The Few and the Proud: Marine Corps Drill Instructors in Their Own Words - Softcover

Smith, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393329925 ISBN 13: 9780393329926

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007

Synopsis

The New York Times bestseller: From the sands of Iwo Jima to the deserts of Iraq, the riveting, real-life stories of training young marines.

Beginning with interviews with the last surviving drill instructors of World War II, this powerful oral history offers the voices of veterans from every major war of the last sixty years, concluding with accounts of what it takes to train marines for Iraq today. The Few and the Proud contains revelatory details about the vicious training techniques used to prepare marines for the great battles against Japan in the Pacific; the Ribbon Creek training disaster of the 1950s; and legendary stories by the likes of Iwo Jima veteran "Iron" Mike Mervosh and R. Lee Ermey, the infamous drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket. With death-defying accounts relayed from the MCRD in San Diego and the legendary Parris Island, The Few and the Proud is both a personal history of the 230-year-old U.S. Marine Corps and a repository of heroism, leadership, and determination in the toughest division of the United States military. 31 photographs

About this title

About the Author

Larry Smith is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Few and the Proud and Beyond Glory. The latter was adapted into a major Broadway play by Stephen Lang. Smith lives in South Norwalk, Connecticut.

From Publishers Weekly

This series of interviews with Marines, most of whom are current or former drill instructors, offers a multifaceted, personal history of the Marine Corps and its training methods since WWII. Alongside a host of distinguished Marines, several celebrities who spent time in the corps are featured, including R. Lee Ermey, the actor and technical adviser who portrayed the ultimate drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam epic Full Metal Jacket; former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, who served for 13 months in 1945 and 1946; and the late photographer Eddie Adams, who honed his skills behind the camera as a combat photographer in the Korean War. Smith (Beyond Glory) lets the Marines do most of the talking and chimes in with explanatory essays on the nuts and bolts of boot camp life. While nearly all of the Marines' comments are positive, Smith also includes details about the 1956 Ribbon Creek training incident, in which seven recruits drowned during an ill-advised night march. He offers perspectives on the Marines' acceptance of African-Americans following WWII and its treatment of females in the past 60 years. Former Marines and military buffs will find much to pique their interest. (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0393329925
• ISBN 13: 9780393329926
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352