What is Reddit's opinion of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Don't forget to also read Fick's <em>One Bullet Away</em>.

Generation Kill was written by the embedded Rolling Stone reporter, but One Bullet Away was written by the officer commanding that platoon.

Very much so. The reporter was embedded in a truck with a specific Squad Leader. You end up seeing the whole invasion over-the-shoulder of just that Squad Leader. Gen Mattis is just a cameo and the whole US Army doesn't exist except for a brief mention of Jessica Lynch's convoy getting captured. It's a very narrow (albeit uniquely and redeemingly indepth) view of the invasion.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the Platoon Leader, Nathaniel Fick, published his own account if you want to contrast the view from literally just one echelon higher.

https://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436

Lt Fick's book is pretty good, covers from him deciding to join in college to getting out of the Marines

One Bullet Away

Oh, I guess it's /posts/ on cancer reddit and /submitted/ on true reddit. That's why people are saying it's a dead link. I figured you typed it out yourself, I do that sometimes. When I click the link you posted I get reddit's 404 page.

And after reading some of them, I have to say, you should just take them all, put them in whatever order feels meaningful to you, put them in a document, and throw it on one of those self-publishing sites. You're a talented writer and the intersection of good writing ability and the experiences you've had is not common. I'd love to read these on paper. I think you're a much better writer than this guy and he has a book, you should have a book.

Also, I think "hide" only hides for you, but I might be wrong especially in the new reddit world. I will hold out on old reddit until they pry it from my cold dead hands so I can't say there.

Read this one next:

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

Leadership is a powerful word. It has many meanings and interpretations.

In a nutshell:

The Platoon Commander receives, and digests the Commander's Intent and relays that intent to the members of the Platoon.

The Platoon Sergeants, Squad and Fire Team leaders will execute that commander's intent in compliance with the previously-communicated Rules of Engagement.

The Platoon Commander is also ultimately responsible for the wellbeing of those under their command.

Do my people have access to enough Beans, Bullets and Bandaids to execute our assigned objectives?

Once the shooting starts, the Platoon Commander should not need to micro-manage squads or fireteams.
Those sub-unit leaders should have the knowledge to know what to do, why it needs to be done, and how to do it without detailed instruction.

The Lieutenant might order "First Squad, defend the Northern Perimeter, Second Squad defend East..." But the squad leaders should know where to put their automatic weapons, and where to dig a fighting position, etc. without detailed instruction.

Working for a GOOD officer is a very pleasant experience.
Overall, the Corps does a good job producing good leaders.

But some bad officers are very good at concealing their flaws and make it through TBS/OCS/PLC and become bad leaders.
It happens, and it does suck.

What is fantastically painful to watch is when bad leaders get "promoted" to Battalion & regimental leadership roles.
What you have to understand is that by taking Lieutenant Dipshit out of the line-company and making them the Assistant Training Officer, Lt Dipshit can no longer inflict their badness upon the members of the platoon, and Major Goodguy and Captain Greatguy can now keep a very close eye on Lt Dipshit and provide him the leadership skills he needs before they put him in charge of people again.

Also, Lt. Fick wrote a book too! [One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer](www.amazon.com/dp/0618773436/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_MH180R3STMJXD7G29H1T)

Grumpy old ex-Marine enlisted here.

Your identity in the Marines can be a clean slate all over again, starting with your first summer session of the OCS-process.
Just don't forget how small the Corps is. You will meet those other Officer-candidates again most likely, if they all pass. And they will remember who you were. So don't give them anything to hold against you.

We (the enlisteds of your potential command) don't need to know who you were before you got here.

It is not required of you to be a Marlboro-smoking, caffeine-addicted, PT-freak.

Lt. Fick studied the fecking CLASSICS at Dartmouth and he was one hell of an Officer, by all accounts.
It isn't a very high percentage of enlisted Marines who can relate to Greek literature or even fellow Officers...

(If you haven't read One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer yet, you now know what you are doing this weekend.)

We need you to embrace Marine doctrine and immerse yourself in your training.

And then we need you to LEAD, and that means leading from the front.

You don't have to be the biggest PT stud in the Company. But you had better be better than the average, or it damages your ability to lead.

It doesn't matter if you think Marine Corps chow is the best food you've ever eaten, because you grew up hungry. Just make damned sure your people get to eat before you do.

It's ok if all of your people are sleeping in the rain. Just make damned sure you know in your heart that you tried your hardest to coordinate a better arrangement. Then go lay in the mud with them. Rank has many privileges but being warm & dry when your people are cold, wet and miserable isn't one of them.

It doesn't matter if you're still on your first girlfriend. You took Intro to Psych, right? Leverage those nuggets of knowledge to counsel LCpl Jones on why marrying a stripper might not be a great idea. You have or otherwise dealt with the reality of student loans, right? You took a class on or read a book on or a blog on personal finance, right? Leverage that knowledge when you deal with three of your Marines all missing payments on their respective Mustangs they bought from the dealership off-base at 26% interest on an E-3 salary.

TRY to council and assist before you drop the hammer. But don't shy away from the reality that the hammer is sometimes required and appropriate.
You cannot make threats or demands and not see them through.

---

What you are considering doing is totally possible.
But you have to WANT to do it, and APPLY yourself to doing it.

If you thought Calculus was hard, you ain't seen nothin yet.

Tagging /u/DelcoreXD

I personally would recommend this one.

https://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436

Most of these could probably be answered in his book 'One bullet away' From what i've heard it's a pretty good book in general though.