Generation Kill

It's fairly accurate, though a lot of dramatic license was taken. He took what some of the Marines told him, and twisted it more to his perception. There is a lot of names and ranks mixed up .. like when he promoted a 0311 right out of SOI to Cpl and mixing him in with the FR Marines.

Recon officers also get a bad rap in the book, mostly because B co officers, and I say this as a Marine Corps officer, were fairly incompetent. So when reading, just remember that is not representative of the majority of the officers in FR.

The book isn't the worst out there, but it's not great either. It's worth a read, but is to be taken at face value for what it is .. a book written by a guy based mostly on his perception and not necessarily that of the Marines.
 
Re: The Book...

Lil Hulk 1988 said:
The book is actually about First Recon in Iraq 2. They were used totally opposite of their training. I would go further, but it is a good read for all the NCO and Officer wannabes out there....

Are you saying they played more of a DA role then recon?
 
The book....

The reason for the read is that it gives a "flavor" of what happens at times and yes I agree with Rndr, it is dramatised way too much, especially the officers. (Not many of my COs were that incompentent, especially since they had to go through the screening too, but I have had some that were so stiff with regs that we spent more time polishing and less time at the range or in the bush.) The item that was interesting to me is that they took a recon battalion and used it totally opposite of the what people would think a recon unit should be used. It was very different form my experience and many of my buds.
 
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