Rating: 
Summary: outstanding
Review: Great book. Having been an active duty marine in an LAV battalion from 90-94, the story awoke some long ago memories for me. Although not a gulf war participant, I could relate to each page of this book. Anyone who wants an insight on how the Marine Corps works, fails, gets the job done, improvises, takes care of its own, should get this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Marine Corps Experience Captured
Review: Having served on active duty with the USMC from 85-91, I found much common ground with Buzz Williams. He captures the essense of what the experience of being a Marine, from the initial recruiting process through the end of a career, is all about. His ability to give the reader as accurate feel for what the experience is like is second to none. This book rekindled many memories of my own service and I would recommend it without hesitation. This is a worthwhile read for all Marines, past present or future, as well as anyone wishing to better understand military life.
Rating: 
Summary: Potential Reservists - Read This Book!
Review: Having served several years on active duty in the US Marine Corps, and then voluntarily follwed that up with service in a reserve rifle company, I vouch that Buzz Williams accurately describes life as a Marine reservist vis-a-vis the regulars. All potential reservists, especially today with the emphasis on reserve call-ups, should heed this book's message: not all combat units are prepared for combat. Some units have poor leaderhip, abysmal training plans, inadequate training resources, cliques that make discipline incredibly difficult, and poor morale. Given what most reservists must put up with, I commend them for their efforts.Buzz Williams may or may not have accurately described some of the fire fights in Iraq in 1991, but he didn't miss when it came to life in a reserve unit. We need more Marines like Buzz; we need more authors of military subjects who write as well as Buzz does.
Rating: 
Summary: HONEST BUT FLAWED ACCOUNT
Review: I believe this to be an okay read. The problem I have with this book is its lack of fact checking. The author is flat wrong in his description of the friendly fire incidents on January 29th, 1991 at Observation Post 4 near the Kuwaiti border. I have spoken to several Marines who were there so I'm not just saying this off-hand. I think it doesn't speak well of the book that the author would get such a simple matter so wrong (he mis-identifies the lone survivor of a infamously-bad friendly fire incident). He obviously didn't even do a Google search on the topic. In short, I feel this to be a historically unreliable account.
Rating:
Summary: Memoirs are stories of personal experience.
Review: I highly recommend this book, it was outstanding, I could'nt put it down. Buzz Williams has painted a very detailed picture of what he saw and what he accomplished in his time in the Marines and Iraq. His memoirs. It has a flavor that took me back to my time in the Marine Corps all 8 years ('76 to '84). From boot camp to first drill weekend, all of our ATD's, MORDT's and all the additional schools we attended. You just see it as it happens. It's just a well crafted book. This is a must read for all Marines and all potential Marines not just reservists. His unit as in all units had it's share of those guys who thought they knew better and those thoughts usally lead to potential disasters. Those guys aren't villians, but the cliques they exist in can cause major issues within a command structure especially if they are in charge. The roll over incident is a perfect example. I commend Buzz on his honesty and ability to take the reader there. I have already recommended this book to many of the guys that I was in the Marine Corps with and people who just have no clue of what we go through in the military. It's just a great read. If we had Buzz Williams in our unit he would have been a very welcome addition. Even though we walked every where we went. I was a Sergeant in a rifle company and our feet were our LAV's.
Rating:
Summary: A father's perspective
Review: I just finished reading "Spare Parts" and highly recommend it to anyone who knows someone in the Marine Corps Reserves, knows someone thinking of joining, or just wants a better appreciation of what our service men and women go through. "Spare Parts" provides two views of the Marine Corps: the more well-known comradery side (i.e., "once a Marine, always a Marine,") and toughness of the Corps, as well as the less glamorous side (i.e., training, drilling, and combat). Further, it provides an interesting perspective on the unique mental aspects of reserve service. As a father with a son in the Marine Corps Reserves, this book really hit home. After graduating from Parris Island and subsequent training at Camp Legune, NC, and Twentynine Palms, CA, my son returned home to go back to school, attend monthly drills, and await his call-up to active duty. While as gung-ho as John Wayne after leaving Parris Island (the more common view of a Marine), he has since also become aware of the other, less heralded side of military reserve life such as the lack of resources, inefficiency, etc. While specific instances of these conditions are detailed in "Spare Parts," Mr. Williams doesn't stop there but also continues to describe how he overcame many of the human (i.e., personalities and attitudes) and resource (i.e., training and equipment) impediments that he and others routinely experience; invaluable lessons for any Marine. Finally, this book helped me to appreciate the monthly mental roller coaster that Marine Reservists go through. The difficult transition in "mind set" from a civilian to a Marine back to a civilian each month is something that I really didn't have an appreciation for; however, since reading the book, I can recognize as a reality in my son. As the father of a young Marine that has a better-than-average chance of being called to active duty during his enlistment, many of the experiences described in this book scared the hell out of me, but it also provided a much needed perspective that I, and others, need to understand, especially if one is considering joining the Marine Corps Reserves. In conclusion, to all those individuals who have made and lived that commitment to "Corps and country," all I can say is thank you and Semper Fi.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I picked it up in Waldenbooks in a local mall; read 50 pages in the store, and have finished it a few days later. Buzz Williams is funny, thoughtful, and a joy to listen to.
He is a fantastic writer. His tone was always open and honest; genuine to the core (or Corps ;) ). The story itself is fascinating. There were all the Hollywood elements (a hero, a villain (or 2), revenge, redemption, laughter, loss); which, usually is a bad thing; but b/c the story is true, and Mr. Williams (He is no longer in the military) is so genuine, it works.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Work!
Review: I probably have a bias review of this book since it almost mirrored my experience exactly. I was at Parris Island the same summer Buzz was, was in LAV school with him, served in the war with Buzz and left Delta Co. one month after he did. To respond to the earlier review of 'characters that did not exist' well I have to ask who they are referring to. Even though names were changed (mine is Cpl Ryder in the book but not my real name) it was very easy for me to pick each person out and know exactly who he was talking about even though the names were changed for some of them. Some of the events he described in the book were EXACTLY how I remember them. I would also point out that although I remember a few small details differently, Buzz did mention that some of the biographical details were changed. Even with the small changes, the core facts still remain. I assumed the small changes were made so the book would 'read' better to the general public. I didn't see any errors regarding movement of troops or stations etc. Please feel free to email me if you think there are, as I'd be interested in hearing which part you think is inaccurate. It is possible that my memory is going in my old age =) (croys@adelphia.net) Personal accounts aside, I found a lot of aspects of the book that I really admired. The transition between civilian life and military life each month, the way reservists are sometimes viewed by active Marines, and what it is like to be called up. If you are active duty, reserve, or thinking of either, I would highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Faithful struggles
Review: I was intrigued by Williams' book on several levels - it appealed to me because of my general interest in things historical and military; it was timely, given that the Gulf War II is in many ways a continuation of Gulf War I; it was also written by someone who is currently a teacher; finally, it gets into an arena that I could look at and say, 'That was almost me!' I seriously contemplated the military for a time while in college as a reservist (one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, and I'd get experience and scholarship money for college) - had I followed that path, it would have been something akin to the call of the yellow footprints.
Williams talks about 'the call of the yellow footprints' in his own life. In a physical sense, this refers to the painted formation figures on the street of Parris Island, South Carolina, home of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot for the eastern United States. Men (and women, at Parris Island) are scrambled off the bus upon their first arrival and receive their first true 'Marine' experience by being lined up in formation on top of the yellow footprints, and from that moment until the end of boot camp, there is nothing that they do (or is done to them) that is not heavy-laden with Marine Corps training principles. The call of the yellow footprints is a call to a way of life, a way deliberately different from civilian life, as well as different from even the other branches of the military. His own primary influence of going into the Marine Corps was most likely his much-admired older brother, who was a Marine, killed rather young in an accident.
Williams takes the narrative through his early influence of deciding upon the Corps (including his brother's influence, both in person and through letters Williams saved and treasured), through his boot camp experience, reservist weekends and MOS training, activation as active-duty Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm participant, and finally reintegration into the civilian world. While most people will probably read this book for the boot camp and the deployment/combat stories, it is actually the final part of the book that is most profound.
In this part, Williams has returned to being a 'weekend warrior', someone whose Marine Corps existence is only officially present two days per month; yet he is a veteran of the Gulf War, having experienced all the terrors and struggles of combat, including losing friends to injury and death, finding a blurry line between allies and enemies, and seeing first-hand the atrocities of war and occupation. How does a combat veteran revert back to the amateur hour that made up reserve duty?
Perhaps more importantly, how does a combat veteran with ongoing military obligations re-enter society? Williams is painfully honest about the nightmares and post-traumatic stress he endured, as well as the problems of personality adjustment. 'Emotions like embarrassment, grief, sadness, and vulnerability are all converted into anger - the omniemotion that helps recruits survive.' Williams, in pursuing his education beyond the bachelor's degree to get a counseling credential, discovered that he had not-always-latent Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - not necessarily a bad thing in the Marine Corps. Williams channeled both his Marine Corps experience and his OCD into working with special needs children (autistic, etc.), who needed high structure and discipline. He turned his physical education class at the school into a voluntary boot camp, and the kids thrived on the structure and reveled in the imagery.
Williams adapted this programme, which ended up being so successful in the class parts were adapted for the rest of the school, into a full-fledged Young Marines programme, for which he was named National Teacher of the Year. Kids previously unreachable and unmanageable were learning internal discipline, and thrived on the attention given to them to motivate them to always do their best.
Williams suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, like many veterans of many wars. Williams viewed this as weakness in some respects (as indeed many, military and non-military, tend to do), but also wanted to maintain his connection to the Corps; his teaching style and Young Marine Corps programmes were keeping him from making a closure he desperately needed. While post-traumatic stress never completely goes away, it can be better managed. Williams writes about the countless nights filled with terrifying nightmares, and his own vigils of watching war movies and crying into the night at the images that caused him to relive his own bad experiences. Williams final break with the special-needs school is part of his process of disengagement; one gets the feeling that Williams' process of writing this book is also part of this process, perhaps a cathartic exercise designed to help name and lay to rest at least some of the inner demons.
The title, 'Spare Parts', comes from the derisive name active-duty (full-time) Marines would use toward reservists; it is a rather unfair moniker in several respects, not the least of which being the strange policy of the U.S. military to activate and deploy reservists, those one would think lesser trained than the active-duty forces, to forward and combat positions before the active-duty troops. This seems to be happening in today's combat situation, too.
This is an interesting look into the soul of someone trained for fighting, yet really in search of peace; someone still struggling to make the world a better place in an admirable profession, drawing from the strong values of his training and identity as Marine, while honestly confronting the down-side. Williams is a good writer, and the pulls you along as relentlessly as the Green Machine will do. He writes about his own, personal issues with the current Iraqi conflict, not in terms of politics and economics, but in intensely personal ways that are worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Smooth read with great insight.
Review: I was unprepared for how smoothly this book read and how I didn't ever want to put it down! It was a combination of Buzz's writing style and my eagerness to hear more about the significant events that took place during his Marine years (both in training, during war, and on the home front) that made this book a page-turner. One nice aspect about the writing--Buzz moves quickly, he never gets bogged down in too much detail. He writes succinctly and concisely. Great writing and editing.
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