Why Marines Fight (Hardcover)

by James Brady (Author)
Key Phrases: defense battalion, rifle platoon leader, first firefight, Marine Corps, World War, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The reasons are almost as numerous as the Marine combat veterans quoted and profiled in this engaging collection of reminiscences. Many cite the training and discipline drilled into recruits and the determination not to let down one's buddies. Others are motivated by vengeance after a friend is killed. Gen. Smedley Butler, after a career invading banana republics in the early 20th century, opines that he fought mainly as a gangster for Capitalism. Some fight for the thrill of it (the heavy machine gun made you feel like no one could touch you), and some fight out of the sheer cussedness personified by Sgt. Dan Daley, who shouted, Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever? as he led his men against the Germans in France in 1918. Parade columnist Brady (The Coldest War), a Korean War Marine vet, sketches vivid thumbnails of his interlocutors and sets the right leatherneck vibe—sympathetic, irreverent, comradely—to draw them out. Some tales meander; this is very much a meeting of old (and a few young) soldiers catching up and telling war stories in a glow of nostalgia. Still, Brady assembles from them an unusually personal and revealing collage of the nation in arms.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Official blather, cruel truths and occasional eloquence by Marine veterans of all wars, as told to Brady (The Scariest Place in the World: A Marine Returns to North Korea, 2005, etc.).The author polls his own buddies from the Korean War, as well as gathering numerous voices from the pages of Leatherneck magazine, to answer the straightforward question: Why do Marines fight? Discipline - first gained at boot camp - is a common answer, as is the sense of a team and the pressure to enlist, especially if the father was also a military man. Brady includes the story of the privileged soldier, exemplified by Yale student John Chafee, who enlisted in 1942 and later served in Korea, becoming the author's commanding officer and later a senator. He also looks at the humble soldier, like Jim "Wild Hoss" Callan, a country boy from New Mexico who hoped his military pay could help save the family's beef ranch before he was killed in Korea. There's a canned tale from Sen. John Warner of Virginia, as well as the moving account of Gonzalo Garza, a Texas soldier with Mexican immigrant parents. Gen. Peter Pace became the first Marine to be named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly grew up amid gang violence in the city, joined the Marines like his three older brothers and then became a cop. Fortunately, Brady doesn't completely whitewash the language of these hard-nosed vets - take George Howe's account of fighting in North China in 1936 and watching "Marines pulling gold teeth out of the Jap mouths with pliers." Combat engineer Cpt. Lauren Edwards, formerly stationed in Iraq, provides the lone female voice.These inspirational tales cover as many Marine experiences as Brady can pack in. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312372809
• ISBN-13: 978-0312372804
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #316,025 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unanswered Question, December 9, 2007

By	Avid (USA) - See all my reviews

As a former Marine combat Grunt, I was looking forward to reading this book. However, after enjoying Brady's novels about the Corps, I found this non-fiction work to be less than expected. From the guy who is listed as the "Corps' poet laureate", this work is much less that expected.

The title asks the question, "Why do Marine Fight"? However, the question is not answered. Rather, Brady writes a series of vignettes about people he apparently knew, none of whom deal with the issue - why DO Marines fight?

From my personal experience, Marines fight for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is the brother Marines to their left and right, for the Corps and for their country. Marines fight because, as volunteers, they are and always have been trained to fight since 1775. Never giving up a piece of ground without an argument, Marines fight ferociously because that is what is expected of them. They took "impossible" positions in WW I and "impossible" island fortresses during the pacific campaign in WW II, never yielding, but always on the offensive, even when cut off and without support, as at Guadalcanal. What makes a man go forward into almost certain death? Again, it's his fellow Marines, those who have also been trained to close with and kill the enemy, and protect their comrades, which is why so many Marines have been awarded the Medal of Honor for selfless acts such as covering a grenade with their own body to protect fellow Marines.

Brady had a good idea, but in the writing it fell way short of his objective. Marines fight because that is what we are trained and expected to do. It is also because we have leaders and NCOs who are trained to lead and lead from the front, not from a desk. Every Marine is a rifleman and every Marine is trained to taker command, if needed. That's why and how we fight!

Our motto says it all: Semper Fidelis! ALWAYS FAITHFUL!

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, November 4, 2007

By	David Gideon "D Gideon" (Jacksonville, NC) - See all my reviews

I really enjoyed this book. As a Marine myself, I thought it was great to hear, in their own words, Marines from various generations describe their combat and life experiences.

While the prose, apparently direct from interviews, could at times be a bit grating, I liked Brady's introductions and running commentary.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A good collection of Marine stories, but poorly written, December 6, 2007

By	.NET Code Monkey - See all my reviews

This book gives unique glimpses into the personal lives of Marines past and present--rightfully portraying the average Marine as the unknown hero next door.

What would have made this book an epic is if the author would have kept his political opinions out of it. He agreed with one Marine that he quoted, saying that war is purely apolitical. Yet sprinkled throughout the book [and laid on pretty thick in the last chapter] were his personal opinions that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are--in his words--silly. This discredits the objectivity of his work, reducing it from greatness to an okay book from a guy with an ax to grind.

Also, he tends to get diarrhea of the mouth when talking about trivialities (i.e. himself). He kept mentioning how important he was when writing articles for Parade magazine. It's completely irrelevant...especially when discussing something as intriguing--and nearly sacred--as the motivations of a Marine.

If you are able to filter out the bias and "white noise", the individual stories are decent.