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Boot

Boot

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Boot
Review: If you want a good, true picture of Marine Corp training. This is the book to read. Very Easy Read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Must read if your in DEP
Review: If your a prospective recruit, this book is a must read. Accurate in every detail, it will show you what you must endure in the hell that is MCRD. Also check out "Making the Corps" by Thomas Ricks, and "Into the Crucible" by James Woulfe.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great book taught me what i wanted to know.
Review: My name is Thomas Miller from NY and when i were thinking of going into the Marines a friend suggested this book to me I loved it and could not put it down. I had doubts before reading this book about going into the Marines I thought of other branches but now its different Marine Corps all the way! Semper FI from a future Marine.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Boot
Review: My son and I read this book shortly before my son went to boot camp. The book practically followed what he went through exactly on a day to day basis possibly spoiling the whole experience and surprise factor of boot camp. Very detailed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Provided helpful first-hand information about USMC Boot Camp
Review: My son gave this book to me just before he left for Parris Island last October. Since he weighed in at 1.46kg at birth, his departure raised havoc with my emotions.

I read this book week by week, so I would know more about what our son was experiencing. Of course, it may have made me worry more - but I think not. Da Cruz made the book interesting and it was quite an eye opener. We are very proud of our son and even more so after learning more about USMC Boot Camp. Thanks to Daniel Da Cruz I made it through the 13 weeks with flying colors.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Book
Review: Read this in high school about fifteen years ago and enjoyed every page. Still enlisted afterward also, so it was not a book that shocked someone from not joining.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Synopsis is misleading somewhat.
Review: Right off I would have to recommend this book mostly to young persons seeking to joining the Marine Corps and perhaps maybe anyone looking to join an armed service. However a few things about it limit it's appeal.

First the book is dated. Published in 1987 a lot has changed and while I am a civilian I am a military buff and can tell that the book is behind in many aspects.

The second thing and the biggest in my eyes is that it really isn't much of a documentary of life in Boot camp. Rather it is more of a history of Marine training and the type of training one might find in the Corps. The author spends most of his time telling the history of the Corps training practices and describing said exercises and focuses very little on the actual recruits he followed through the ordeal. The information is informative especially if you are looking at joining the Marines as it would give you a head start in many ways but for the casual reader it gets pretty bland and repetative. Cruz does offer insight into the recruits eyes from time to time with one recruits letters home to mom and sometimes some stories of a few other guys but they are very scarce. For the most part he tells a little of what is going on then goes on to explain the drills being taught and how those drills are carried out, graded and even how they were developed.

The book is not overly enjoyable but is interesting. However it does suffer greatly from the authors lack of objectivisim. After completing the book I had a serious belief that his motives for writing the book were not to educate people about the Boot camp process in the Marines but rather to complain about how politically correct ideology and beauracratic changes have weakened the Corps. Cruz repeatedly itterates how various changes in policy have limited Drill Instructors ability to truly prepare recruits for battle and he continues this theme over and over. Now, I do agree with Cruz for the most part but I think if his goal was to analyze the change in modern military practices in the U.S. today the book should clearly state that rather than boast to be an account of modern Boot camp training.

Overall if you are thinking about joining the Marines or are just a military buff I would recomened reading the book as it is informative while not being overly intriguing. It is short enough that you can fly through it in sort fashion. About 2 hours for me and i am not that fast a reader.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Synopsis is misleading somewhat.
Review: Right off I would have to recommend this book mostly to young persons seeking to joining the Marine Corps and perhaps maybe anyone looking to join an armed service. However a few things about it limit it's appeal.

First the book is dated. Published in 1987 a lot has changed and while I am a civilian I am a military buff and can tell that the book is behind in many aspects.

The second thing and the biggest in my eyes is that it really isn't much of a documentary of life in Boot camp. Rather it is more of a history of Marine training and the type of training one might find in the Corps. The author spends most of his time telling the history of the Corps training practices and describing said exercises and focuses very little on the actual recruits he followed through the ordeal. The information is informative especially if you are looking at joining the Marines as it would give you a head start in many ways but for the casual reader it gets pretty bland and repetative. Cruz does offer insight into the recruits eyes from time to time with one recruits letters home to mom and sometimes some stories of a few other guys but they are very scarce. For the most part he tells a little of what is going on then goes on to explain the drills being taught and how those drills are carried out, graded and even how they were developed.

The book is not overly enjoyable but is interesting. However it does suffer greatly from the authors lack of objectivisim. After completing the book I had a serious belief that his motives for writing the book were not to educate people about the Boot camp process in the Marines but rather to complain about how politically correct ideology and beauracratic changes have weakened the Corps. Cruz repeatedly itterates how various changes in policy have limited Drill Instructors ability to truly prepare recruits for battle and he continues this theme over and over. Now, I do agree with Cruz for the most part but I think if his goal was to analyze the change in modern military practices in the U.S. today the book should clearly state that rather than boast to be an account of modern Boot camp training.

Overall if you are thinking about joining the Marines or are just a military buff I would recomened reading the book as it is informative while not being overly intriguing. It is short enough that you can fly through it in sort fashion. About 2 hours for me and i am not that fast a reader.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Book, but a lot of the information is out of date.
Review: The book is a good book about Marine Boot Camp, but alot of the information is outdated. The recruits were still using M16A1's which were replaced in the Corps by the A2's around 1984. No Crucible was mentioned either, considering it is a relatively new event in boot camp created around 1996. Don't buy it if you want a view of what to expect at Marine Boot Camp today and tomorrow, but it is still worth reading as some of the information can still be applied to todays Corps.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good information, but out of date
Review: This book gives a good mindset for the Marine Corps and stands as a piece of history in the way training is done. I was at MCRD Parris Island several years before this boot was written and see a lot of the training that is the same but also some differences.

This is a party-line book, in that it gives a cleaned-up version of boot camp; I guess the author felt the American public just wouldn't stand for what really happens, not that too much bad stuff happens at boot camp but you really have to be there, and putting it in print like DI's yelling obscenities makes for bad public relations. Things weren't as bizarre as Full Metal Jacket but not so clean as this book would make you think, either.

Still this book lets you know how tough it is to make it through and all the small details involved. Daniel Da Cruz also brings in policy and history in between stories about the platoon he's following. This is interesting but some of it is out of date now, too.

The Crucible wasn't part of training back then so yours truly didn't do that and neither did these guys, and that is a major change, and training still gets changed to adapt to a changing world. But the core of the Corps is still the same, and you can get some of that spirit from this book.


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