Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles

When the U.S. Marines--or "jarheads"--were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months; he was punished by boredom and fear; he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. As engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.

I bought this book as soon as I heard about it and finished the last page seven hours later. It brought back so many feelings and memories that I couldn't have written it any better. Swofford captured the paradox of war as well as any book I'd ever read. Not many Marines talk about their love/hate relationship with the Corps outside of our circle and he related this sentiment remarkably well. His analysis of the difference between combat marines and the rest of the Corps sounded like recent phone calls between me and my buddies.

If you want to know what war is REALLY about, the day to day uncertainty, fear, boredom, glee, hate, love, and insanity, the BS of politics, incompitant brass leadership, then this book is for you. This isn't some rah rah book written by some REMF pogue either. Patriotism may get you to the front but your buddies will keep you alive so you can make it back home.
W.Scott Albertson


Irreverent, vulgar & WONDERFUL   February 25, 2003
Michael H. Frederick (Gaithersburg, MD USA)
194 out of 241 found this review helpful

It's not often that I read a book straight through but Anthony Swofford's "Jarhead" is riveting. Vulgar, disturbing and brutally honest, the book rings true on every page. It seems that Swofford held nothing back, describing how he wet his trousers while under artillery fire and contemplating suicide at one point. As a former Marine who served when America was fresh out of Vietnam and still licking its wounds, I can attest to the authenticity of the very rough culture that the author describes. I now know, however, how it was to suffer for seven months in the Desert, protecting an unappreciative host, the suspicion that their lives were on the line for "fat cats" and their oil (any names come to mind?) and the frustration of gearing up for a major offensive only to stand down after the ground war ended so quickly.

The author has given America a look into the lives of the lower caste grunts who have always, and probably always will, do the fighting and dying for our country, the people who don't have college, grad school and hefty salary offers as an option. We're treated to a raw and true-to-life glimpse of the lives of the boys who are on the cutting edge of our war machine...the under educated blokes from dead end towns and the inner city, the macho world of testosterone, youth and a good dose of USMC ingrained bravado.

Certain images Swofford describes are hard to forget...the desecration and photographing of burned Iraqi bodies, the first sergeant lecturing against the evidently common practice; the severe pummeling of a dead friend's belligerent peers, on the night of his funeral in his old hangout; the trysts of unfaithful wives, sneaking lovers (insult of all insults...Boots right out of training) into base housing at night while their men are stuck in the Desert, desperate to know what she's up to; the pitiful grasping for a relationship with any female back home, no matter how tenuous or imagined; the heart breaking, overly exalted status assigned to the first few letters addressed to "Any Marine" in the Desert; the loneliness and alientation experienced as an almost anonymous grunt in the Fleet Marine Force...epitomized when a Hawaiian friend he lifts weights with tells Swofford to stop being so friendly and smiling all the time. This is life in the real Marine Corps!

At times Swofford comes across as somewhat condescending in terms of his opinions of his fellow Marines. That's to be expected from an intelligent, observant and sensitve writer. He clearly was destined for better things and "Jarhead" attests to that. The images he evokes and the atmosphere he paints are lucid, gritty and eye opening. This isn't the dress blues of the recruiting posters but the sweat, hardship and sand-in-every-orifice life of the men on the front lines, chomping at the bit to get into action. "Leatherneck" magazine publishes articles on how it wants the world to view the Marines. "Jarhead" is how it really is out there in "the Fleet." I wouldn't recommend that mothers of prospective Marines read this book. Boys in high school, contemplating a trip to the recruiter, however, will learn much. If they're still willing after Swofford's story, the Corps may have a higher retention rate! How many guys do we know like Swofford's friend, telling war story lies in college, bragging about heroics that never happened?

Swofford's work has been compared to the Vietnam-era, anti-war work, "Dispatches" and James Webb's "Fields of Fire." I think it's more appropriate to elevate it to the same exalted staus that Eugene Sledge's classic, "With the Old Breed," holds...a must read for anyone interested in the true story of one who was there. Authentic and, as I said, brutally honest. Semper fi, Marine.


Iraq grunt reviews "Jarhead"   November 22, 2004
Moto 0331 (Austin, TX)
71 out of 76 found this review helpful

Wow, surprised at all the emotion here. I didn't think this many people read books like this.

Couple of bullet points after reading the book and the reviews.

1. Swofford really downplays the honor of being a marine sniper. I was a line company machinegunner in 2/5 and all of the snipers I knew were a cut above. Not only that but if someone was deemed immature they would be dropped back to their line company platoon, no matter how well they did in sniper school.

2. I agree that the book is rife with innacuracies, exaggerations and downright lies. Then again, it is a memoir, not a history book.

3. The story about the guy watching a videotape from home that shows his wife having sex with another guy is the biggest urban legend in the Corps. Second-place going to the oft-repeated Mr. Rogers was a sniper story.

4. I am not wanting to sound like a tough guy but I don't know once person who pissed their pants in combat or talked about being afraid. By the time you've gone through boot camp, SOI a work-up for deployment and a trip to Oki, you're going to be ready to eat nails, if for no other reason than that all of the hard and miserable training has made you mean.

Pissing your pants in boot camp is very common because of all the forced hydration and few chances to use the bathroom.

5. His whining is actually pretty common, especially in the grunts. I know I'm guilty of it. What is uncommon is his lack of sense of humor. The funniest people I met were in the Marines. if you don't have a sense of humor, you won't be able to laugh off all of the bad things that happen to you.

6. Raunchy tales of whoring and drinking are 100% accurate.

7. His story about pulling a rifle on another Marine is probably false. Marines like to screw around and bend the rules but he went way past the line. No one I knew would have put up with that and not reported it.

8. His lack of aggressiveness is pretty shocking. When he talks about his buddies moaning that they are going to die before any mission is hard to beleive. The Marines I fought beside were all raring to go. If you've spent three years training to do something, you want to do it no matter how dangerous it was.

9. The infidelity of Marine wives and girlfriends is sadly true. then again, I can count on one hand the guys I knew who stayed faithful when we went to Oki.

10. The love/hate of the Marine Corps is a very tense subject for all Marines. When he talked about being embarrassed by other Marines while out in town, I was right there with him. I avoided Marines like the plague whenever I was on libbo. I started counting the days until I got out when I still had a year left, but I am more proud of being a Marine than anything else. It's a very strange life, being a Marine.


War as he knew it.   October 28, 2005
B.Ivers (Ft Collins CO.)
57 out of 82 found this review helpful

I roomed with Tony for a year or so. I was not with him in STA plt during the Gulf war, I was there with G 2/7 2nd Plt. I hooked up with STA 2/7 after the war. Tony is a nice enough guy and even then he had ambitions of becoming a teacher. Tony had fun off duty,he loved playing sports, drinking and finding girls to chase. The war as he knew it is represented as he saw it, or remembers it.
My failing memory does not serve me well here. I do know that the war itself was an intense 3-4 days that has since faded to nothing in the light of the current conflict. I read this book in Iraq in 2003. I remembered a lot about Tony. This book is about him and his view of what happened during his time in the Corp. I agree with many other reviewers that a lot is hyped and some stuff was fabricated. I can say that a lot of what he talks about happened but not perhaps as he remembered it.
Tony was not a school trained sniper. He spent very little time with a line company before testing and making STA platoon. The discipline problems in the platoon, when I got there in late 91 were serious. There was a lot of scavenging in the 1st Gulf war and it was rumored, and talked about in the battalion, regards STA stealing engines from the army for our battalion's broken vehicles, in the 6 month wait in Saudi Arabia before the war.
We did have issues with morale in 2/7 during the Gulf War as over 80% of the battalion had just got out of boot camp, it was a real problem. But for every issue in that Battalion there were answers in the NCO leadership and people stepping up to the plate to get the job done. The whining in the book is excessive, and Tony had a tendency then, to do that.
The book is less about combat than it is about a young man trying to find himself, and this included the embellishments with it. To put this thing in perspective the gulf war was nothing compared to the 24/7 combat operations that are going on in Iraq and Afganistan now. For every Swafford there is a lot more squared away Marines who really believe in what they are doing, who are bleeding and dying for each other and their country.
The book is a confirmation to all liberals of their world view of the Marine Corp and our countries mission as being floored. It is a sad work for any Marine who is and remains faithful to God Country and Corp.
I do not deny Tony's right to pen the book. Marines and others are dying to give him that right. He says he has earned it, and he has earned the right to say anything he wants. With that comes the slings and arrows of protest from others who disagree.
The definitive book on the Gulf War awaits its author. This is not it. It was war as he knew it, not as it is, or was. Tony made it where he wanted to be, a professor and writer. He is making money from this thing, with the war going on, a continuation of the 3 day war he never got to fire a round in.
I did not like the book and I can't recommend it. Tony has issues, the book is his liberal agenda.


Interesting read, but not credible as a memoir   September 3, 2003
Ian L Stone (Pensacola, FL United States)
54 out of 69 found this review helpful

"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.