Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles

There are some wildly inappropriate criticisms of this work, especially one's that say "It wasn't like that! I was there! I know!" Mr Swofford makes it plain at the outset that JARHEAD is a recount of HIS EXPERIENCES AS A MARINE AND THEN PARTICIPANT IN OPERATION DESERT STORM. And in recounting those experiences, one may justifiably ask - does he he tell it well, does it have the ring of truth? In my view, it is a well written, honest and highly intelligent recounting. One element of that honesty, is the way in which military training and war reduce a human to the primal animal where the desire to act out one's basest desires become a reality - whether to fight another just for the hell of it, to rape, to curse, to rage - his writing skills bring that feeling of skirting the edge quite vividly to life. Reading it also brings to mind the sickening sight of politicians and others, frequently former military personnel, far from the action Mr Swofford and his comrades experience, surrounding themselves in the trappings of uniform, or flag, and mouthing the platitudes of country, God, and honour. Mr Swofford was a volunteer from a family which had a tradition of military service going back generations. In recounting HIS EXPERIENCES he is successful beyond measure in giving the reader some notion of what it is like to be at the pointy end. It is not a pleasant let alone glorious place to be where the greatest danger experienced can be friendly fire. With 25 years military (air force) experience at the rear-rear-rear I value that recounting. Only, I believe, one in nine military personnel in the infantry experience action anyway. On the ground, in the sand, lugging extra boots, extra fatigues, six MRE's, six quarts of water, a disassembled M16, a 9mm pistol, the M40A1 snipe rifle, one hundred rounds of boat-tail ammunition for the sniper rifle, thirty rounds of 9mm ammunition, five hundred M16 rounds, four M67 fragmentation grenades, two smoke grenades, three green star clusters, two replacement sets of gas mask filters, a map and a patrol-order book inside a mape case, a compass, and a GPS system, with a gas mask secured to his hip, Marined Swofford tastes the mist of oil in the atmosphere, and ponders the motives for combat, reflecting on his own country's motives. He is excellent at reminding the non-combatant that war is 99 percent of time waiting, boredom, and 1% of unbridled fear where bodily functions for even the best loose themselves uncontrollably. One vivid image remains after reading this work, and that is Marine Swofford swirling his own vomit around his mouth before spitting it out, as if savouring his own existence, his own being in the face of death. I have to say I rate this book very highly up there with such writers as Michael Herr and James Jones. I also feel a certain hope that men such as Mr Swofford are able to bring home the "mad scream" as he calls it, and give us hope that his voice and others might be heard more often over the crowd-roar of victory.

I have read many autobiographical war accounts in my life but I would say this is the most unique out of all of them. Unique in the sense that this is not your typical "we faced combat and had to do things we'll never forget" This book deals more on the emotional aspect of NOT facing combat and trying to figure out what to do with yourself in enemy territory while dealing with all emotions going on around in your head. The story may not as sound as intriguing as other Gulf War memoirs like "Bravo Two Zero" or "Tornado Down" but I would say its just as engaging as those books. This book was brutal in the sense of what most soldiers have got going on emotionally on the other side of the world from their home country. A lot of it is very grim and makes you look at the world around you and how an ordinary person views it and then how a soldier views it. I can't make this any more clear, if you go into this book expecting a lot of guns and bombs going off then you will be disappointed. This is not that story, however it's a book that I say has a lot of the intensity as other war memoirs just in its own way. The only thing negative I have to say about it is that I didn't like how the book jumped around time periods constantly. Starts off immediately in the beginning deployment in the Gulf War, then jumps back to the author's enlistment, then jumps back to the Gulf War, then jumps ahead to after the war ended, then jumps back to the Gulf War, then jumps back to before the author's enlistment, then back to the Gulf War, etc. Made the book feel kind of disorganized but still total recommendation to read.

Its what I ordered. an old book in okay condition.

Having been deployed in the furthest deployed commo unit in Desert Storm, it was nice to finally find a book that seemed to describe our time over there. It's easy to criticize this book if you havent spent time in the military, but if you've been to Iraq, this book will really hit home. When we were there in 1990, we really had no idea what we were really there for. I can look back now and realize it was a war for oil, but that doesn't make me any less proud to served my country. I think Mr. Swofford's book is an amazing account of our life there. The opening paragraph alone is amazing. As for him being self-indulgent and his writing petulant, that alone just sounds like arrogance on behalf of the reader. Many famouse writers are very self-indulgent, it doesn't make their writing bad. As for being self-indulgent, he certainly doesn't paint the nicest picture of himself. Maybe someone confused blatant honest with self-indulgence. Why someone cannot just state that they did't like the book without also insulting people who did enjoy the book is just rude. I served my country and spent a good deal of time trying to process what I went through in the Gulf War and trying to find my place back in the real world. This book really echoed what that was like. An insult to Marines? Not at all. War and the military aren't these glorious things you see on recruitment commercials. They have good and bad points and I think Mr. Swofford pointed that out. Even though he disliked being a marine, he certainly made it clear that his opinion of the Corp was HIS OWN and not one shared by everyone. Don't read this book because I liked it, and don't NOT read it because some didn't like it. Read it if you want some more insight into a war that though became Must See TV, was a war that you really knew nothing about what the troops were actually going through. A friend of mine just got back from this current war and he said this book made a huge difference in him not feeling so alone.

I am enjoying this book. I thought the movie was great and now find it interesting how they interpreted the book into the movie. Events in the book definitely do not happen in the same order as the movie. There are direct lines and dialog, word for word from the book that also appear in the movie. The book fills in a bit more detail and background info on some of the other characters in the movie, and what happened to them after their military service was over etc. It filled in some of the missing pieces.

Looooooooooooong read, and mostly of him complaining. Took me forever to finish it. The movie I loved! But the book contained way too much complaining in my opinion. To be fair, that is the life of an infanteer, but damn.

ZzzZzzZZZZZzzzzZzz. Snooze fest, the book was unable to hold my attention long enough for me to read it other than in small doses. Took me several sittings to get through.

Very good read if your like cartel stories. Credible, realistic. I dont mnow if everything is accurate and factual but it indeed is a very compelling book.

supi