One Bullet Away: The Making of a US Marine Officer

Nathaniel (Nate) Fick had happily gone from college to white-collar job. Then he attended a lecture by a reporter who had just written a book on the US Marine Corps. It inspired Nate to reject the ‘seat belt and safety goggles’ culture that dominates the western world. Instead, he would serve his country in the Marine Corps. Nate passed the gruelling officer training programme just before 9/11 and soon saw action in Afghanistan. He was one of the first US soldiers to enter Baghdad when the Coalition forces invaded Iraq.

Fick reveals the dilemmas he and his men faced: horrible – and timeless – problems to which there are no ‘right’ answers, as he takes us across the unbridgeable gap between civilians and men who have seen the face of battle.