It's hard not to be impressed with Nate Fick. Smart guy with a conscience, warrior, longtime Marine officer, great writer. Now it sounds like there might be a Nate Fick, Part II, in Tyler Boudreau. Boudreau, a 14 year veteran of the Marine Corps, has just published a book about his experiences as a Marine officer in Iraq (2004), and it sounds absolutely great. The book is called "Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine," and it was just published this month. Check out these reviews, from people whose opinions matter. It's not clear yt how much of his book deals with the consequences of combat trauma for those who served (or resultant PTSD), but even if it doesn't, the frequent remarks made about the 'self-awareness' of his writing mean that it will help the reader put himself or herself on the ground with the writer, seeing what he saw, feeling what he felt. That's always a great (and necessary) precursor to understanding what the particular challenges are of combat for the veteran.
Advance Praise for "Packing Inferno, The Unmaking of a Marine":
“I don't know another book on any subject, let alone on war, let alone on Iraq or the Corps, that combines such breath taking candor and self-awareness with such impressive insight and extremely good writing, as well. Riveting, engrossing, simply terrific, a page-turner” -- Daniel Ellsberg, Marine veteran, D.O.D. consultant during the Vietnam War.
"Tyler Boudreau is the real deal. His personal story of what it's like to know the 'ground truth' of the war in Iraq chills the soul. This is a must read for any of us who care about our country and our soldiers in harms way." -- Max Cleland, former U.S. Senator, Vietnam veteran
“What do you get when you combine The Things They Carried and Dispatches with the unblinking, crystalline style of Friedrich Nietzsche? You get Packing Inferno. Boudreau has a gift for vivid scene and narrative pace, and brings those together with something very rare: an unblinking sight of what’s right and what's not in this war, in his Marines, and in himself. There is a clarity in his words that will not leave you alone. You will definitely feel your time has been well spent.” -- Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD, author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America, MacArthur Fellow
"Tyler Boudreau lives now to help the rest of us see the monstrous face of war as clearly as he does. Alas, it is our own face, which we fail to recognize. This bravely truthful book is an urgently needed cure for America's chosen blindness about the war to which this nation condemns its young." -- James Carroll, author of House of War
“I read Packing Inferno in a single sitting, and when I finished, I sat back down and read it again…and again. Packing Inferno is a wonderfully written, deeply passionate account of one man’s journey to the ‘foyer to Hell’. Tyler Boudreau draws the reader into the subtleties of his ‘everyman’ tale of conflict until it is too late, and we are trapped in a journey up the Euphrates River valley, a Mesopotamian ‘Heart of Darkness’ which leads us straight into Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell, a place reserved for traitors. Packing Inferno makes traitors of us all, those opposed to the war in Iraq, those who support, and those who remain indifferent. And yet, in telling his story, Tyler Boudreau has liberated himself from Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell, because he betrays no one in doing so. And while the reader in some way becomes trapped along with Tyler by reading Packing Inferno, we are traitors to humanity if we don’t.” -- Scott Ritter, Former Major, United States Marine Corps, and Chief Weapons Inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998
"Eloquent, impassioned, written in the moments, written after, before, and around the moments, dripping with the blood of pain and seeking the blood of breathing, Boudreau has written from the zones of war under the guns and from the zones of war beyond the guns and from the zones of war in our hearts and minds - and in our memories and agendas - and he hasn't just written from those realms, about the culture, the training, the killing, the being killed, the coming home and not being home, he has displayed it all, dissected it all, unmercifully and mercifully relived and explored it all. Only a human ostrich can avoid these truths - don't be one. Read this." -- Michael Albert, Co-editor of ZNet and co-founder of Z Magazine and South End Press
“Tyler Boudreau has written a different war story which chronicles his journey of conscience. His feat is to survive the inferno of relentless anger to reach an understanding of what war entails. His is also an investigation into the morality of war, with all its quagmires and self-justifications. Soldiers must come to terms with their war to truly survive it, and Boudreau offers great insight into the hurdles facing returning veterans as well as advice for those who would help them.” -- Elise Forbes Tripp, author of Surviving Iraq: Soldiers’ Stories
“This is a deeply stirring book, angry and funny and insightful, about war and those whom war envelopes. It will bring knowing nods of recognition from veterans; it may shock others. To all of us, Tyler Boudreau offers a profound gift: the moral clarity we need to welcome the warriors back home.” -- David Bowne Wood, National Security Correspondent, The Baltimore Sun; author of A Sense of Values: American Marines in an Uncertain World
“Packing Inferno represents an extraordinary meditation on the lethal contradictions of war and a grunts-eye view of the debacle in Iraq. Tyler Boudreau is that rare creature: a literate observer of the absurdities and tragedies of modern combat (American-style), and a no-holds-barred participant in the carnage of Iraqi urban warfare. Forget the high-falutin' tomes on America's mission in Iraq; this book really explains why the U.S. strategy was doomed to failure.” -- Michael T. Klare, Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies and author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, the New Geopolitics of Energy
