Book summary

In this trenchant war memoir, Marine captain Nathaniel Fick, who exemplifies the 21st-century supersoldier, recounts his arduous training in both weaponry and leadership and his subsequent deployment to Afghanistan. Soon after, he was the leader of the elite advance team that entered Iraq and fought through enemy lines. Fick describes how he and his fellow marines endured the heat of battle, and evaluates the degree to which their training prepared them, as leadership skills and originality become essential parts of the equation. Flick brings to his account a perspective derived partly from his experiences as a classics major at Dartmouth. He left the service after his tour in Iraq to attend Harvard.