simply a great book very realistic and insightful i truly enjoyed every page

the frightening thing is that these individuals will be let loose on the streets of america when released from service. one would hope that suitable deprogramming occurs before that happens. PTSD is less likely to be a problem with this crew who have been brought up zapping enemies on electronic game toys etc and suitably desensitised in so doing. where to for gen Y? I am an ex-serviceman (Australian Army 1965-1997).

A journalist, Evan Wright, follows First Recon Battalion through their initial push through Iraq during 2003. The book depicts the US Marines as they are and that's what I love the most. It doesn't sugar coat anything. Marines are people with a twisted sense of humor.

This book describes what happened as it happened. If you're not a big reader then just watch the TV mini-series. You essentially get the entire experience with the except of a detail or two here or there.

Fantastically written book. I have been unable to put it down since I got it! I'm strongly considering doing the six or seven part mini-series after reading this book.

It's not surprising that the creators of The Wire: The Complete Series would latch on to Generation Kill and make it into the remarkable miniseries (Generation Kill) that they did. Generation Kill tells the story of the Marines First Recon division and their incursion into Iraq in the first days of the war, and much like The Wire, examines the story not through a preconceived political lens, not through a predetermined narrative like "Heroic Americans to the Rescue" or "Villainous Baby-Killers Who Destroyed a Country", but as they were, embracing and exploring the contradictions, nuances, and complexities of the situation. The men of First Recon, as depicted by Evan Wright, are neither perfect examples of patriotism nor mindless killing machines, but something far more affecting: they are men. Wright's asides and analysis are fascinating, but he largely removes himself from the tale, allowing the men to tell their own story and letting them express themselves. There are moments of hilarity (presuming you can tolerate the book's gallows humor), moments of absolute rage (largely at some truly incompetent commanders), moments of indescribable horror, and moments of incredible pain. These men go through incredible things, and if Generation Kill accomplishes anything, it removes the political context from the war and forces the reader to appreciate what these men give up and undergo in the name of the country. Much like the incredible United 93 (Two-Disc Special Edition), Generation Kill makes its story all the more admirable and moving by not insulting the reader's intelligence. There are moments in this book which I will never forget, and not for their beauty; there are things that no one should ever have to see happen. And yet, these men see them, and for that they deserve our respect and our admiration. Generation Kill is among the finest books on war I have ever read, and if I had my way, I would make every American alive read it. Whether you are pro-war or anti-war, Generation Kill will make you think and challenge your assumptions, and while it provides no easy answers, its complexities and depth should be essential for every American to ponder.

Outstanding job done by Mr. Evan Wright. A must read for any Marine of every rank.

If you haven't served in the military, let alone the Gulf War, and you want some insight into what exactly is happening before offering your opinions then you gotta read this book.

The narration is framed by a long ride throughout Iraq on a decoy mission by 1st Recon Battalion. Evan Wright, a writer for Rolling Stone, gets the priveledge or riding in a Humvee with some of the most elite marines in the military, and chronicalling every day since the beginning of the invasion until about 40 days in (when the war seemingly ended).

An intense look at what our marines go through, this is the best book about any military conflict I have ever read. Burn the Tom Clancy novel, your not going to need it after reading this.

great insight into the marines who lead the invasion into iraq. it gives you the good, the bad, and the ugly. read One Bullet Away though as well.

This book reminds me of the trash published during and after Vietnam that supported the anti-military mindset and leftist agenda of the American media (which is to say; almost everything published). It uses the same formula of distortion, fabrication and political agenda to paint an almost totally incorrect picture on a very thin canvas of truth to lend it "credibility". As a former Recon Marine it's interesting to read the repeated instances of activity that, in the real world, would almost instantly result in relief of duty for psychological evaluation or court martial. This author hasn't a clue about what he's seeing and is not interested (or perhaps not intellectually able) to report it accurately. It's shameful that he betrayed these Marines by characterizing them as he did and the reader by presenting this tripe as truth.

In few words, this book is an excellent retelling of what our national heroes experienced during the first days of the Iraqi liberation (as some call it). I find it to be both fair and balanced as well as extremely interesting. You will read not just about the heroic efforts of the Marines in First Recon, but the flaws of command found even in such a elite unit.

It was a real account of 1st Recon's tour in OIF and was very good. I hate that it has an hbo sticker on the cover, but what can you do?

I have only just started reading this but it is, quite frankly, unputdownable! Harsh, gritty and with every spit and cough of the true realities of modern war, it is one of the most remarkably observed and well-documented war stories I have ever come across. Don't expect anything firecely patriotic of rabble-rousing, but do expect a brutal, bloody, brilliant depiction of the Iraq war and the amazing men of First Recon. Hats off to all concerned.

As a former Marine who served from 2002-2006, and who has served in Iraq; I highly recommend reading this book. Evan Wright does an excellent job of explaining the Iraqi Invasion exactly how the men in First Recon experienced it. This book truly portrays how young, low ranking Marines live. He thoroughly explains their thoughts, attitudes and their opinions of the war. He then supplements this with outside information from interviewing higher ranking people and information obtained after to paint for the reader the entire picture of the war. The dialogue used amongst the Marines is to the point accurate. For those who are interested in the lifestyle of Marines in Iraq or who are just simply interested in reading about the experiences of others (like myself), I would buy this book. There were times when I was reading the book and I thought it was telling me about my experience in the Marines; that is how authentic this book is.
I also recommend reading "One Bullet Away: The Making of A Marine Officer" by Nathaniel Fick. Nathaniel Fick was a platoon commander with Bravo Co. 1st Recon who wrote about his personal accounts in Iraq and other experiences.

I had expectations for this book and those expectations got blown away. I was hooked and could not stop reading. From the smallest details to those of the unexpected are all embedded in my mind illustrated by great details. Urah!!!

This is an incredible book of combat and the "fog of war." The book reads like such great fiction that if he didn't mention it you wouldn't realize that the author was there for the whole thing. The narratives of combat are enthralling, sobering, and thought-provoking. Two of the most fascinating things about this book are: (1) the "fog of war" aspect, where even though these soldiers are incredibly eager to get into combat, when they do they seem disillusioned by the fact that, sometimes, the people that they kill are civilians and they aren't always sure if they killed good guys or bad guys. Wright, without ever trying to do some ham-handed psychoanalysis, shows how all the soldiers deal with the horrors of war. (2) Wright's afterword in the 2008 reprint and, specifically, Corporl Person's criticism of the comments that the actors of the HBO miniseries of the same title that no one, not even actors who are suppose to portray the rigors of battle to American audiences, can never truly understand what it is like to fight unless they've been there. Truly, this is one of the best accounts of war I've read since Black Hawk Down.

I watched the HBO series first but knew the book would be just as capturing. Evan Wright's literature is easy to read and understand and gives a strong perspective into the war that most people will never know about. Realistic and a bit offensive at times, I loved it from page 1.

Generation Kill This is a must read. Well written and gives deep insight into the mindset of "today's young peolpe"
There is nothing to fear for the future with the youth, I bet they are going to upset the mainstream media in the near future!

Fans of Evan Wright's Generation Kill will be happy to learn that he has a new book called Hella Nation. Kirkus Reviews calls the book "Vivid confirmation of the arrival of a major chronicler of those who live on or beyond the margins of the American mainstream." Don't miss Hella Nation, on shelves April 7th.

This was one of those books that I didn't want to put down until I'd finished it - and even then I wanted more! A "war book" is not something that I would usually choose to read, but this was more of a people book. Obviously those people were in a war, but it's Evan's personal approach to the writing that made this so interesting. The comraderie, humour and skill of the men he wrote about was fascinating and I was drawn in very quickly. I might add that the mini-series made from this book is well worth a look too. Fantastic stuff.

Hats off to Evan Wright for sticking it out with the Marines for the duration of the Invasion. His account is important and I do not mean in any way to discredit it. My only complaint is that it lacks some perspective. While it portrays some really sophmoric behavior by the Marines the same behavior could be observed on nearly any college campus (remember we are talking about young men mostly 18-24 years of age). A quote from one of the Marines is that, "We fought retarded." Yes, in some cases, but as is related in Nathaniel Fick's "One Bullet Away, The Making of a Marine Officer" individual Marines were striving to perform their jobs with ingenuity, valor and compassion. You lose sight of the fact that this book covers three months, a brilliantly vibrant snap shot of war. Wish there were more reporters like this over there.

April, 2003. The US military is gearing up to invade Iraq. To create chaos on the battlefield, they pick a small number of troops to drive ahead of the main force - straight into ambushes and whatever other nasty surprises Saddam has cooked up since the last Gulf War.

Naturally, they do not employ the specialised armoured units that are trained and equipped for the role. They pick the Recon Marines, whose job description is to move slowly, in small groups, without being spotted. Many of them do not even have Humvee licenses, and the vehicles themselves lack not only armor, but roofs, doors and windscreens.

Yet they do the job, and do it well, with a strange kind of cynical patriotism. While the author is clearly not in sympathy with the war, this does not interfere with his sympathy for and portrayal of the troops. And his ear for brilliant quotes: "The whole structure of the military is designed to mature young men to function responsibly while at the same time preserving their adolescent sense of invulnerability." Or the motivational speeches of the hapless "Encino Man", who kept his troops up all night to guard against some particularly dangerous looking rocks: "The Iraqis took your food . . . You should be really mad at them. Okay?"

As someone with zero practical experience in the military, let alone combat, I would still say that this is the best book about the experience of combat that I have read. Sometimes it seems just a little too perfect, but if it's not 100% real, it should have been.

My husband entered Iraq in June of 2003 shortly after the Marines in this book. He spent 15 months there as a Blackhawk crewchief and until I read this book I had NO idea the nightmare that he bear witness to. I would like to tell Mr. Evans how much I love his book and how much it opened my eyes to what my husband saw. He has not been able to talk about the things he saw or the things he did, much like Vietnam. It scares me, but after reading this book, I understand why he can not talk about it, why he can not remember.

I haven't finished the book yet - and I'm happy to say that instead of buying it, I got it from the library. The copy I have is hardback, published by Penguin, and frankly, I'm debating whether or not to continue, based on the fact that on page 86 in my edition, he describes the Tarawa Marines as having come from Camp LeJeune, SOUTH Carolina. Whether this is the author's mistake or a fact-checker's oversight, Camp LeJeune, as anyone with a brain and the ability to use the internet or a map knows, is in NORTH Carolina. Mistakes such as these make me question every single aspect of this "reporter's" "reporting."

excellent fast reading book by reporter with 1st Recon Bn in Marine Corps push from Nasiriyah to Baghdad. The author gives a fair picture of the young Marines and military in general although it is clear that Evan Wright has limited personal attachment to the Marine Corps.

This book is amazing!! I am a disabled vet from OIF2. I spent 5 years in the Corps(1 of them in Iraq). My Lieutenant gave me this book 2 days before I went in to operation phantom fury(i think that was the name of the op, it was in November of 2004 when we took the city of Fallujia). My best friend is currently with that same unit that is in the book. So obviously I would be interested in reading this book, but for any of you who really want to know what is in the mind of the young Americans fighting over seas and what its like to be over there, this is the book for you. The dialogue in this book is so REAL it's not even funny. I could not put this one down.

I have read some negative post on here, and it seems that they might be upset because the author of the book often gives the lower ranked guys point of views about some of the jacked up things their officers were doing or such. There is a review with a 1 star rating from a supposed First Sergeant from 1st mar div. He says the author stabbed his unit in the back. I disagree(although I don't know all the facts behind that accusation). Most civilians didn't even know about Force Recon before this book came out. Now they made an HBO special about it(haven't seen yet) that has received great reviews, and every civilian I talk to thinks that Force Recon is the best of the best. If anything Evan might have improved the Corps' recruitment numbers. When the first sergeant says that "his unit got stabbed in the back" by Evan, I would envision Evan sharing classified top secret information to the enemy or something. That was not the case, Evan told it how it is or was. He is a journalist and is allowed to do that because of that thing called THE CONSTITUTION. That is the same thing that the first sergeant swore to defend, right?


5000 STARS

P.S. Thank you Evan Wright!!!!!!!!!!!

I purchased this book after seeing the series ... I often see the movie first because it serves as the appetizer to the main meal. The series touches briefly on a multitude of issues, events and people ... Wright's book thoroughly details most all of these points and answers many of the questions the series left me asking myself.

Having cancelled a 30 year long subscription to Rolling Stone due to it's transformation from a music-oriented magazine to a cheap liberal rag hell-bent on trashing anything associated with Bush, Republicans or the United States ... i was hesitant to read a book authored by a RS reporter. I had a foregone conclusion that "Generation Kill" was nothing more than another one-sided rant against the US war in Iraq. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by what appears to be an honest attempt to report what was actually seen ... without the left-sided colour commentary. I felt Wright took great care in preserving an air of political neutrality and let the men and their actions do the talking ... all angles are covered.

This is a story of modern combat ... about the men who formed the tip of the spearhead that was thrust into Iraq in 2003 ... a Marine Recon unit. You experience the vulnerability from the onset ... the naked feeling of riding in a caravan of open-topped humvees, deep in enemy territory and in the middle of a vast Iraqi desert ... alone. Yet, you quickly realize that these men (young men) aren't as scared as they are confident ... in each other (for the most part). The men Wright introduces to us are the crux of the entire book ... they are all so different, so extreme, so serious, so weird, yet so funny. Getting the reader to know these men is so important to Wright that he even has a special table of contents informing the reader to page in the book where each man is introduced ... and each introduction includes a mini-biography that seems to shed light, explain, or even excuse the behavior of these men on the battlefield. You share the men's experience of combat in a variety of manners ... from a recon mission to being ambushed on a bridge. the combat action is fast and furious ... and at times ... funny.

It is interesting to read that the same old rule still applies with the military, whether it be World War II or Iraq ... in all it's glory, the strength of the US military is enlisted personnel who are oftentimes more capable than their commanding officers. Wright illustrates this throughout the book ... the constant extremes portrayed by the pragmatic NCO "Iceman" vs. the wanna-be-a-war-hero Capt. "Encino Man" or the common-sense leadership provided by an understanding Lt. Fick vs. the bombastic ignorance of "Capt. America".

"Generation Kill" is an interesting, entertaining and engaging read ... from the ineptitude of the American government to the perverted mind of the youthful modern-day warrior and all that's in between ... all of it is on display in "Generation Kill". Wright has done an excellent job of bringing the reality of the long-forgotten start of the Iraq War to light in a twenty-first century style of writing that will keep even the younger generations interested in reading each page ... not an easy feat.

I just finished this book after watching the HBO series. I think David Simon did a great job producing the series. As a woman I have respect for the Marines even though they seem to think we are useful for only one thing! Nevertheless, there was still no reason for this war! There were no nuclear weapons! This story that we have to fight over there so they will not come here is just more lies. These people as you read in this book were for the most part sheperds, farmers, very poor living in mud huts. What makes people think they all want to come fight over here. Heck, they've never been in an airplane and as you could see in the book the ones that did fight were terrible fighters and not at all professional soldiers. It was like shooting ducks in an amusement park! How we can sit here and glorify that is beyond me. Sickening! This whole war is a sad commentary on our country. What have we done to help these people rebuild their country and their lives? It is a whole lot harder and more noble to be a peacemaker than to shoot a gun at what? I am glad I read this book for the insight into the mindset of the soldiers. I commend Mr. Wright for getting this story out, it is worthwhile to read.

I really liked this book which gave me an idea what it was like in Iraq during the beginning of the war. The more current release of this book has more information as to what has since happen to the soldiers after serving their country.

***** Combat troops of all branches have, with few exceptions, e.g. Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin, little trust or regard for journalists. Having spent time in both camps, I side with my brothers and sisters at arms and understand why they are leery of these foreign beings spying on them. Therefore, I picked up "Generation Kill" with much skepticism. To my surprise, it wasn't what I had expected.

Evan Wright, a contributor to "Rolling Stone" and other journals, joins a United States Marine Corps Recon (Reconnaissance) Battalion and is attached at the platoon level or lower for their blitzkrieg drive through northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He endures what they endure and faces what they face with little, if any, more knowledge than they have of their situations. Wright captures the terror, the confusion, the fatigue, the stress, the bonding, the ennui, the bravery, the incompetence, and the soul-searching that are part of combat.

As a read, I found old comrades living on in this younger generation, but the conversations were similar to my generation's and to my father's with only some idiomatic changes. There were the same SNAFUs, FUBARs, REMFs, RAMFs, POGs, and other things that make up the grunt-speak of the various generations. And true today as it has always been, the more specialized and proficient the warrior, and Recon Marines are among the top 1% in the Corps, which puts them among the elite warriors of the world, there is more thoughtfulness about their job and about each mission--mindless drones they are not. A character in a novel once commented, not so tongue-in-cheek, that they should hand out mortarboards instead of berets upon completion of the Army's Special Forces training, except the mortarboards are a pain in a firefight. The ironies of war are not lost on these intelligent young Marines nor are their coping mechanisms ignored or considered particularly unusual...highly paid professional athletes often have quirks, too.

Wright grasps the current socio-political climate quite well, as we see when he recommends "Groundhog Day" as the best film to describe a grunt's view of war. I will wholeheartedly agree with his assessment that, unlike Vietnam, when it comes time to look for those to be held in shame, the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shall not and must not be among that group. "The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall." Or as Wright puts it, "It's the American public for whom the Iraqi war is no more real than a video game" (a reference to a quote in the the book about Grand Theft Auto). In short, war is still war and it is a horrible undertaking...but we still wage it upon each other with all the skill and lethality we can muster. Evan Wright's book is masterful telling of how the U.S. does it today; complete with the warts and flaws for all to see. *****

Reviewed by Dr. Phil Rhyne for Huntress Reviews.

This is a must read. I couldn't put it down. It finished it in two days and I've gone back and read it again to make sure I didn't miss out on it since I went through it so quickly. It was great to see the soldier's experience and not the politicians view point. I'm sure there were still a lot of things that were left out due to censorship, but it was still a great read.

While not as deep and emotional as Micheal Herr's Dispatches, Generation Kill still provides a great look into one facet of America's war in Iraq, the tip of the spear the 1St Marine Recon following the doctrine of maneuver warfare.

However it is one facet and one reporters viewpoint on a highly complicated war, deeper understanding would be found in Fear Up Harsh (intelligence and interrogation) and House to House (Battle of Fallujah) as well as Fiasco: War in Iraq.

That author did a fantastic job of interviewing the soldiers and getting the truth behind the mistakes and horrible leadership.
It was a great series on HBO and a must read book.

This book provided wonderful insight into what our troops were and are thinking. Everyone should read this to truly understand the quagmire that is Iraq and the boondoggle created by this administration. Thank you Evan Wright for being there and capturing so eloquently what needed to be brought to light.

I purchased this because I couldn't wait for the series to finish on HBO. I was not disappointed. Well written and engaging. I also got Nathan Fick's book, which I liked even better.

The most disturbing sentence in Evan Wright's book, in a story filled with atrocities, was in the last paragraph,' The young troops I profiled in Generation Kill....are among the finest people of their generation.' Really?
Then what have we become? These young men have the heart and soul of Columbine killers. They didn't go to war out of patriotism or to fight terror, they thought it would be neat to kill people.
Maybe foreign wars is not our thing. Viet Nam and now Iraq, two debacles in our lifetime. Maybe Dick Cheyney has it backwards when he says we are fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. Let's wait for them to come here. We are better suited to fight on our own continent. Then our boys can go home at night, to their own beds after a day of killing.

I bought this book after watching the episodes on cable. I was pleased that the filmed episodes were accurate to the book's accounts. The book itself was based on the experiences of an embedded reporter traveling with an advance unit of Recon Marines at the very beginning the invasion of Iraq. A war that, sadly, we are still fighting, apparently with the same degree of confusion as when we started. In any case, or by any road, the experiences, and attitudes of the soldier seem to be universal, though this generation's soundtrack seems to be rap & heavy metal, with a soupcon of country. What is interesting is that thanks to the methods of training used nowadays is that more soldiers seem eager and willing to kill, than in previous wars. Though the statistics show that there are still of fair number of returning vets who have a hard time dealing with the aftermath. I found the book to be interesting and engrossing, for any one unfamiliar with what it is like to be a combat soldier, this book should be illuminating.

Great book, should be a must read for anyone interested in the mess we call the Iraq war.

The Book is great, I got into it after watching the first few episodes of the series. The book goes into further detail, obviously, than the series. It makes the reader see the difference between the command and the actual grunt and how different the war is to what we perceive. All in all I recommend the book for an eye opening read about the beginning of the Iraq conflict.

Since HBO just finished running a seven part miniseries based on this book, I decided I would probably get more out of the miniseries by reading the book. As is the case in situations like this, you definitely get more out of the book than the television show. And in this case, it makes for a excellent, first person account of the opening months of the Iraq War.

Generation Kill, by Evan Wright, is the result of his time in Iraq, embedded with the Marine Corp's First Reconnaissance Battalion, Second Platoon of Bravo Company, during the first three months of the Iraq War. Recon Marines are highly trained, very close to Special Forces, to work behind enemy lines. In the opening months of the Iraq War, they are used as the point of the war spear, driving quickly toward Baghdad in an effort to fake Saddam Hussein's army into thinking that it is the main military thrust. Wright, the only reporter embedded with First Recon, Second Platoon of Bravo Company, tells the story of this small group of Marines as they head toward Baghdad. In doing so, you get a much better understanding of the people that fight for our country, their thoughts on the ultimate taboo, killing, and an inside look at the 21st century US Military machine.

Whether you agree with the war in Iraq or not, this is an eye-opening book. Since Wright had access to all of the men of Second Platoon of Bravo Company, including the commanders, you are witness to the conflicting orders, poor commanders, exposed to what it is like to go days on end without sleep, and how the men deal with killing other human beings. It is mentally exhausting reading as Wright describes how these Marines live, work, and interact with each other. Some of the best scenes take place within the confines of the Humvee, as the soldiers pass time by singing songs, rip on each other, and talk about their life back in the States. One interesting point is that there are rules to riding in certain Humvee's; no singing of country songs, no Charms candy (thought to be bad luck). You may think that the US has one of the best equipped military's, but as Wright shows you, Second Platoon is plagued by lack of lubricant for their weapons, causing them to jam at the most inopportune times, and batteries for their Night Vision Goggles and Thermal Imaging Devices. These deficits can have very tragic consequences. Finishing this book, you should have a new appreciation for the men and women in the Armed Forces. As Wright notes:

I am not always confident most Americans fully appreciate the caliber of the people fighting for them, the sacrifices they have made, and the sacrifices they continue to make.

This book will provide you with some appreciation.

My father was an Army medic in Vietnam so I've always been partial to reading about the military experience of war because of the stories my dad told me as a boy. This is the best book about those experiences I have ever read. It's almost as good as my dad's stories. Pick it up and read it now.

For many of the people responsible for bringing on the war in Iraq, "support the troops" is a term that sounds good but is really devoid of substance. Regardless of whether it was right or wrong to go to this war, there is little doubt that the military was often short-changed by the very people who were supposedly supporting them: poorly armored vehicles, inadequate or inappropriate supplies, limited financial benefits and the atrocities at Walter Reed are some of the crimes that immediately come to mind. And who exactly are the troops: not merely numbers on a page or wrongly glorified heroes like Jessica Lynch or Ron Tillman (they may be great people, but they were lied about for propaganda purposes), but real people.

But even as real people, as seen in Evan Wright's Generation Kill, they are exceptional as well. His book follows a couple platoons in the Marines of the First Recon Battalion. These Marines are the elite members of the Corps, trained to be the first in a war zone. The book begins just prior to the Iraq invasion in 2003 and more-or-less concludes by "Mission Accomplished" time. During that time, they will go from the Iraqi/Kuwati border to Baghdad and beyond, often encountering an enemy that may be disorganized but still is deadly.

The Marines depicted are definitely flawed people, hardly the idealized men shown in those Marine commercials. In fact, many of them seem to be in a state of arrested adolescence, cracking racist jokes and fighting each other, often in an attempt to bond further. Some are intelligent, while others are a bit dimmer. But for all their flaws, there is also much to admire about them: they are good at what they do (for the most part) and they will endure hardships few others (including myself) could abide, typically with a smile.

Not all these Marines are competent. In fact, any Marine that Wright only identifies by a nickname - like Captain America or Encino Man - comes off as a buffoon. And since these buffoons are often officers, their idiocies endanger others as well. In fact, it often seems that the noncoms have more contempt for these officers than the Iraqis. Furthermore, they are often disappointed in the higher-ups as well, who often seem to have no real strategy to winning the war (and given that it still goes on over 5 years after "Mission Accomplished", there is good reason to question those authorities).

One problem with Generation Kill is that it does only focus on one small, elite group of Marines and doesn't give much of an impression of how other troops were (for better or for worse). Nonetheless, Wright does a really good job at showing what the day-to-day life of these Marines is like. And though my review may have a political bent, Wright is pretty good at keeping the politics out as much as possible, so whatever side of the war issue you're on, it is worth reading this book to understand a little about what is really going on with the soldiers in Iraq.

This is and interesting and well written account about the First Recon Battalion, who led the the First Marine Expeditionary Force into Iraq. It was written by an embedded reporter and is the basis for the HBO mini-series of the same title. The author takes time to explain the military jargon and customs that sometimes makes the mini-series almost unintelligible. I served as a Navy hospital corpsman assigned to the Third Recon Battalion many years ago and I found this book to be both accurate, entertaining and very well written.

I had not seen the HBO series or read any of the Rolling Stone articles so the book was a fresh read for me. I found it engrossing; Wright captures the "what it as like" feeling very well; I came away with a bitter feeling at how these young warriors' sacrifices are squandered by the Bush administration's incompetence in the overall Iraq scheme of things.

there is a saying in the news world "never let facts get in the way of a good story." Generation kill is the only war reporting ive ever read that looks at everything from the soldier's points of view, because he was next to the soldiers every step of the way. other reporters stay out of the action and only see the aftermath, so you are not getting the real story on say, how civilians get killed. Evan Wright has written a great book complete with all the gory details that you will never see on the tv show based on the book. this book is a definite must read.

A no punches pulled look at the reality of modern warfare from the tip of the spear. Evan Wright's observations of the men of the Marines First Recon Battalion at the beginning of the Iraq war is an intimate look at the men (good and bad)who are serving our country. The melting pot of different backgrounds, the honorable platoon leader looking out for his men as they are tasked with questionable missions, the ambitious Colonel willing to sacrifice his men to impress his General, the Sergeants who hold everything together and make things happen... It humanizes the Corps at a time when the news carries so many stories of civilian killings and Marines being tried for war crimes. It's very difficult to pass judgement on most of them - operating under circumstances most people will never understand.

I can't put this book down, I am in the middle of combat with these courageous soldiers. It is well written and will read again.

I can't put this book down, I am in the middle of combat with these courageous soldiers. It is well written and will read again.

After seeing a few episodes of the HBO miniseries based on this book, I decided to read it. I can say that the miniseries is very faithful to the book. Evan Wright is an engaging writer and it is nice to read a first-hand account by an experienced observer and writer. His account is an eye-opening look into the bravery of American soldiers under fire as well as the boredom and drudgery that can occur even during a time of war and the ineptitude of some leadership. It's a good read. I have read Not a Good Day to Die, Thunder Run, Licensed to Kill and Lone Survivor. This is one of the better books on the actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Amazing book about the beginning of the war in Iraq.

The book follows the Marine Corps 1st Recon company as they blindly enter war in Iraq, literally not knowing exactly what their mission is or what to really expect.

I served in the Marine Corps with an infantry battalion, I got out right before the invasion of Iraq. The author Evan Wright, captures what it is to be a Marine and the camaraderie of the Corps perfectly. Wright's descriptions and Marine terms are right on, he did an amazing job with this book.

1st Recon did an outstanding job over there on the frontlines, considering the chaos among the battalion and some poor leadership they were faced with. They rose to every occasion, admitted their mistakes when they happened and seemed to learn from them.

The book portrays several officers as buffoons and I don't doubt that, but the book also commends other officers. Having served in the Marine Corps, I saw my share of officers that didnt have a clue and but I knew many, many more that were the epitome of what a good Marine is and were highly respected and looked up to by all.

Every Marine, every rank should read this book. Just to get a feel of the level of stress they went through, the tough decisions they made at all different levels of rank. There is no training in the world that could have prepared these Marines for what they went through and saw over there.

Great book, great reading!

Highly recommended!

I had mixed feelings about the book based on other's review. I was even hesitant of purchasing the book. But don't let others review stop you. This was a very good book. It does not matter if you are pro war or against. The author dose an awesome job in taking you into the life of each soldier, how they are characteristically, their point of view of the war, how they react to the scenes, missions, etc.

For me, the book brought me to tears and moments of laughter. And it does a good job to not leave any un-answered questions. Because the Author added a follow-up, as far as what path each soldier decided to take at the end of their tour.

I do recommend this book. I would also recommend any other book that is related to the stories of soldier in battle, because they are the stories that the general public does not have the opportunity to hear.