Just finished this book (it only came out in 2004!) and it's a fantastic read of the authors time (rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright) with the US marines First Recon Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the insight into this elite unit within the marines (the details of their training is amazing), although the marine commander Major General James Mattis called them "cocky, obnoxious bastards".
What you get is a tale from Evan who was mistrusted at the beginning to say the least but gained their respect by riding in the lead humvee and sometimes reluctantly carrying a weapon, it's a tale of aggression, misuse of this unit, poorly supplied, sometimes poorly led but always ready for whatever came their way and looking out for each other but it's also a tale of sadness, no real overall plan, comradeship, lucky escapes, the death of civilians.......
The marines themselves are brutally honest in their opinions (some of them got into trouble later) and as aggressive as their Devil Dogs nickname (supposedly earned in 1918 from the Germans they fought at Bellau Wood during WW1 were they were called hounds from hell in German dispatches), they used to ambush each other at night whilst waiting to be deployed and nick each other with their combat knives on each others ribs.....
A great read and now to find the TV series.....
