Jarhead

Coming from a little military background in my family, and actually having two marines in the family I can someone relate them to this book thus far. The two family members that served were not involved in the Gulf War but were both Marines. They both served in World War 2 and were Marines. Most of everything that they went through in this book so far I heard as bed time stories from my grandfathers. They were both very much not for war so much but they both loved the idea of doing what they did best and that was kill. These men are trained to kill you with a popsicle stick and that's not an exaggeration, a marine could kill you with a popsicle stick. Swofford had many similar experiences in the marines from the drill seargents to the working out almost every second of the day. The only change that I would see is when Swofford spoke of the fear that ran through these men that are expecting to die. My grandfathers said that they were not allowed to show any type of doubt or fear while serving, even though they may have been. One thing that even Swofford talks about that my grandfathers would agree on is that it would be something to die a marine. "You die, I'm going to die a marine." is the slogan I believe and they held very true to that. Even though they went through all the misery and pain and torture and they haven't even fought the enemy yet, they were still proud as hell to fight and kill for this country. As my late grandfather put it best, "I'm just doing my job, accept my pen is a rifle."