Mail Call [Paperback]

R. Lee Ermey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2005

Keep your butt down and your ears up, people, 'cause here comes a tie-in to the hit History Channel show, featuring outrageous host R. Lee Ermey, who answers questions about military technology -- past, present, and future.

Now in its fourth season, Mail Call is the most popular program on the History Channel and the only show in America where the host has a bazooka and knows how to use it! In this tie-in book, just as on the show, R. Lee Ermey -- in his singular, in-your-face style -- provides entertaining and little-known facts about the vast arsenal of deadly hardware used by the armed forces. Mail Call is filled with historical anecdotes, interesting factoids, quotes from top military experts, and much more.

This book is sure to appeal not only to military nuts and "gear heads," which is a very sizable audience in itself, but also to garden-variety history buffs; Ermey's repertoire runs the historical gamut from ancient catapults to Samurai swords to Civil War cannons to modern grenade launchers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Ermey may be best known for playing a marine D.I. (drill instructor) in Full Metal Jacket, but he actually was one once. Nowadays he answers viewers' questions about military history on the History Channel show that gives its name to this book. He tackles more than a hundred subjects, "in the air, on land, and sea," as "The Marines' Hymn" puts it, complementing that variety of subjects with a large, excellent set of illustrations of things including rations, weapons, vehicles, and himself. The book is also noteworthy for concocting language with the salty flavor of a D.I. without exceeding PG rating standards. Since younger readers stand to make up much of the potential audience, though, the PG was a must (adults completely new to the modern military will learn from it, too). The book is stronger on World War II and after than on earlier periods, and on land warfare than on naval and air engagements, but always eminently readable and accurate. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Noteworthy for concocting language with the salty flavor of a D.I. without exceeding PG rating standards . . . eminently readable and accurate." -- Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (January 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401307795
• ISBN-13: 978-1401307790
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Compliment to the TV Show, January 4, 2005

By 

J "jeffm791610" (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mail Call (Paperback)

I've just had the pleasure of reading this book and I have to say that it a great companion to the TV show that airs on the History Channel(of which I am a huge fan of). The book basicially gives you the G2 on a lot of things that militaries use in the past, in the present and will use in the future in that great "Gunny style".

This is a great book for fans of the show, for historians, for military mensas and for anyone who is in or knows someone who is in the military.

For these reasons, I highly recommend this book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay, I'll say it..., February 17, 2005

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mail Call (Paperback)

... I was really disappointed by this book.

I'm a fan of "Mail Call," of course, and when I heard Gunny tell me his book was coming out, I made a point of securing a copy as soon as I could. This is a nice enough book, I suppose, but it could have been so much more.

If you've got copies of "Mail Call" on tape, disc, or TiVo, you already have this book, which consists entirely of questions and answers taken straight from the show. Most if not all of the illustrations appear to have come right off the screen, like some sort of old kinescope. Many of the images aren't even particularly sharp, coming as they do straight off of video. I'm not sure if there's anything here -- with the exception of a few trivia questions -- that hasn't already appeared on the show.

I'm not hatin' on Gunny (I'm not that dumb), but I want people who like him and the show and are interested in this book to know what they're getting. It's a nice souvenir for fans of the show, but it doesn't add a lot, in information or entertainment value, to what we already have on TV several times a week.

Carry on.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not quite what I expected, July 20, 2005

By 

K. Shigemitsu (Los Angeles, California, U.S.A) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mail Call (Paperback)

I have the Mail Call series 1 and 2 on DVD. The book has some new material, but is a summary of the DVD series, complete with some bad video capture photos. I'm 60% way through it and have encountered several proofing errors, such as listing Carlos Hathcock as having a "25,000 yard" kill. That would make it a 14.2 mile shot! I'm a big fan of the Gunny, and it pains me to give the book 2 stars.

I can't wait for series 3 and 4 to be released on DVD though!