Product Description

is a candid collection of courage and that serves as a reminder that when America needs a real hero, it doesn't need to look beyond its military."

United States Marines, for more than two centuries, have been among the world's fiercest and most admired of warriors. They have fought from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan and Iraq, in famous battles that have become the bone and sinew of American lore. But why do Marines fight? Why do they fight so well?

James Brady, to some an unofficial "poet laureate" of the Corps, interviews combat Marine veterans from World War II to Afghanistan, and their replies are in their own individual voices, unique and powerful. What results is an authentically American story of a country at war, as seen through the eyes of its warriors; a story of the motivations and emotions behind this compelling title question. Included are accounts from Senator James Webb and his Corporal son, Jim; New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly; Yankee second baseman (and Marine fighter pilot) Jerry Coleman, and of teachers, fireman, authors, cops, Harvard football players, and just plain grunts.

is a ruthlessly candid book about professional killers not ashamed to recall their doubts as well as exult in their savagely triumphant battle cries. A book of weight and heft that Marines, and Americans everywhere, will want to read, and may find impossible to forget.Praise for James Brady:

"Brady explores both the emotions and motivations of the men who willingly run toward guns. Read this and you'll be steeled to stare down your own fears."

"For anyone who wants to know how the U.S. Marine team works in war and peace, this book is indispensable." (starred review)"Brady's book succeeds in delivering honest, front-row accounts of war--the gritty details and the hard realities--and provides a veritable smorgasbord of answers to the question of why Marines fight." --

"These inspirational tales cover as many Marine experiences as Brady can pack in." --

"[A] graceful, even elegant, and always eloquent tribute to men at arms in a war that, in a way, never ended." --

"James Brady has done it again. A riveting and illuminating insight into a dark corner of the world." --Tim Russert

"His story reads like a novel, but it is war reporting at its best---a graphic depiction, in all its horrors, of the war we've almost forgotten." --Walter Cronkite"A marvelous memoir. A sensitive and superbly written narrative that eventually explodes off the pages like a grenade in the gut . . .taut, tight, and telling." --Dan Rather

"In , James Brady again gives us a novel in which history is a leading character, sharing the stage in this case with a man as surely born to be a gallant warrior as any knight in sixth-century Camelot." --Kurt Vonnegut

"Mr. Brady knows war, the smell and the feel of it." --