[BostonianRightist]

I didn't pick that up at all. I still think it's just a sniper being a creepy loner.

Despite any political banter you pick up on, it's still a fun and interesting read. The Wall of Shame where Jarheads post photos of unfaithful women. Playing football in MOP suits, wearing MOP suits with jungle camo because the desert camo didn't get to them in time.

I still think it was a fun and interesting read.

[Riley]

Playing football in MOP suits,

Playing football in MOPP is about the kind of think we would have done. Sorry I didn't think of it. We did run PT in MOPP 4 in the heat once. I had no idea the human body could sweat so much.

[af_vet_rr]

I still think it was a fun and interesting read.

That's what I got from it - and truth be told, there were probably a lot of people that felt like the author did - they built up suspense, anxiety, etc., over several months, only to suffer a "letdown" as it were.

I remember when the book came out, my sister sent me a copy of the book and asked me to read it before she did - her son was a Marine during that time (and still is) and was in similar units.

I asked him about it, he said some of it was exaggerated or probably had incidents from other platoons, and we chalked it up to editors making what would have been a very short or boring story into something more.

He was blunt and said that a lot of things went on in real life, that mirrored the book, and that it would make people uncomfortable. When you have 18, 19, 20 year olds, that are away from their families for the first time, and stationed in other countries, and they are in a dangerous profession, you're going to have that element that is going to engage in behavior that the sunday-school crowd would look down upon.

I think people think that when an 18 or 19 year old puts on a uniform, he or she becomes a completly different person. It's true that they do to an extent, but they aren't robots, they aren't brainless rambo-types that spend all of their time cleaning their weapon or polishing boots. They are young people, away from home. They are going to do what young people do these days.