Rating: 
Summary: Great book for looking into personalities
Review: This book was wonderful. I can't give it 5 stars for two reasons: 1, it's not a must read and 2, I wasn't in the military so I can't say what is and is not accurate. However, I think all men between 18-30 should read it to get an idea of how your personality may change as you grow older. I'm 30 now and I can picture how I would've been taken with all of the military sales pitches if I were in the Marines. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get into the mind of a maturing man.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a weak paragraph in a magnificent book
Review: Jarhead is some kind of great book. There isn't a weak paragraph or a page I could have done without. Swofford is a real writer, and that may actually be the basis for some of the objections from other jarheads. The book is factual and convincing enough to be required reading as a reality check for George W. Bush, who ought to be shut up in a room with it for a week (though I suppose we'd first have to teach him to read). But the book is also about the nature of experience and knowing: it's full of paradoxes -- seemingly written very precisely and evocatively, but at the same time questioning our ability to truly know and then accurately report what we may think we know. Just be clear: this is a strong strong book written in blood.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting read, but not credible as a memoir
Review: "Swofford's Tale of Woe", as it became known amongst the members and snipers of my Battalion's STA team, "Jarhead" is a story of a troubled young man thrust into a world for which he is ill-equipped with, more so than a chronicle of modern war. Problems arise with the multiple credibility issues that Swofford attempts to dance around with "what follows is neither true nor false but what I know". Admittedly, Swofford's use of language and context is remarkable with vivid scenes from a good storyteller. And there are observations that he makes to which I can relate as a former Marine myself. Which is why he has many experts of literature(including "BlackHawk Down's author, Mark Bowden, in his New York Times review) duped. And if you are attempting to understand the experience of combat and war, unfortunately, Swofford has you duped too.
Many parts of the book are suspect. Firstly, with the credibility of some of the stories and scenes he describes. Secondly, Swofford's experience is , as any Marine can tell, of the "bottom 10%". Unfortunately that leaves the reader shortchanged as to the authenticity of so many stories told.
Credibility. The author's reflection from an encounter with an officer "I considered masturbating on the Captain's desk, but instead I called him a faggot addict cumsucker bitchmaster..." is hardly believable. Trust me on this one. Ironically, he later states in his book, "I rarely disobey orders." Then, the author relates a story in his unit about a Marine's wife who sent him a video that turns out to be her having sex with other men. I entered the Marine Corps before Swofford's tale, and remember this very same story ...it is widely known as Marine folklore. Swofford later claims that enemy artillery rounds "land within fifteen feet of (our) fighting hole..." Again, I've seen incoming. Even if it were fifteen METERS, he'd be dead.
Bottom 10%. In every unit, there are always the ones who truly can't cope. On two occasions, to include boot camp, Swofford admits to pissing his pants. "I closed my eyes and pissed my pants as Drill Instructor Burke screamed in my ear...." Additionally he writes, "I would do my duty....honor my contractual obligation" only to say in the next paragraph that he "spent (his) first few days at Camp Pendleton...faking a stomach flu..." He also admits to stealing and that he "knew the ex-marine who ran the army/navy store would give me $300 for..." He then tells of placing a loaded M-16 to the head of another Marine and, on another occasion, on himself. While this MIGHT be true, it would be highly disturbing behavior rarely found in the Corps(says my own experience and of my enlisted Marines). Out of over 1,000 Marines in our Battalion, we had perhaps 2 that I can think of that would equal his inability to conduct himself in a mature and honorable manner, based upon the author's own admissions.
Lastly, although Swofford did experience war, barely one can say he experienced COMBAT. The closest thing he saw to a firefight was friendly rounds impacting near his vehicle and once with enemy incoming artillery. That is, if you believe those stories are true. Not once did he have a exchange of gunfire where he was directly fired upon, returned fire, then saw the bodies of the dead. He also didn't have the truly unfortunate experience of seeing dead civilians. We were fired upon and returned fire. We saw some Iraqis we killed. We saw dead civilians. We saw gory images of the dead and destroyed that will last in our memories. We saw combat. That death and destruction of combat brings great sadness to anyone with a soul, that war and combat is brutal and horrid...is hardly a new concept. So for Mr. Swofford to claim he can relate his experience as a classic memoir, not counting his credibility issues, is far from fair. So the question begs.....Does it accurately portray, as universal themes that can be understood and related to by most readers, what it was like to experience the Corps, the Gulf War and combat in general? Truly Swofford's account of his experiences miss the mark. There is amazing prose and dramatic story-telling, but again this is hardly a classic memoir. If you want to understand what it was like to be in combat, I highly recommend a powerful memoir, the classic "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge. For a glimpse into the modern Marine Corps, wait for better books that are sure to emerge in the coming years.
Rating:
Summary: cover to cover
Review: I read Swofford's book cover to cover. His description of life in the Corps is very real. I like how he explains the feelings of boredom and of girls back home who are sleeping with stupid hotel "boys". I was a peacetime Marine serving between the two Iraq wars and since I've never seen war or combat Swofford gave me a vision to put in my head that I can relate to. Excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent dialogue
Review: I just recently bought the book and read it in a few days. I do not think it is particularly strong on character development nor do I think the plot of the book is going to surprise anyone; it is, afterall, a chronicle of an already very well chronicled war. BUT, the dialogue is excellent, it had me chuckling and laughing several times, and the writing style is strong and engaging. I would compare it to Pulp Fiction, Full Metal Jacket and Training Day where the dialogue of the characters, along with a standout performance here and there, is the backbone of the movie. I read an excerpt of this book in the CalAggie alumni magazine (I tried to join the Marines in the summer of 1990 and went to the Oakland MEPS only to be declined on a medical technicality. A few days later I was a freshman at UCD)and decided to buy it because it sounded interesting and because Mr. Swofford had spent some time in this area. I am glad I did and I wholly endorse this book.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed Jarhead
Review: Mr. Swofford tried too hard to convince his audience that he was a tough but sensitve guy. His book has far too many flaws as a result. A few observations follow: 1. He should have written the book as a novel (preferably a humorous novel). It would have been more believable and less irritating. Of course, as a novel it would not have made a best seller list.
2. He tried too hard for shock value. I was not at all shocked, but was, as above, irritated.
3. The scout/snipers I was familiar with were, in general, somewhat more intelligent than the run-of-the-mill infantrymen, were motivated and respectful, spent most of their time doing map work for the S-2, and generally bitched and moaned when the H&S CO Gunny made them do things like stand CP security. They certainly were not the supermen that Swofford makes them out to be. In addition, my experience was that there really isn't much need or use for snipers in a Marine Corps infantry battalion.
4. I generally dislike and am suspicious of anyone who deliberately knocks the common rifleman, particularly when he is a staff pogue who has never experienced the day-to-day grind of living in the muck and the mud. Swofford spent most of his time in "the rear" and some in the "rear rear".
5. I really distrust people who for one reason or another think that someone with a particular talent or specialty is a cut above the normal Marine.
6. There are far too many tidbits he offers that simply could not have been true.
7. His book is much like Oliver Stone's Platoon - a compilation of anecdotes, hearsay, metaphors and other such apocrypha all neatly compressed into a narrow time frame and presented as a personal experience.
8. I particularly dislike the (universally false) presentation of all officers as complete jerks. For example, I do not know a single officer or stereotype of one who would tell the Marine cleaning a 4-holer to replace a drum right now so that the officer could use the 4-holer. Too, as a member of the battalion staff, Swofford would not have developed such disdain toward all officers, or if he did, would not have lasted long as a STA member.
9. Virtually all the sex [stuff] is overdone and thrown in for, as above, shock value. I suppose Swofford thinks it represents some sort of realism, but most of the stories he relates are the sort that are bantered about in jest. To have us believe that in 1989 (post Tailgate) some Marine [engaged] a broad on the hood of a jitney while it was being driven out the gate at Olongapo (and didn't get court martialed and discharged) is a real stretch. Besides, jitneys probably weren't allowed aboard the base.
10. As near as I can tell, Swofford received "incoming" on two occasions during his 4-day war, none of it being small arms fire. While being on the receiving end of a few artillery rounds or RPGs is an interesting experience, there is absolutely nothing that compares to having several thousand AK-47 or other small arms rounds shot directly at your forehead by a couple hundred guys only a few meters away. His being "nearly killed" by a booby trap is a ridiculous effort at a claim to fame. I am "nearly killed" every time I drive down the highway.
11. The highest of his touted "decorations" is the Combat Action Ribbon; some of the ordinary 0311s he disparages might wonder how he earned it.
12. So he saw a bunch of dead bodies. Big deal.
13. He must have been a big, self-centered jerk at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
14. His book is filled with lies. All too many of them. They are not just exaggerations. Twice within the book he discusses inveterate liars, one being a fellow STA Marine, and the other being himself. There no doubt is something Freudian going on there.
15. Swofford has some real personality problems. His continuous reliance on sex stories goes beyond normality. There is something fishy underneath it all. He needs to grow up emotionally so that he can present immature emotions with some authority.
16. Swofford is at best an ordinary writer, certainly not gifted. Cormack McCarthy is a gifted writer.
I am not at all opposed to the sort of stories he tells, but he is too caught up in trying to be macho and to shock the mothers, wives, girl friends, and pusillanimous civilian men that might read the book. Perhaps his next book, a novel, will be more readable. S/F,
Bill Stensland
Rating:
Summary: Swofford's motto is "Simper Fi"
Review: I originally picked up this book for my grandfather since he's a retired Marine but after ten pages of Swofford's tripe, my grandfather practically needed a Dramamine to hold down the nausea. He's just being overly critical, I thought to myself, and decided to give Swofford's book a try. Actually, my grandfather was being overly generous. Swofford's attempts to crucify the Corps at every chance only succeed in making himself sound like an unethical sniveling coward. And while he made a poor Marine, he makes an even worse author- wading through his writing is the literary equivalent of being pecked to death by ducks. If you want to read a real book about the Marine Corps, invest your time and a few dollars in Joseph Owen's Colder Than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir. No self-pitying whining to be found there.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of Money
Review: This ain,t the Marine Corp I knew.Boring,boring boring.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy it
Review: This book reminded me of all the soldiers I detested while I was in...Attitude problems galore...Nothing but complaints about everything...no desire to be a professional.
Rating:
Summary: So bad that I don¿t know where to start with this travesty
Review: This book was unequivocally the worst book I've ever read. From the first page, I had to force myself to read every disgusting word. Many times I slammed it shut in disgust not only because it was rabble-rousing fiction, but that it had enough grains of truth to sound believable to anyone who has never served. The author is an embarrassment as a Marine and I pray that anyone who reads this book does not mistake his warped views as the common Marine mindset, although he would have you think so. His book is not interesting (just a collection of his distorted views) nor is it informative about the scout/sniper arena. He brushes over the training, the hardware, and the techniques only to show what a stud he is and how everyone and everything around him is of lesser quality than the epic hero of Anthony Swofford. The book is about a sniper Marine during the Gulf War. He chronicles his thoughts before, during, and after the war and somehow tries to get the reader to believe that he and his fellow sniper platoon members are both the scum of society and heroic warriors. He seems to go out of his way to let you in on his own inflated view of his importance and then goes on to over-dramatize his James Dean, loner-rebel image. He obviously has a problem with authority and as a result has rewritten his own history, putting himself as the center of the war while all others, mostly Officers, are dismissed into buffoonery roles. He often chronicled his interactions with them with his direct quotes followed by "What I wanted to say was..." What is more disturbing than the unending train of half-truths is the vulgarity he shares. Both in language and content, Swofford goes out of his way to infuse the subjects of sex, his own anatomy, vomiting, and even an imagined liaison between his parents. These details are an obvious attempt to introduce shock but for that reason and no other. His conversations between his fellow Marines are canned, full of clichés, and what an anti-Marine believer would imagine a band of idiotic killers would talk like and about. I don't need to know about his ... sessions nor his inclination to [wet] himself in bootcamp and in combat. Every response I would have to any paragraph in the book is either "I didn't need to know that" or "I'm raising the ... flag on that one, Swofford!!!" It's not hard to see this petulant whiner is both full of himself at he expense of those around him, childish, and disloyal to the Marine Corps. My overriding feeling while painfully reading this book was that it was written by that disgruntled private who thinks that the Corps didn't hand him everything he wanted. This man has succeeded in selling out the Marine Corps by writing what he thinks the anti-Marine segment of the world wants to read and it's for the good of the Corps that he parted ways long ago. But it's also a shame he chose to suck out some wealth and notoriety at the expense of the Corps' good name. Anything that sells, right Swofford? It seems coincidental that everything he describes is so cliché within the Marine Corps or leans toward the impossibly extreme. His Drill Instructors slammed his head into a blackboard until it hit the bricks on the other side. He screwed every Officer's daughter along with every gorgeous girl in Korea and the Philippines. He was the center of an epic bar fight in a small town where he hoisted a man over his head before throwing him behind the bar, breaking the glasses and mirror (someone's seen Roadhouse a few too many times). Many of his stories are drama-queen ramblings that spiral into meaningless confusion. Contradictory statements like "We were here but nowhere.." sound like a bad poetry reading session. He claims to have watched the Super Bowl game on tape that was sent to his buddy when all the sudden a homemade porno cut in of a woman in a mask. Supposedly at the end, she rips off her mask and it's the Marine's wife who wants a divorce because of his infidelity. I personally heard of this incident, in its various forms, when I was in the Gulf and it ranks as the biggest urban legend in the Corps. It's a running joke that anyone would believe this and Swofford passes it off as a fact he personally witnessed. From little things like failing to capitalize "Marine" and calling the ALL MARINE messages "ALLMAR" instead of the correct term "ALMAR," to the major snafus such as his definition of a Marine, this book gets more things wrong than I have time, energy, space, or patience to list. The coup de gras came at the end when he gives a verbose assertion that a Marine isn't really a Marine until he has killed. What really makes this statement ironic is that he never scored a kill himself. In fact, his combat record is pretty sparse but you'd never know it from the wise-beyond-his-years bravado. Yes, he prepared and waited for war but other than receiving a little mortar fire nearby, his "combat experience" consisted onf sitting on a sand hill overlooking the Kuwait airport and watching it all unfold. Swofford makes himself a brooding hero who reads The Iliad and absentmindedly chews on the bullet on a necklace. He can out-drink, out-screw, out-PT, out-shoot, and out-(add your own capability here) anyone on the planet, especially the sub-mortals that surround him. While everyone else is enjoying the last bit of comfort in the rear before moving forward, he is assembling his weapon with a blindfold on, outside in a tent where real warriors choose to live, in under 7 seconds. While others are exuberant to be coming home after the war, he is sulking and carrying his mental scars, from what I'm not quite sure. Formerly enlisted Gulf War vet, currently Captain of Marines
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