Rating: 
Summary: - a memoir written prematurely by an immature author
Review: I'm not a marine so you can't disregard my comments as being yet another "jarhead" trying to protect the corps.
I was offended by the lack of moral and ethical code (never mind the military code) this author confessed to breaking rather bluntly and seemingly without much remorse or benefit of enlightened hindsight that generally a memoir provides. By page two I was regretting the purchase when I read he had stolen military supplies and fellow marines' uniforms for resale profit (and drinking funds). Regardless of youth and immaturity, this author shocked me with his obvious lack of respect for the marine corp and his fellow marines - making me wonder why he even joined. I fully expected him to take his readers down a path of self-discovery and resulting maturity typical of the coming of age and memoir genres. Despite page two, I read the whole book hoping the author would somehow redeem himself by providing revealing, self-reflective passages that would allow us to perhaps forgive him for his long winded whining and supposedly "shocking" tabloid narrative that at times reached unsuccessfully for poetic images and force fed readers the old "mirage" metaphor over and over and over again. (Yes, you're in the desert and you're confused about your identity and your role there - we get it!)
Sadly, this was not the case. And the ending was ridiculously sudden and premature. A huge disappointment overall.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Some Swofford
Review: I was in the Seventh Marines like the author. I was in Kilo Company, 3/7 (3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment for those not in the know), some five years before the events experienced by Mr. Swofford. I also knew some of the guys in our own Battalion's STA platoon. While I don't know anything of their indoctrination, their training regiment or what else, it seemed to me like they spent a lot of time on working parties or just plain skating their way through their enlistments.Gulf War memoirs are beginning to pour forth from publishers. I wonder about the timing sometimes, but it wouldn't surprise me that Swofford's slim volume is the best of the lot. Like James Webb's classic "Fields of Fire" Swofford catches the lingo of Marines perfectly, but he also discusses the ups and the many downs of being one of the Few and the Proud (sometimes I felt like pride had little to anything to do with my own enlistment). I don't necessarily agree with whomever wrote the dust jacket in comparing this book to Caputo's "A Rumor of War" or "The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien. "A Rumor of War" is still probably the best Vietnam memoir out there, and Caputo's experiences are as far from Mr. Swofford's as they get. Tim O'Brien's book is a work of fiction, something "Jarhead" is not. If they tried to compare it to say, "If I Die in a Combat Zone," I feel that would have been more appropriate. Swofford's book entails his peacetime experience as well as the Gulf War. He shows how his fellow Marines wage war on each other long before the Iraqis intrude. The deployment ("Desert Shield") is a long and monotonous one, and despite some brief but terrifying moments, 2/7 STA platoon's war is frustratingly short. These men have spent years readying themselves for this moment and the war ends before they really experience it. The end feeling is one of curiosity and frustration. Swofford is wonderful in describing the almost Dantesque Kuwaiti landscape that is littered with shattered Iraqi Army vehicles, and dead Iraqi soldiers. I found myself seeing my own experience in reading Swofford's chronicle. It's well written, humorous (the deepest most black sense of humor pervades this narrative) and moves briskly. In the tradition of other Marine memoirists like William Manchester and Lewis B. Puller Jr., Swofford seems to be highly ambivalent about his service. No doubt he, like the others previously mentioned (as well as myself) could tear the Corps a new one up and down, for their pettiness, for their abuses, for their ridiculous obssession with small details, but to hear an outsider try to do the same thing only invites annoyance and scorn. Jarhead is a good read. I hope Mr. Swofford's novel will deliver more on the excellent promise his memoir affords us. Semper Fi, Mr. Swofford...
Rating:
Summary: Great first book
Review: Though set in the days as a Marine in the 1st Gulf War the book is about the man, not war. We all set off down the road of life, some stop along the way in the military where we are forever changed. This is a difficult stop if you are a thinking man, as the military does not like you to question what is going on at all. Swofford thinks; a talent lost in much of America.
Swofford is a young writer with great promise. I got to know him from his book. I liked him and the book and hope this is not his high point, I hope he goes on to write more with the same gutsy style and honesty. I have heard him interviewed on NPR and he was interesting and thought provoking clever and fresh. This was my favorite book of 2003
Rating: 
Summary: Page-turner
Review: A lot of people don't like this book, and I respect their points of view, some of which are well argued here. But I did like the book. A lot.
"Jarhead" is well-written, honest and profane. It doesn't glorify combat. What little actual combat "Jarhead" contains is over fast. Yet the book manages to be compelling, with a strong sense of place.
Is it anti-Marine? It didn't feel that way to me when I read it, though obviously it infuriated a lot of other reviewers. Some will find the book offensively profane, unpleasant and uncomfortable. I didn't. To me, it was an economically written page-turner, and I hope we hear more from the author.
I should disclose that I am a soldier (Guardsman) with strong loyalty to the Army and huge respect for Marines, and I still did not find the book offensive. It just seemed honest.
Rating: 
Summary: question of character
Review: I'm a former Marine (13 years) and Desert Storm veteran and this book absolutely sickens me. My military experience is something near and dear to my heart because of the many friendships I made. I'll never experience that kind of camraderie again. So, it really disgusts me to read such nonsense. In my opinion Mr. Swofford is corrupt of any morals and character. He certainly doesn't represent the Marine Corps I knew or the men and women I served with. God help you for selling your soul to make a buck. The book is pure garbage and lacks any sense of truthfulness. I just can't grasp the reason why he would do such nonsense. "Tucked away in the folds of my life are discipline and determination, a refusal to quit when the going gets rough, a love for our country's freedom, a respect for authority. Thanks Marines!" - Chuck Swindoll
Rating:
Summary: complete bs
Review: Being one of the marines who served with swofford i can only say this. He's a friggin liar and I don't remember any of the garbage he says happened in this book. We did not steal from our fellow marines, act disrespectfully towards our superiors, or piss ourselves. Yes we were scared but we were better trained than that. Another thing is his ridiculous claims that we were all benching 350 pounds or some such nonsense is absurd in the extreme. Yes we were in excellent physical condition so I don't know why he lies about something so trivial. Swofford spent his time lying, cheating, whining but my team sure as hell didn't act anything like this. He was such a great marine he couldn't even figure out how to use a radio properly. reading homer my ass. we read books like stephen king and just generally whatever was available. This is not in any way representative of the proud Marines i served with and it's an insult to their bravery, loyalty, and service to their country. there are so many lies in this book that it's scary. I can't wait for this idiot to visit somewhere near my home so i can go there and call him a liar to his face in front of the public so they will know once and for all what crap this book is finally. I read a review from one of the guys in my platoon and he was dead on. he too called swofford a liar because THAT, is the truth. Now i know why his book starts out with this is how i remember it. Nobody else i've talked to from our old S.T.A platoon remembers anything like what this idiot remembers. Thank god he's out of the Marine Corps.
Rating:
Summary: What a crock
Review: Fortunately, I checked this out from a library, so never wasted money on it. As an active duty Marine that went through Desert Storm, I was suckered-in by the back cover blurb; after taking in Swoffords account, it's amatuerish, drunken, liberal posturing and propaganda - and an uneducated attempt at that. Early on in the account, Swofford makes a half-hearted slap at blaming the war on oil interest only, but offers no supporting information - written as if the assumption was pure fact that everyone knows and accepts, and the Kuwaiti people and international opinion were nothing in the balance.
While claiming "young buck" celebration of Hollywood versions of Vietnam & US atrocities in those films (movies done by rabid anti-war directors and producers and 99.9% fiction), he downplays completely Iraqi atrocities, dismissing them as Saudi, Kuwaiti, and even US propaganda.
He openly (and almost proudly) admits to stealing quite a lot of gear from the USMC and his fellow brothers-in-arms for profiteering purposes; that unashamed admission right there closed the rest of his account for me - No honor, integrity or even loyalty to the Marines he serves with. Nothing else in his account I could trust - He unapologetically puts his own needs and wants over any higher purpose will do/say whatever to move his own interests. I can only recommend this book as a study of how a lack of personal honor can spill over into all facets of life, including twisting one's memory...
Rating:
Summary: great read
Review: As an Army veteran of the same era, I could resonate with much of the content of book. This isnt a whitewash of anti or pro military, but a recollection of one person's experience in the Marine Corp, and one that I find based much further in reality, than say, the white washed Fox News reports. The author is not a typical grunt, and logically it would follow that his story would not be typical. This book tells a story of a young man coming of age, trying to reconcile the childhood idealogies of the US with the brutal, ugly reality of war. This was a very fast read and well worth the time. The book isnt for someone who is a neo conservative Rightwinger, nor would it please the anti-war leftists--it is for the people who have a clear understanding of the nature of the political beast, namely propoganda and power struggles.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing could be further from the truth
Review: I am a Marine officer candidate and I know quite a few Marines. Not a single Marine who's read this book likes it the very least, not because this book makes us "look bad", but because he is not telling the truth. He's simply telling a story that he knows some civilians want to hear. It's almost funny when he tried so hard yet unsuccefully to establish a relationship between the Gulf War and oil companies. He knows some people just are dying to read that part. If you want to learn about the Marine Corps, this book is definitely NOT what you want. Most of it is about his own reproductive organs or constant swearing. When it does mention the Marine Corps, it simply paints a false picture.
Rating: 
Summary: worth reading, but a bit esoteric
Review: Let me start by saying I enjoyed the book. Swofford manages to tell the story of his experiences in Desert Shield and Desert Storm while at the same time using those months in the Gulf to tell his life story, pre- and post-war. He combines it all in a narrative that is at once poignant and riveting. In the portraits of his youth, we sense that joining the Corps is almost his destiny--he's the son of a Vietnam vet and the grandson of a WWII vet; he wants to prove he's part of that line, prove that he's a man. After the war, we feel the aimlessness, the lack of direction, the inescapability of the Marines--it's always with him. The war itself, though it has moments of fear and danger, is for him and his friends mostly anti-climactic. Swofford conveys these events and emotions well. Often, though, I got the feeling that Swofford was trying far too hard to write a "literary" memoir in the vein of a Graves or Manchester or Caputo or O'Brien, to write something more than a simple retelling of war. The result is writing that's very self-conscious (and maybe that's the point, I don't know); it feels as though he is constantly looking over his shoulder. The style does have one benefit: he makes clear that we only see what he saw, that his is only one sliver of the whole story. And he was a unique soldier, to be sure. What other enlisted Marine--what other soldier, enlisted or officer, for that matter--read Camus and Homer while in the desert? I see the point--one captures the existential despair that pervades the book and the other is the classic poet of war--but these references are sometimes annoying, almost as though he's broadcasting his intelligence and uniqueness. One particularly odd reference was an allusion to Kobe Abe (Kobe who? yeah, me, too, until I looked him up), when describing the desert sand. In sum, even if Swofford's style somewhat puts one off (it did me, at least) and tries to be something it isn't or can't, it is a gripping portrayal not simply of men at war, but of what comes before and after. It deserves a place on the military reader's shelf. (3 stars; worth reading, if a bit esoteric)
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