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One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer | 
 enlarge | Author: Nathaniel C. Fick
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $5.49
You Save: $9.46 (63%)
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Rating:  155 reviews
Sales Rank: 8529
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 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," Recon Marines are the fewest
and the proudest. Nathaniel Fick's 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 pinnaclea Recona
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 he'll 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 it's like to fight on
today's 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 isn't 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 150 more reviews...
 Leadership, Duty, and Brotherhood September 27, 2005
prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
137 out of 147 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 letters 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 (Burke, VA USA)
71 out of 78 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.
 Politician's Memoir...20 years early September 20, 2005
Salty Tex (Texas and California)
50 out of 97 found this review helpful
The author was in my battalion but this is not personal. I approached it as if he was a civilian, as his web site shows with his black turtleneck. I got the book this weekend, digested it, and read parts again today. I will try to keep this short but it's hard; we all heard about Lt Fick's huge book deal and I have waited for this counterpoint to Generation Kill since those Rolling Stones articles hurt our reputation. But the fact is I learned more about Lt Fick in Rolling Stone than I did in his own memoir.
Generation Kill was written about the same platoon (It was no accident the Rolling Stone writer hooked up with a LT who himself wanted to make a name) but was shocked to find I actually enjoyed 'Kill' much better. It angered the hell out of me but it was a page-turner. As the reviews say, this is notcolorful. More than that, its meant to be safe and it's actually boring. No new ground is covered. The combat is sparse. It seems calculated. Lt Fick once told Rolling Stone that Afghanistan was
"The incompetent leading the unwilling to do the unnecessary" So i expected some funny insights or at least true feelings. Instead, I got one of those books a politician writes before a campaign. What are the author's real feelings? No clue except for snetences that could be pulled from a bio.
My main question; what did the publisher pay for? Though the author says it's no big deal he went to dartmouth (a main point is that he was a volunteer like the rest of us) if you look at the jacket and all the reviews, one of the huge selling points he uses is that he was IVY LEAGUE. And SPECIAL FORCES. Huh? So they bought a memoir 20 years before he runs for office..and the thing is there really isn't much here compared to OIF II. Every careful crafted sentence is meant to check a box. But i didn't get an inside look at a platoon whose bad side was exposed so well/badly by Rolling Stone. The author skips all the real drama and chooses master-of-the-obvious. By remaning at 10,000 feet it seems planned from the moment he joined the Corps, as if he was an embed instead of a Marine.
I wish the author nothing but the best and hope he takes care of the Corps when he's a senator, but he's written this life memoir too early...a composite of many other Marine memoirs without the serious combat but with all the seriousness of an "educated man" who dips his toe in the water and then writes an essay about oceangoing. I'm sure civilian reviewers may love this; he's one of them, a thinker with a heart...but also salt-of-the earth. Right? But the fact is the author should have gone back as an XO in OIF II and he never would have written some things he did. And the perspective about combat would have been totally different. If he wrote at all.
a Warriors secret heart... September 29, 2005
Rodolfo Reyes (San Diego, California)
49 out of 49 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
Finally - An Honest Account September 20, 2005
cat698 (Washington, D.C.)
26 out of 28 found this review helpful
This is among the few honest accounts I've read of war. The author admits his own faults and doesn't hesitate to praise the work of others. Usually such books are focused on all the author's great deeds. ONE BULLET AWAY is the real deal. It truthfully shares everything that happened - from saving lives to shooting at children.
The author was featured in the book GENERATION KILL. ONE BULLET AWAY isn't the "other side" of the story, matching GENERATION KILL sentence by sentence. It is this author's story as he experienced war and the Marine Corps.
With the lack of true leaders within all levels of the military, government and private sector, Fick offers hope for the next generation. At such a young age, he had the strength of self to turn away from high-paying job possibilities when he graduated from Dartmouth, and joined the Marines instead. He also volunteered for Recon, joining an elite group of Marines, known for being in harms way more often than not.
He didn't have to join. He had other opportunities. His sense of duty to his country and need to understand war, why it is fought, and how it is fought, took him out of his Ivy league classroom and into the brutal hands-on classroom of war.
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