It starts off with Anthony Swofford a Marine in his basement looking over his relics from his action days, his garments, maps, and other memorabilia. He reflects back upon the time he was a soldier and stationed at a base in California. His platoon gets the news about the conflict in Iraq, and the problem with the oil. They are told they will be deployed soon so they rent a bunch of war movies and get drunk to ready themselves for war.
He reflects upon the time he served in the Philippines, he recalls the behavior of himself and the other soldiers and compares it to what their new mission may be like. He often switches back to periods in his life; he talks about the death of his platoon mate and how he was killed in a car accident while on leave and the tragedy of it, he talks about his family and their history in being warriors, how he knew from his young age he wanted to be a marine and his USMC shirt his mom made him, the time when he was able to become a marine but his father would not sign and they got into a fist fight and along with all the other problems he had with his wife left them, and also the lives of his fellow platoon mates.
U.S. Marines fighting in Huế
English: US Marines Corps (USMC) Marines from the ...
English: Insignia for 1st Marine Division Category...He explains his time in the Gulf war and the horrible things that happened. His girlfriend cheated on him, his mom got remarried, he almost committed suicide, and he held a gun to a fellow marines head. Being a jarhead was tough but he survived like everyone else and was finally put into STA, which is a sniper group. He loved his rifle because it was what he was taught. After being in the...