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One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer |  | Author: Nathaniel C. Fick
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Seller: HPB-Outlet
Rating:  175 reviews
Sales Rank: 19384
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0618773436
Dewey Decimal Number: 359.96092
EAN: 9780618773435
ASIN: 0618773436
Publication Date: September 7, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
If the Marines are “the few, the proud,â Recon Marines are the fewest and the proudest. Nathaniel Fickâs career begins with a hellish summer at Quantico, after his junior year at Dartmouth. He leads a platoon in Afghanistan just after 9/11 and advances to the pinnacle—Recon— two years later, on the eve of war with Iraq. His vast skill set puts him in front of the front lines, leading twenty-two Marines into the deadliest conflict since Vietnam. He vows to bring all his men home safely, and to do so heâll need more than his top-flight education. Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between military ideals and military practice, which can mock those ideals.
In this deeply thoughtful account of what itâs like to fight on todayâs front lines, Fick reveals the crushing pressure on young leaders in combat. Split-second decisions might have national consequences or horrible immediate repercussions, but hesitation isnât an option. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but ultimately it is an inspiring account of mastering the art of war.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 175
 a Warriors secret heart... September 29, 2005
Rodolfo Reyes (San Diego, California)
206 out of 210 found this review helpful
Legit.
A Recon Marine always gives more than he takes. With this said I respectfully thank and honor Capt. Fick for his private and revealing book about Idealism, loss of innoccence, and the Mask of Command. Do Leaders regret, do they feel, do they disagree? Yes, the Legit ones do. However they rarely disobey. Ramparts become stepping stones and enemy ambushes proving grounds for small unit tactics and fire and manuever. One Bullet Away reveales Ficks' secret heart and the violence it bears and also the mans truth and compassion gained by combat. I Myself was a bullet away on more than one occassion and in one particular ambush, Capt. Fick layed it on the line and decisively and calmly saved my teams life. I will always admire, respect and love the Warrior who gave more than he took from 1st Recon Battallion. And all of his men are of the same mind as myself. His book is an affirmation to our platoon and its leadership. Plt Commander and Plt Sergeant be blessed. The men of 2nd Plt thank you. Read the book, it is Legit. Rudy Reyes-Recon Forever
Leadership, Duty, and Brotherhood September 27, 2005
prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
157 out of 169 found this review helpful
"I left the Corps because I had become a reluctant warrior. Many Marines reminded me of gladiators. They had that mysterious quality that allows some men to strap on greaves and a breastplate and wade into the gore. I respected, admired and emulated them, but I could never be like them. I could kill when killing was called for, and I got hooked on the rush of combat as much as any man did. But I couldn't make the conscious choice to put myself in that position again and again throughout my professional life. Great Marine commanders, like all great warriors, are able to kill that which they love most-their men. It's a fundamental law of warfare. Twice I had cheated it. I couldn't tempt fate again." Words of wisdom from Nathaniel Fick. This is a book that gives us the realities of military and Marine life in particular, and written with a superb command of the language and the military mind.
Nathaniel Fick was a Dartmouth student who wanted to be a physician. He had difficulty with one of his science courses, and this changed the shape of his life. He realized he wanted to go on a great adventure, prove himself, and do something for his country. And that something was revealed in a lecture he went to about the Marines. He joined the Marines and went through one of the most difficult courses of his life,he thought at the time; Officers Candidate School. Not understanding that the real tests were to come. He became a Second Lieutenant and he went on to Recon school. Reconnaissance teams are the elite of the Marine Corps, if elite was a word in their military language. Recon teams go on the most dangerous missions of all- teams calling for emergency extracts and any form of mission that your mind can imagine.
"The Marines develop leaders who are not only skilled, courageous, and tough, but also humane" Lt Fick was one of these. His first orders were that of a platoon leader, and his first assignment was on a ship. He led some very dangerous missions into Afghanistan, and then the most dangerous mission of all; The Iraq war. "War for freedom, war for oil, Philosophical disputes were a luxury I could not enjoy. War was what I had. We don't vote for it, authorize it, or declare it; We just had to fight it." said Lt Fick. And fight it, he did with his platoon. He brought his men through some of the most dangerous of missios. The fact that all of the men he brought with him to Iraq, came home with him in one piece was Lt Fick's own particular mission. He and his men played a small part in the quick "win" in Baghdad. His experience, intelligence and superb actions as an officer won Lt Fick his promotion to Captain. However, this was enough of war. Nathaniel Fick knew he could not continue. He left the Marines and spent a year drifting. He realized that combat had nearly unhinged him. He channeled all his energies into applying to graduate school.
Nathaniel Fick is now in graduate school at Harvard University and the Kennedy School of Government. He has written this book about his life as a Marine, and he has written several articles discussing the military life and the Iraq War. One of his most recent lettérs is about the Iraq war and personal responsibility, and it is brilliantly written. The url is found at the end of this review.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/opinion/20fick.html?pagewanted=print
"One Bullet Away" is a marvelous book and highly, highly recommended. Prisrob
Raises expectations and hunger for more September 12, 2005
Charles A. Krohn (Panama City Beach, Florida)
84 out of 91 found this review helpful
This book easily has historic qualities, with insights derived from from personal recollections and observations. Even morbid overtones are captured artfully. Youthful cynicism of Fick and his contemporaries speaks to the reader with extraordinary eloquence. But the most engaging thing about One Bullet Away is how the author is transfomed from an adolescence student at Dartmouth into a full-fleged warrior a few years later, able to manage the physical and psychological rigor of combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq. My permanent bond with Fick was completed on page 143, where he lays out a idea more powerful than an IED: "My time if Afghanistan hadn't been traumatic. I hadn't killed anyone, and no one had come all that close to killing me. But jingoism, however mild, rang hollow. Flag-waving, tough talk, a yellow ribbon on every bumper. I didn't see any real interest in understanding the war on the ground. No one acknowledged that the fight would be long and dirty, and that maybe the enemy had courage and ideals too."
Fick doesn't have to say more to remind us that bin Laden continues to evade us, meaning victory is illusive. So far Fick has delivered one book and a few articles in the New York Times. Surely this is just the beginning of this author's career on the path to wisdom and knowledge.
Well-written book by a warrior/scholar September 20, 2005
Quang Pham (Orange County, CA)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
I was fortunate to receive a rare galley of "One Bullet Away," or "OBA," and immediately got through the first 100 pages the first night. Fick's prose is by far the best of the current plethora of Afghanistan/Iraq war memoirs (throw in the few Desert Storm books too). His writing actually flows with descriptive details from his days as a junior at Dartmouth through officer candidate school. The meat of OBA starts with his post-9/11 tour in Afghanistan as a rifle platoon commander and his stint with First Recon Battalion (the best of the best) during the march to Baghdad in 2003.
While no war diary will offer every perspective ("I was there" embedded journalist, know-it-all retired general, bickering grunt, the first female in ground combat), OBA doesn't pretend to be the ultimate account of the war. It was a treat not to read about another grunt complaining about officers and pay and not knowing what he/she was getting into upon enlistment.
However, Fick's experience is comparable to a Marine lieutenant who landed in Vietnam in 1965, the first year of that bitter and protracted conflict for American combat troops. (Unlike the welcome in Baghdad, there were South Vietnamese girls who greeted the Marines with leis as they landed ashore.) The current wars have a long way to go with the most difficult challenges ahead.
Still OBA provides rare insights into a young officer's mental state as he leads young volunteers into harm's way twice and manages to bring them all back alive. Fick, an atypical officer from the Ivy League, writes admirably about his Marines who come from broken backgrounds. He doesn't come off sounding like he's too good to be there on the front lines with his men nor do his critical observations meant to further his career (he's in graduate school at Harvard).
OBA is a timely must-read, not only for military buffs and veterans, but for our society at large.
A Few Good Men October 11, 2005
Keith Marine
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
The book is no propaganda only facts. Fick is accurate and humble regarding his actions. The sensationalism and conjecture in the majority of the books on the market is absent from his account. Instead, One Bullet Away focuses on the experiences and challenges he faced, not what should have been done or what could have been done - Fick deals with reality.
Fick leads the reader from his commissioning as a Marine Officer to his decision to exit the Corps five years later. You get a first hand account from a Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and completed the most challenging schools the Marine Corps can throw at you.
The author opens up to the reader and shares his emotions and inner thoughts giving an unvarnished look at what the Corps expects from our officers. The book was a pleasure to read and I hope when the American public thinks of the word Marine, they picture someone like Nate.
Tremendous effort. Dang!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 175
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