One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

Additional One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer Information

His vast skill set puts him in front of the front lines, leading twenty-two Marines into the deadlist conflict since Vietnam. He vows he will bring all his men home safely, and to do so he’ll need more than his top-flight education. He’ll need luck and an increasingly clear vision of the limitations of his superiors and the missions they assign him. Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between the military ideals he learned and military practice, which can mock those ideals. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but it is an ultimately inspiring account of mastering the art of war.

What Customers Say About One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer:

Actually, I waited one book too long to read this as I read Evan Wrights "Generation Kill" first, which was a big mistake. The problem with the section on Iraq (which is about 50% of the book) is that GK describes all of the same events but in a much more engaging fashion.

He was rarely specific and many of the issues with the command staff that were described in GK weren't even mentioned in here. If I had read OBA first I wouldn't have noticed, and then I would have enjoyed reading GK's account of these events later but having already read GK Fick's bland descriptions of those events seemed to drag on and on without adding anything to what I already knew.

USAF Capt chiming in here. All of the chapters on OCS and Recon training were entertaining and kept me turning pages, as did the final chapter.

I was particularly interested in reading his perspective on his relationship with his CO's Gunny, who he seemed to have major issues with in the GK book and series but he never even mentions that there was an issue here which was disappointing.Bottom line is that this is a good book, but you will spoil it if you read Generation Kill first as it just doesn't hold a candle to that story. I'm making my way through a bunch of books on the current conflicts and waited a while to read this one.

Fick's story is well written, up until he gets to Iraq.

Nathaniel Fick is a very admirable man and it was sad to see him leave the Marine Corps. I want to become a Marine Officer later in life and I learned a lot from this book.It first starts off about officer training at OCS and TBS and goes into his account of pre war, during war and aftermath.

Fick is multi-talented. His book is a gripping narrative account of what war is really like. I can't stand guys like Fick. I've spent my entire professional career as a writer and this guy does it better w/out hardly any training.

It is very informative as to the making of a Marine officer. I am enjoying reading this book.

I came away from this book not only more informed about the boots-on-the-ground experience of the Iraq War, but wanting to be a better person and a stronger leader.Highly recommended. Fick combines obviously well-read literacy, a sharp mind, and the thrills and action of the best fictional novels into a compelling meditation on leadership in the modern military. There's little more I can add to what other reviewers have already said of Nate Fick's One Bullet Away. All I can say is that, of the scores of military novels, memoirs, and histories that I've read over the years, One Bullet Away is one of the best, if not the best.