troops. More than anything, though, the book is a testament to the skill, daring, and courage of the backbone of the Marine Corps: the Marine NCO. Tip of the Spear is much more than a moving and entertaining memoir of the Gulf War. It is a textbook for small-unit leaders. Read it.
-Bill Weber

Anthony Swofford's Jarhead is the first Gulf War memoir by a frontline infantry marine, and it is a searing, unforgettable narrative.
When the marines -- or "jarheads," as they call themselves -- were sent in 1990 to Saudi Arabia to fight the Iraqis, Swofford was there, with a hundred-pound pack on his shoulders and a sniper's rifle in his hands. It was one misery upon another. He lived in sand for six months, his girlfriend back home betrayed him for a scrawny hotel clerk, he was punished by boredom and fear, he considered suicide, he pulled a gun on one of his fellow marines, and he was shot at by both Iraqis and Americans. At the end of the war, Swofford hiked for miles through a landscape of incinerated Iraqi soldiers and later was nearly killed in a booby-trapped Iraqi bunker.
Swofford weaves this experience of war with vivid accounts of boot camp (which included physical abuse by his drill instructor), reflections on the mythos of the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family. As engagement with the Iraqis draws closer, he is forced to consider what it is to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.
Unlike the real-time print and television coverage of the Gulf War, which was highly scripted by the Pentagon, Swofford's account subverts the conventional wisdom that U.S. military interventions are now merely surgical insertions of superior forces that result in few American casualties. Jarhead insists we remember the Americans who are in fact wounded or killed, the fields of smoking enemy corpses left behind, and the continuing difficulty that American soldiers have reentering civilian life.
A harrowing yet inspiring portrait of a tormented consciousness struggling for inner peace, Jarhead will elbow for room on that short shelf of American war classics that includes Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and be admired not only for the raw beauty of its prose but also for the depth of its pained heart.

About the Author 
Anthony Swofford served in a U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the Gulf War. After the war, he was educated at American River College; the University of California, Davis; and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught at the University of Iowa and Lewis and Clark College. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, Harper's, Men's Journal, The Iowa Review, and other publications. A Michener-Copernicus Fellowship recipient, he lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is at work on a novel.

An interesting yet controversial story.  I found this book somewhat disturbing in the way that this Marine describes his experiences in the Corps.  I have read others who think that this book is a disgrace and on a certain level, I can see that, however, there is a certain amount of realism relating to the 'hum-drum' of everyday life and the darker side of life in garrison of the modern day Marine.

What makes soldiers kill--or not--animates this intriguing survey by a psychologist and former U.S. Army officer. Grossman reveals that only a fraction of soldiers kill during warfare (and feel revulsion when they do); the rest (about 85 percent in World War II) resist by missing the target or refusing to fire. With an eye to the military command's imperative of overcoming that innate resistance, Grossman quotes numerous anecdotes that exemplify the phenomenon and studies that examine it. With such knowledge, the military has implemented training that gets firing rates up to 90 percent of soldiers, but the psychic cost of blazing away for real is heavy. Individually, a killer goes through thrill-remorse-rationalization stages; socially, the killer needs reassurance and if it is not received, will suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome, characteristic of Vietnam veterans. Grossman concludes his findings of "enabling factors" in killing by identifying them at work in the rampant violence afflicting American society. A book that requires some steely fortitude to finish, but once done, On Killing delivers insights on human nature that are both gratifying and repelling.

Very enlightening and eye-opening book.  I bought it and read it cover to cover, then read it over again.  I have since passed it on to several others, including a UK Marine who served 9 years and is currently a co-worker, and a Canadian Forces, Airborne Soldier who served several Peace Keeping missions in Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia.   

War on Iraq offers a balanced, non-partisan examination of the current debate in Washington and beyond. In this shocking expose on the impending offensive against Iraq, activist, author, and teacher William Rivers Pitt sits down with former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter to expose the truth behind the hawkish rhetoric of the Bush administration. Ritter--ex-Marine, intelligence specialist, expert on Iraqi military strategy, and Gulf War veteran--dismantles the myths surrounding Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons capabilities while revealing the neo-conservative forces pushing the White House toward war. During the seven years the inspections took place, Ritter and other inspectors were able to confirm that Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs were effectively destroyed, counter to current White House claims. Pitt and Ritter also explain the lack of any plausible link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and highlight the absurdity of forcing democracy on a nation that has been divided for centuries. The book closes with a stark forecast for American troops if a ground war ensues and urges the White House to seek a diplomatic solution. A complete listing of contact information for U.S. senators as well as outreach and activist resources is included.

During the war with Iraq, the Pentagon imposed unprecedented restrictions on the media's access to the battlefield. But Rick Atkinson's Crusade, says the Chicago Tribune, "pierces the Pentagon's veil of secrecy and gives us a first-rate book about how the war was fought". b&w photo insert

In the tradition of novelist Clancy's previous nonfiction works, such as Fighter Wing (Berkley, 1995), comes an in-depth look at the United States Marine Corps (USMC). Clancy presents an insider's look at the most hallowed branch of the U.S. armed forces and those who serve on the front lines. First he offers an interview with Gen. Charles "Chuck" Cruller, 31st commandant of the Marine Corps. Clancy's main focus, however, is the Marine Expeditionary Unit-Special Operations Capable, or MEU (SOC). Currently, the USMC maintains seven MEU (SOC)s: three on each coast and one in Okinawa. Two or three of these units are deployed aboard ship into forward areas at any one time. These rapid-response units patrol a dangerous world while waiting for the president of the United States to get a "911" call for armed intervention. Clancy also offers a fascinating look at Marine Corps recruitment and training. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Michael Coleman, Regional Lib. for Blind & Physically Handicapped, Montgomery
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Very informative, excellent author and a high level of realism.  This one will bring back some memories of the Corps in general, including in depth descriptions of weapons etc.

Tom Clancy's latest love-letter to the military-industrial complex focuses on the Army--and Fred Franks, a general who helped smash Iraq in the Gulf War. In this first volume of a series on the intricacies of military command, Clancy traces the organizational success story of the U.S. Army's rise from the slough of Vietnam to the heights of victory in the Persian Gulf. In 1972, the Army lacked proper discipline, training, weapons, and doctrine; all these would be overhauled in the next 15 years. For those readers keen on such nuts and bolts, the book will be fascinating. But the book truly sparkles when Franks tells his story. A "tanker" who lost a foot in the invasion of Cambodia, he is a man of great courage, thoughtfulness, and integrity. One cannot help but wince when a civilian tells him, "You and those boys did that for nothing." And for all the acronyms and military history, that is what this book is about: healing the wounds Vietnam inflicted. "But this time [the Gulf War], it was going to end differently. They all would see to that."

In the aftermath of America's debacle in Vietnam, the war was collectively forgotten. Few college courses were offered on the subject, few historians studied it, and even the military avoided the topic as an educational course for its officers.

But Vietnam never left the consciousness of America. Three decades later, it can still ignite passions among its participants.

Slowly, the war has come back to haunt us. Legions of homeless Vietnam veterans are in the street, hundreds of thousands of them are suffering from Agent Orange or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and more of them have died from suicide than died in the war....or so the social advocates and the media tell us.

B.G. Burkett, in over ten years of research in the National Archives, filing hundreds of requests for military documents under the Freedom of Information Act., uncovered a massive distortion of history, a distortion that has cost the U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. Mr. Burkett's work has toppled national political leaders and put criminals in jail.

The authors show killers who have fooled the most astute prosecutors and gotten away with murder, phony heroes who have become the object of award-winning documentaries on national network television, and liars and fabricators who have flooded major publishing houses with false tales of heroism which have become best-selling biographies.

Not only do Burkett and Whitley show the price of the myth has been enormous for society, but they spotlight how it has severely denigrated the service, patriotism, and gallantry of the best warriors America ever produced.

How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History

Excellent read....we all know of these folks, those who pretend to be something they are not.  I am sure that if I have run into them way up here in Canada, I am sure you all have done so where you are from as well.  I highly suggest you read this book, it is excellent.

Finally a down and dirty, direct from the sands of Saudi Arabia, account of the events of 29 January 1991.  Captain David Morris takes you back thirteen years, a dark desert evening, when Iraq amassed three divisions of soldiers in Kuwait and pushed hard against the US Marines of Task Force Shepherd, Recon, Force Recon, ANGLICO and other Special Forces spread along the Kuwait - Saudi Arabian border at OP 6, 4, and Al Khafji.  This story is told through the eyes of the Marines who fought these forgotten battles against overwhelming odds.  Capt. Morris also takes the reader into the ‘darker side of modern warfare’ into the several of the Fratricide incidents that occurred during these battles

Having been present during the events depicted in Capt. Morris's book, and also being part of his research, I can stand behind his book and corroborate its accuracy to the best of my knowledge. 

Capt. Morris took me back to that night, one of the most confusing and frustrating of my life.  I relived that night through his pen, with the newfound ‘over-all picture’ he provides through other Marine's perspective.  He has woven together the perspectives of many Marines into a story that for so many has taken too long to come into public light.

Semper Fi, 

Kenneth J. Lieuwen
CPL/ USMC
1^st Light Armored Infantry Battalion
Task Force Shepherd