One Bullet Away
The Making of a Marine Officer
by Nathaniel C. Fick · first published 2005
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
A firsthand account of becoming a Marine officer, from The Basic School to combat leadership in Iraq. It offers a view of leading Marines and works as a companion to Generation Kill.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A former captain in the Marines' First Recon Battalion, who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, reveals how the Corps trains its elite and offers a point-blank account of twenty-first-century battle. Only one Marine in a hundred qualifies for Recon, charged with working clandestinely, often behind enemy lines. Fick's training begins with a hellish summer at Quantico, and advances to the pinnacle--Recon--four years later, on the eve of war with Iraq. Along the way, he learns to shoot a man a mile away, stays awake for seventy-two hours straight, endures interrogation and torture, learns to swim wit
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…posted, missed it). There are a lot of good books on leadership; I'd stick to the Officer lists. http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/usmcreadinglist It's not on the list, but the best book I've ever read was One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick; current CEO of Endgame Inc. Turn the Ship Around! is also a great book about leadership and empowering your subordinates.
on “Military Reading List” ↗Here's a reply[0] to a question that asked about directory structure. Ignore the programming/technology part. Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them. Knot books. "Duty: Memoirs of…
on “Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions” ↗Check out any books / articles relating to the Marine Corps' "The Basic School" - It is where newly commissioned officers (and warrant officers) learn how to lead Marines. My fav is: "One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer" - by Nate Fick. Long story short - The Basic School and training cadre are so effective at producing outstanding leaders, that MBA programs like Harvard and Wharton have…
on “Not Just Any Old Geek” ↗If you enjoyed reading Wright's book, you may also enjoy Cpt. Nathaniel Fick's One Bullet Away. He led Second Platoon's Bravo Company.
on “Duty, Democracy and the Threat of Tribalism” ↗Off topic, but I was very surprised to learn how faithful the HBO series was to Wright’s book that I went one level deeper and read Nathaniel Fick’s book, “One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer”. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Fick’s description of events fit pretty well with Generation Kill. You don’t see that very often.
on “Tucson copter cop says mysterious, ‘sophisticated’ super-drone ‘like no other’” ↗One Bullet Away is great. It gives another perspective of the popular book Generation Kill.
on “Military Reading List” ↗