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A memorable cinematic passage is contained in the movie Full Metal Jacket, wherein a new squad of marine recruits arrives at boot camp and is immediately dressed down, singly and collectively, by their drill sergeant. The episode is so dramatic that one almost forgets that the paramount reason behind the rough treatment afforded to the recruits is to decondition their self-preservative reflexive actions for battle, while simultaneously making them tough enough and hard enough to be still standing at the end of the day. ONE BULLET AWAY: The Making of a Marine Officer, completes the circle, and thensome.
Author Nathaniel Fick is among the best of the best, a former captain in the United States Marine Corps First Recon Battalion. ONE BULLET AWAY is Fick's unflinching account of his recruitment into the Marines, his advancement, and his service on the fronts of Afghanistan and Iraq. He gives the reader an up-close and personal view of what it is like to be a soldier. One element of military training that is often lost upon the layman is the importance of the history of warfare and of soldiering; as Fick notes here, marines learn from the mistakes of those who have gone ahead. Every marine accordingly has an obligation to ensure that the sacrifices of those who have preceded them are not in vain.
Fick's account of his role in modern warfare, which constitutes the balance of the book, is anecdotal at its most interesting, ranging from accounts of bravery, courage, and compassion to the occasional stupidity of commanders for whom the battlefield is more of a concept than reality. One comes away from this memoir with the feeling that, as with most things, it is miraculous when any project proceeds to completion successfully. In ONE BULLET AWAY, however, the stakes are much higher.
Fick elected to forego re-upping with the Marines, an understandable decision considering the events recounted here and their personal aftermath for him. ONE BULLET AWAY is a highly readable, personal memoir that rings and resonates with bravery, clarity and truth.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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