Post by mardaddy on Dec 20, 2007 18:10:44 GMT -5
This is a post in answer to a querry in another thread...
Re: Jarhead the book, and realize that this is MY OPINION, based on reading it, yours may vary, and you have a right to your opinion. Know also the movie Jarhead covers only a small section of the book.
I am a retired Marine of 21+ years in the service, and served in places that the book describes, and with the same organization (an Infantry Battalion) that the author served with; additionally, I also went to Desert Storm same as the author, with 1st Marine Division.
With that base of knowledge already, I seethed as I read Jarhead…
A background for anyone: Swofford’s book is supposed to be a memoir about a specific time in his life, about his exploits and observations leading up to and while in the USMC.
Based on his own words describing his actions and motivations, Swofford is that “bad 5%” that most Marines (not just Officer’s or even enlisted Lifer’s) would call a “$HI-Tbird.” He brags about stealing equipment from fellow Marines and hocking it for booze money, seducing his fellow Marines girlfriends and his “sock-it-to-the-man” bravado in the face of leaders who take him to task for his lack of self-discipline.
Common and unconfirmed “urban legends” told in the Corps for DECADES that one hears about, he writes from the first person – as something he himself witnessed (remember, this book is supposed to be NON-fiction.) Additionally, there are things in the book that are outright lies – playing football in MOPP gear at 112 degrees is crap.
Swofford writes often in the book about incidents of back-talking and successful belligerence in the face of Sergeants and Officers over him. Yet later in the book he claims to be a STA Squad Leader. First off, STA stands for Surveillance and Target Acquisition; these are the Snipers in a Marine Infantry Battalion, and there is a long interviewing and vetting process, recommendations from NCO’s and Officers, etc. to qualify for consideration for assignment to STA. Marines who talk back, who cannot handle authority or act counter to good order and discipline are not even considered.
What is more, a Lance Corporal (Swofford’s maximum rank achieved) would not be considered being placed in a Squad Leader’s billet unless he was on the cusp of picking up Corporal, a performer who stands out over his peers, not a “discipline problem.”
It is actually not that common for a Marine to do 4 years of honorable service and NOT pick up Corporal (not saying it does not happen, just that it is rare; and usually indicates that there have been chronic discipline problems with that Marine.)
Despite the pretentious pseudo-poetic style, the book fails as an exercise in, “feel sorry for me, my life sucked,” self-indulgence. Jarhead became serious fodder for anti-military nuts and dissatisfied (re: drummed out for various reasons) service members, who embraced Swofford’s story, pointing to the book as proof of how rotten and/or unfair the military service is, the only “true” account of what serving in the modern military is like, and claiming that any inaccuracies are merely “variances in the experience.”
It is absolutely true that everyone’s experience in the service and in war is different from everyone else’s, but it is only true to a point. Swofford crosses that point with abandon in Jarhead…
The differences between what he writes as FACT occurring to him and his unit, are a wide departure from multiple witnesses who served with Swofford in his platoon and battalion; and they have inputted over and over in blogs the character of Swofford, his service, and his actual exploits as THEY observed him.
Re: Jarhead the book, and realize that this is MY OPINION, based on reading it, yours may vary, and you have a right to your opinion. Know also the movie Jarhead covers only a small section of the book.
I am a retired Marine of 21+ years in the service, and served in places that the book describes, and with the same organization (an Infantry Battalion) that the author served with; additionally, I also went to Desert Storm same as the author, with 1st Marine Division.
With that base of knowledge already, I seethed as I read Jarhead…
A background for anyone: Swofford’s book is supposed to be a memoir about a specific time in his life, about his exploits and observations leading up to and while in the USMC.
Based on his own words describing his actions and motivations, Swofford is that “bad 5%” that most Marines (not just Officer’s or even enlisted Lifer’s) would call a “$HI-Tbird.” He brags about stealing equipment from fellow Marines and hocking it for booze money, seducing his fellow Marines girlfriends and his “sock-it-to-the-man” bravado in the face of leaders who take him to task for his lack of self-discipline.
Common and unconfirmed “urban legends” told in the Corps for DECADES that one hears about, he writes from the first person – as something he himself witnessed (remember, this book is supposed to be NON-fiction.) Additionally, there are things in the book that are outright lies – playing football in MOPP gear at 112 degrees is crap.
Swofford writes often in the book about incidents of back-talking and successful belligerence in the face of Sergeants and Officers over him. Yet later in the book he claims to be a STA Squad Leader. First off, STA stands for Surveillance and Target Acquisition; these are the Snipers in a Marine Infantry Battalion, and there is a long interviewing and vetting process, recommendations from NCO’s and Officers, etc. to qualify for consideration for assignment to STA. Marines who talk back, who cannot handle authority or act counter to good order and discipline are not even considered.
What is more, a Lance Corporal (Swofford’s maximum rank achieved) would not be considered being placed in a Squad Leader’s billet unless he was on the cusp of picking up Corporal, a performer who stands out over his peers, not a “discipline problem.”
It is actually not that common for a Marine to do 4 years of honorable service and NOT pick up Corporal (not saying it does not happen, just that it is rare; and usually indicates that there have been chronic discipline problems with that Marine.)
Despite the pretentious pseudo-poetic style, the book fails as an exercise in, “feel sorry for me, my life sucked,” self-indulgence. Jarhead became serious fodder for anti-military nuts and dissatisfied (re: drummed out for various reasons) service members, who embraced Swofford’s story, pointing to the book as proof of how rotten and/or unfair the military service is, the only “true” account of what serving in the modern military is like, and claiming that any inaccuracies are merely “variances in the experience.”
It is absolutely true that everyone’s experience in the service and in war is different from everyone else’s, but it is only true to a point. Swofford crosses that point with abandon in Jarhead…
The differences between what he writes as FACT occurring to him and his unit, are a wide departure from multiple witnesses who served with Swofford in his platoon and battalion; and they have inputted over and over in blogs the character of Swofford, his service, and his actual exploits as THEY observed him.
