This Marine's Take on "One Bullet Away"

"The Making of A Marine Officer"

I first heard of Nathaniel Fick watching one of the Nimitz Lecture Series on You Tube.  UC Berkley hosted a series of lectures of current events given a variety of speakers.  I was intrigued by this young Marine officer speaking about his experiences in the Middle East.  I later found out he had written this book "One Bullet Away".

I started into the book and was sucked in.  I thought his prose crisp and detailed without getting too bogged down in the details of military life.  His personal view of Officers Candidates School and The Basic School; retrospective of 'how's and why's' very insightful.  Having been enlisted, I really didn't know how an officer is cultivated.  Much of his focus was not so much we did this and then that, but how the Warrior Mindset was developed. Critical and tactical thinking, continuous self appraisal and critique, making mistakes and learning from them.  Moving into the fleet as a freshly minted 2nd Lieutenant gave me a very interesting perspective being on the end of things.

The period from joining 1st Battalion, 1st Marines to arriving in Afghanistan full of interesting anecdotes, especially because ship board life can be pretty dull.  His description of life in the field under combat conditions was palpable. I could smell the stale sweat and bad breath; feel the chaffed shoulders, aching muscles and semi-conscientiousness due to lack of sleep.  I guess that's due in part to having lived it.  No matter what, he kept his mission and his men forefront whether the mission made sense or not. 

The move through Recon school and then the build up to O.I.F kept a good pace.  The drive through Iraq, keeping the morale of his command together through questionable orders and the general chaos of war was a real tribute to his solid training and dedication.  I understood his desire to leave the Corps after O.I.F. Combat wrings something out of a man's soul.  I appreciated his honesty about his 'ghosts' and how he dealt with them.

I found the book an excellent read and would recommend it!  It is a very  good window to life in the Corps and an excellent biography.  If nothing else, I found it a complete antithesis to Anthony Swofford's "Jarhead", which I loathed!  Nate Fick is an officer I would gladly serve.  He and others like him guaranty the Marine Corps for a long time to come.