Of these projects, I most enjoyed The Wire. But it's worth evaluating each of these projects in terms of what they were trying to accomplish, since they all had different goals.

1. Homicide: Life on the Street
   
   This was adapted from Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, but I don't know how much Simon worked on the show day-to-day.
   
   This show is much more of a crime procedural than any of the other works here. And with a few notable exceptions—e.g., Luther Mahoney or Brodie—the near-exclusive default point-of-view is that of the police.
   
   The show was groundbreaking for network TV at the time. For one thing, at least one of the main-cast characters was a cop who was an asshole and basically corrupt. This show also demonstrated that the bosses and their subordinates do not always see eye-to-eye, and not just in the "crusty-but-benign" way described in the movie Network, either. Most cop shows at the time didn't just show cops, but they identified with the cops' perspective. (This is still pretty common today.) This is legitimate, but showing that cops have human foibles which have on-the-job repercussions was taking a chance, especially for a network show at that time. And, like The Wire, it got critical acclaim but relatively small (but devoted!) audiences.
   
   The show's style was very different from that of, say, The Wire. For example, it had a non-diegetic score and camera moves that were more likely to draw attention to themselves. H:LotS also included collaborations with Baltimore native Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana. The latter went on to create HBO's Oz, and you can see plenty of influence there from Homicide.
   
   H:LotS was also able to attract high-level talent throughout its run. Not only was the regular and recurring cast very strong (as you'd likely expect, even without having seen a single episode), but it attracted a number of actors best known for their film work. As just one example, Robin Williams appeared in the second season premiere, playing the husband of a crime victim. Steve Buscemi played an odious racist. Arguably, though, the most memorable guest appearance was Moses Gunn as Risley Tucker, the sole suspect in the homicide of 11-year old Adena Watson. Gunn may not be a household name, but he's been in projects from the original Shaft to Roots to stage performances.
   
   Homicide was also remarkable, especially at the time, in that it shot on location in Baltimore. (For context, consider that Vancouver (almost) never plays itself; typically, a show at the time would be shot in New York or Los Angeles, even it it's set in another city.) It also helped establish some of the vocabulary familiar to those who've watched The Wire: "the box", "the board", etc.
   
   
2. The Corner
   
   This was a six-part miniseries for HBO based on David Simon's book about real-life addicts and dealers. If Homicide was primarily a show from the perspective of the cops, The Corner introduced what life was really like for those who lived in places like West Baltimore.
   
   For me, Homicide was always more stylized in its aesthetic, but more traditional in the types of stories it tried to tell. It was groundbreaking relative to other cop shows, but it still chose the cops' vantage points as the default. The Corner inverted this.
   
   A lot of the content from The Corner will be familiar to those who've already seen The Wire. (And, conversely, those who've seen The Corner would have some useful frame of reference for the events depicted in The Wire.) One attribute The Corner clearly focused on was authenticity. Homicide was a solid show, but The Corner felt real. Much of the cast of The Corner reappears in The Wire, too. And some of the real-life people whose lives Simon chronicled in his book played minor characters on The Wire. One of the most notable examples was the late DeAndre McCullough, who played Brother Mouzone's assistant Lamar.
   
   Again: a killer cast. A good story, well-told. And, for a change-of-pace: even some Emmy nominations and wins!
   
   
3. The Wire
   
   I trust you're all familiar with this, right? :)
   
   I think having laid some groundwork with the reporting which underlay Homicide and The Corner, The Wire had the basis to be incredibly ambitious. It told stories from the perspectives of cops and dealers and dope fiends and stevedores and City Hall and newspaper newsrooms. It also had a definite point-of-view, and it was unafraid to advocate for its argument, but by showing and not merely telling. Yes, it's about all the conflict between characters on all sides of the law. But it's also making some very important arguments: the drug war is unwinnable, and the consequences of that gratuitous futility are disastrous for countless people. Deindustrialization of big cities leaves the corner as the only employer in town. Actual reform that will have any kind of substantive effect will require something other than the standard bromides that have typically gotten politicians elected and re-elected. And so on.
   
   
4. Generation Kill
   
   This is a seven-part HBO miniseries based on the book Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Ice Man, Captain America, and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright, documenting those American Marines who were the tip-of-the-spear in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As with The Corner and The Wire, this goes out of its way to convey authenticity, especially in the context of the military jargon. Oh, and you get to see Baltimore native James Ransone, who played Ziggy, as a Marine, too.
   
   
5. Treme
   
   This is Simon's love letter to the city of New Orleans, set in the immediate aftermath of Hurrican Katrina. Again: a killer cast, including everyone from Clarke Peters (who played Lester) to Khandi Alexander (who played Fran Boyd on The Corner) to New Orleans native Wendell Pierce (Bunk Moreland) to John Goodman (in damn-near EVERY movie) to Stephen Colbert's bandleader Jon Batiste (as himself).
   
   For me, Treme was solid, but it was less compelling than The Wire. A lot of the goal of Treme was to show the importance and centrality of New Orleans to American culture, in everything from music to food. For me, that case seemed secondary to the lives of the characters themselves. Many of the themes from The Wire are familiar: indifferent institutions, crime and violence, etc. But it also has some ferociously good performances, amazing music performed live, and an important reminder that life for so many in New Orleans still wasn't really "after Katrina" yet, even years after the storm, because of just how much destruction was caused all around.
   
   Oh, and like The Wire (among others), Treme cast a lot of local New Orleans natives who lived through the storm, as well as musicians who hadn't grown up with training as actors.
   
   
6. Show Me a Hero
   
   The title comes from an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: "show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy". Like The Corner, this is another six-part HBO miniseries adapted from a nonfiction book. It's about a huge fight that the city of Yonkers, NY had with federal courts by resisting efforts to remedy housing segregation.
   
   Some of the themes should be familiar: a stellar cast including Oscar Isaac, Winona Ryder (in a role I wouldn't have expected for her), Catherine Keener, Alfred Molina, and Clarke Peters (again). As you might have guessed from the quote, this story doesn't have a happy ending for everyone. The main theme is about how to do the right thing, especially as an elected official, in the face of violent opposition from much of the city, and what cost doing the right thing will entail.
   
   
7. The Deuce
   
   This is a forthcoming David Simon series about the world around Times Square in the 1970s: pornography, just as it was becoming legalized, HIV/AIDS, drug use, and the economic conditions of the city at the time. Even if the whole team totally dropped the ball here, I'm sure this will be better than HBO's 1970s music drama Vinyl, at a minimum.
   
   The cast includes James Franco (playing twins), Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anwan Glover (Slim Charles), Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. (D'Angelo Barksdale), Chris Bauer (Frank Sobotka), and Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Partlow). Oh, and the pilot is being directed by Michelle MacLaren, whose directing credits include Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and Westworld, among others.

If you want to understand the nature of the war and the strategy used to fight it from the surge (2007) onward I recommend David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War by Fred Kaplan. This book will describe all the big names and texts that helped formulate modern counterinsurgency doctrine and will give you plenty of authors and publications to further explore. To further understand counterinsurgency, I recommend The Accidental Guerilla by David Kilcullen (this link downloads the file, it does not open it a new window) that has a great chapter on Iraq since he was the senior COIN advisor for a few months into the surge. You can also read FM3-24 the original 2006 version, but its a dense read and I recommend you familiarize yourself with the doctrine through other publications before tackling the field manual itself.

Fiasco by Thomas Ricks is a decent history of the run up to the Iraq war and the first years, I would say 2002-2005 is where it is strongest although it does discuss important history prior to 9/11 in the containment of Iraq and some detail into 2006.

From the Surge onward I recommend Ricks' follow on book The Gamble, and The Surge by Peter Mansoor. These books will detail the important changes and in strategy and operational practices that characterized the Surge and the post 2006 war effort.

These are the books I have personally read that best address your questions. Books that are more tactically oriented instead of focusing on the big picture include The Forever War by Dexter Filkins, which is a morbid book that does justice to the horror of the Iraq's sectarian civil war. Thunder Run by David Zucchino is worthy of being a masterpiece in terms of how well the author constructed an incredible narrative on the tank forays into the heart of Baghdad in the early weeks of the war. My Share of the Task by Stanley McChrystal is a great read on McChrystal fomented a significant evolution in JSOC's intelligence culture and operational tempo. This book is of value specifically to what you asked because his men were the ones that were tracking Abu Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and was the first iteration of what is now known as ISIS. McChrystal describes the structure of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and much of ISIS's organization and methods can be traced back to Zarqawi's leadership.

I don't think you will find any books that will do justice to your interest in terms of recent events however I have some advice that I feel will help you immensely. Simply type in (topic of interest) and end it with pdf into google. This cuts out brief news articles and wikipedia entries and leaves you with top notch reports published by peer reviewed journals and think tanks. This is all free, and its very well researched work.

A report I'm currently reading that I'm sure you will find interesting is Iraq in Crisis by CSIS. It's of course long for a think tank report, but it has a lot of information and great statistics and charts that help the reader better understand Iraq's trends in violence and other challenges. Here are two more interesting reports by well known think tanks that pertinent to what you are looking for.

On the evolution of Al Qaeda and other salafi jihadists by RAND

Iraqi politics, governance and human rights by the Congressional Research Service

Okay, so I will try to post something here that I haven't already posted (also because my sim doesn't start for another 2 hours and I'm bored).

These two posts sum it up pretty good I think (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2jex7k/teenagers_of_reddit_what_is_the_biggest_current/clbbw4l) and here (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2jex7k/teenagers_of_reddit_what_is_the_biggest_current/clbbdcb).

But here's something I didn't post yet. In my humble opinion, the key to human happiness is two-fold: creativity, and human relationships.

1. Creativity. One of the hallmarks of human behavior that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is creativity. Every culture on Earth has some form of artistic expression, such as music, painting, cultural dances, festivals, or food presentation or what have you. Even black slaves at the height of the slave trade still found ways to express themselves creatively through keeping secret journals, risking severe punishment and even their lives. Hell, even cavemen--the earliest human beings--expressed themselves through cave paintings. So I think in order for someone to be truly happy, they should have a creative outlet. That could be something like playing guitar, water color painting, writing poetry, designing a sky scraper, writing a mobile app, designing and building a deck for your house or a deer stand for hunting--or even starting a family and making it the best possible family you can. For me, I put my creative power into my sailboat and have all these projects--varnishing, painting, sanding, cleaning, maintenance--all those kinds of things actually become a creative expression of my mind. And it makes me happy.
   
   
2. Human relationships. There is a book call The Mission, The Men, and Me (which is a great book about leadership, found here: http://amzn.com/B003XQEVWQ). One of the military lessons learned there is that "Nothing is a reality unless it's shared." The Author was referring to battlefield intel, in that if you know something about the enemy, it might as well not even be true if only you know it. You need to disseminate that intel to everyone else, otherwise if you're the only guy who knows it, it effectively becomes useless information. Well, I took that a step further and realized that it applies to human relationships as well. Nothing is a reality unless it's shared. That's why social networks are so popular: everyone wants to share their reality with other people, otherwise it doesn't feel as real. There could be a lot said about keeping things private (like mental snapshots instead of instagramming everything), but the point I'm trying to make is that we, as humans, are social creatures. And if we try to isolate ourselves from other humans, we can't share our realities with them and it begins to feel like we're not real. You ever read or watched the book/movie "Into the Wild"? It's a true story what happened, and as that kid lay dying in the Alaskan Wilderness, he wrote in his journal: "Happiness is only real when it's shared." (http://youtu.be/x2k-oo2TT-0?t=2m3s). Sharing experiences with someone else makes it warmer, partly because I think that's hardwired into our DNA.
   
   So really, I think the key to happiness revolves around creativity (something that you focus your own energy into, and you do yourself) and human relationships (something that requires human interaction and you participate in with others). And if you combine the two, it's pretty much a guaranteed life of happiness.

Honest question. Not intended to offend you.

Do you have a learning impairment of some kind?
Or are you just lazy?

If you have some kind of an issue that makes it difficult for you to grasp and embrace somewhat advanced academic topics, but you really want a college degree to help you go somewhere in life, then we can help you.

But I keep reading your responses in the thread and you come across as unmotivated, disinterested and, well, lazy.

I ain't yer daddy. I'm not here to fuss at you. Actually, I'm willing to help find you an answer to your question if I can.

But my approach to trying to help will depend on your response to my question.

Before you respond though, I have a second question.

You don't seem to have the slightest idea what you want to do with your life, but you seem fairly interested in doing it with some assistance from the military.

Please permit me to offer you a suggestion that might help you stall for time before you have to answer these questions.

-----

The ROTC program has strict standards and some fairly lofty requirements. The military cannot tolerate junior leaders that do not have their act together.

Junior leaders are in fantastic positions with excellent opportunities to get a lot of people killed or injured in seconds.

For a good example of good v/s not-good leadership I emphatically encourage you to consume this entire mini-series Generation Kill. It's on HBO and I think Netflix. Or just get the book from the library Generation Kill or something.

Lieutenant Fick (the real person) attended Dartmouth and later wrote the book One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer. This is what a good officer looks like.
Captain America is what a bad officer looks like. He isn't completely bad. He didn't get any of his men killed directly, but it came close from time to time.

I AM NOT suggesting you might be a bad officer. I am trying to explain why ROTC and Officer Candidate School is as tough as it is.
They are working very hard to weed out and otherwise discover good v/s bad officers.

There is another path. A path with fewer risks, that might enable you to observe personal growth and self-discovery at a different pace.

The enlisted path.

Take the SAT. Take the ACT. Keep those scores in your permanent CollegeBoard profile. But take the ASVAB and enlist in the service of your choosing. Pick a job that helps provide you some useful skills. Go see the world. Go meet some new people. Then let your GI Bill pay for college after you've had 4 years of active duty service to figure out what you want to do for a living.

The Army, Navy and Air Force will all guarantee you a specific job of your choosing in a written contract.
The Marines will guarantee only that you WILL be personally challenged by your experiences. They will assign you whatever job they want you to have.

I joined the Marines back in 1989, when I was 17 years old. My parents had to co-sign my enlistment papers since I wasn't 18 yet.
I learned a lot about myself, and I had a completely new and vastly more focused view of the world when I got out.

The GI Bill will pay for 36 months of university (which covers 4 full educational years) including room & board in most cases.
The GI Bill grants you in-state consideration for all public universities in the nation. So you can attend any school anywhere you want to go to, assuming you have the academic record to be accepted.


...Just an alternate approach to your situation for you to think about.

I came across this book titled "Thank you for my service" by a guy called Mat Best who was wearing an American flag. It was a ridiculous cover and I thought "wow, what a toolbox." I laughed a good laugh, confident I knew that the title and cover photo were typical justbootthings. I walked away feeling pretty damn good about myself. I even stopped to smell one of my own farts in smug self-satisfaction, but as I took it in, the thought occurred to me that if I really wanted to enjoy the smell of my own fart, I ought to at least make sure I wasn't misinterpreting it. I went back and read the inside of the jacket. As I understood it, the author was actually saying that his service was the greatest experience of his life, and that he wanted to thank citizens and generally for putting him in a position to serve in a way that was meaningful for him. I felt pretty darn foolish. That seemed like a generally laudable perspective and something the opposite of what I assumed he meant by "Thank you for my service."

In my defense, the guy's name is Mat with only one T, like doormat and so his name and the cover picture worked to confirm my existing bias.

https://www.amazon.com/Thank-You-Service-Mat-Best/dp/1524796492

I've used BUDS as a good goal and motivation for my running (been running for years, just now getting into lifting/bulking). Probably watched every BUDS video on the interweb. A couple notes:

• Sounds obvious, but the minimum standards are a bare minimum. You have to be able to laugh at them if you have any chance of surviving more than a week at BUDS. Take your hardest training day, triple it, add a 5 mile conditioning run, take a long freezing cold shower, and THEN see if you can meet the PFT standards. I had a friend in the military who trained for years to get on a very high end specops course, and they ran the full PFT test within 5 minutes of him stepping off the bus. He failed (some leg cramp apparently), couldn't re-apply. Was literally on a bus off the base 3-4 hours after stepping off the bus. Apparently there's a lot of BUD/s pre-qual courses to help filter these guys out though.
  
• A lot of guys like Richard Machowicz mention it's vital to get used to training and working out in the cold. Stretch, take a 10 minute freezing cold shower, and THEN go for your runs. I read somewhere he credits that for one of the only reasons he made it through BUDS, is having taken 6 months of cold showers before coronado.
  
• Brandon Webb has a great book, about half of it being about his BUD/S experience. Obviously it's all a mind-fuck. He mentions everyone comes in to BUDS more than capable from the neck-down. These guys are out to mind-fuck the shit out of you and get you to quit. The PT just passes time.
  
• On the running side, it sounds like you want to be at AT LEAST 60-70mpw. Running about 15-20 miles throughout the day, every day is apparently the norm. They also recommend spending a lot of time running on sand and on trails. Needless to say they're pounding out miles on coronado beach.
  
• If you haven't seen it, search for 'buds class 234' on youtube. About 15 years old, but the most comprehensive BUDS video on the interweb. They used that footage for the opening of Lone Survivor.

This is a book. Dear God.

> The unapologetic, laugh-your-ass-off military memoir both vets and civilians have been waiting for, from a five-tour Army Ranger turned YouTube phenomenon and zealous advocate for veterans
>
> Members of the military’s special operations branches share a closely guarded secret: They love their jobs. They relish the opportunity to fight. They are thankful for it, even, and hopeful that maybe, possibly, they’ll also get to kill a bunch of bad guys while they’re at it. You don’t necessarily need to thank them for their service—the pleasure is all theirs.
>
> In this hilarious and personal memoir, readers ride shotgun alongside former Army Ranger and private military contractor and current social media phenomenon Mat Best, into the action and its aftermath, both abroad and at home. From surviving a skin infection in the swampy armpit of America (aka Columbus, Georgia) to kicking down doors on the outskirts of Ramadi, from blowing up a truck full of enemy combatants to witnessing the effects of a suicide bombing right in front of your face, Thank You for My Service will give readers who love America and love the good guys fresh insight into what it’s really like inside the minds of the men and women on the front lines.
>
> It’s also a sobering yet steadying glimpse at life for veterans after the fighting stops, when the enemy becomes self-doubt or despair and you begin to wonder why anyone should be thanking you for anything, least of all your service. How do you keep going when something you love turns you into somebody you hate? For veterans and their friends and families, Thank You for My Service will offer comfort, in the form of a million laughs, and counsel, as a blueprint for what to do after the war ends and the real fight begins.
>
> And for civilians, this is the insider account of military life you won’t find anywhere else, told with equal amounts of heart and balls. It’s Deadpool meets Captain America, except one went to business school and one went to therapy, and it’s anyone’s guess which is which.

Here it's spammable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plY9hpA_Nbg

Seriously though, start reading books about modern warfare and the men who deal with high pressure situations; learn how they are able to deal with all the shit life throws at you. This is a good one to start out with: http://www.amazon.com/Joker-One-Platoons-Leadership-Brotherhood/dp/0812979567/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278777167&sr=8-1. Other than that, start an intense physical training regime. Crossfit.com is the ultimate fitness site for anyone sick of the "normal workout routine." Plus, they have a ton of free information and videos for anyone starting out; not to mention they usually post an intelligent article that doesn't have anything to do with fitness. Speaking of interesting articles, check out this one by soon to be retired General Stanley McChrystal. If you want to be a man, and don't want to listen to anything else I said, just read that nytimes article. Lastly, look into purchasing a rowing machine. Concept II is the best one on the market, and it's grueling workout. After all, rowing is the only sport to start out as a form of capital punishment.

Good luck, and stay thirsty my friends!

Edit: sorry the link to the General's article doesn't work. Type this into google: general mcchrystal+nytimes article"asceticism" and you should be able to find it. Definitely worth the quick read.

I suppose that depends on when you "don't make it."

If you drop out of OCS, or get injured at PLC/OCS, I'm not sure how willing they are to take a chance on you again, but they might if it's medical.

If you decide the USMC isn't for you, or fail out of school, you have to pay the gov't for the loans. I'm pretty sure they make this very clear when you accept your NROTC scholarship. In fact, I'm extremely sure you have to sign an agreement to pay the loans back, barring any extraneous circumstances.

And I really would like to think that NROTC scholarships are rare and exclusive enough that they are not handed out like candy.

Are you interested in Air, Ground or Law?
Please do yourself a favor and read One Bullet Away.

Sorry I can't remember exactly which one, but I'm pretty sure it was one of these:
http://smile.amazon.com/Seal-Team-Six-incredible-operations-ebook/dp/B004OA63JE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397330250&sr=8-1&keywords=seal+team+6

http://smile.amazon.com/Warrior-Soul-Memoir-Navy-SEAL-ebook/dp/B000FC0XZK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_10?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DMA7D0QB52DR9XKD9P3

http://smile.amazon.com/The-Finishing-School-Earning-Trident-ebook/dp/B001RLTFDO/ref=pd_sim_kstore_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DMA7D0QB52DR9XKD9P3

http://smile.amazon.com/Inside-SEAL-Team-Six-Missions-ebook/dp/B005HFNK28/ref=pd_sim_kstore_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DMA7D0QB52DR9XKD9P3

EDIT: Or this one. http://smile.amazon.com/The-Red-Circle-Americas-Deadliest-ebook/dp/B0071NMCKA/ref=pd_sim_kstore_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=01PHG2R9GTTNCCKK7Y60

By the way, all of these are excellent books (in my opinion), if you're interested in this kind of stuff they make a great read.

I've been looking for a good series like this too.
The best option I've found so far was autobiographical books about real operators and their stories. The comic I link to below is pretty good too.

This is the comic, obviously it isn't a true novel, but it's still a good series.

https://www.amazon.com/Activity-1-Tp/dp/1607065614
The series focuses on the Intelligence Support Activity and their covert ops, but there's some joint Delta, SAS, CIA, etc stories in there too.

As for more proper novels, 'No Easy Day' has some good stories in it. It's an autobiography though.

https://www.amazon.com/No-Easy-Day-Autobiography-Firsthand/dp/0525953728

Looks like we all read the same books. I know Donovan Campbell's Joker One has already been mentioned, but if you enjoyed Fick's writing you might like The Unforgiving Minute by Craig Mullaney and The Heart and the Fist by Eric Greitens. Also, an honorable mention for Paul Rieckhoff's Chasing Ghosts.

If you were given the job because your director thought you were the best for it, then you were the best for it. Proving yourself will happen best with long term consistent results. Don't get caught up on dealing with what doesnt really matter. Stick to impressive everyone with high quality work.

I am curious about where you are located? Could this be a cultural thing?

Last, i think that its worth noting that being the new guy coming in and trying to change the status quo is always going to cause friction. This is just a fact. So don't loose sleep over it.

This is the book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Extreme-Ownership-Jocko-Willink/dp/1250067057/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458749634&sr=1-1&keywords=extreme+ownership

Hey man, that’s a really unfortunate accident and I wish you all the best in your recovery. There is a book I think you should read. It’s about a Canadian sniper by the name of Jody Mitic who lost both legs in Afghanistan and the trials and successes he faced after the fact.

I had a surgery in 2008 and he was in the bed next to me. He was having one of his legs reshaped to fit the prosthesis better. We talked for a good portion of the day but what I remember the most was his supremely positive attitude. He faced a lot of trials but he is now an Ottawa City Councillor. It’s definitey worth a read.

Here is the amazon link https://www.amazon.ca/Unflinching-Making-Canadian-Jody-Mitic/dp/147679510X/ref=nodl_

[Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin] (https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1501607776&sr=8-3&keywords=Jocko+willink)

[Heart for the Fight: A Marine Hero's Journey from the Battlefields of Iraq to Mixed Martial Arts Champion by Brian Stann] ( https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Fight-Journey-Battlefields-Champion/dp/076033899X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501607842&sr=1-1&keywords=brian+stann+book)

I would also highly recommend subscribing to [Jocko Willink's youtube channel] (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkqcY4CAuBFNFho6JgygCnA)

He has amazing podcasts with combat veterans and it's really interesting to hear the tactics/mindset. On a side note there's not many people that can motivate me like Jocko can. You could send me those pictures of a landscape with inspirational words on them and it wouldn't do shit for me...However there's been many days where I was being lazy/feeling sorry for myself and not wanting to work out...
thats when I watch this video

I shit you not there have been many days where that video alone has gotten me to nut up and grab my bag to go train jiu-jitsu when I didn't feel like it...or go to the range and get some practice in when I would rather stay home get cozy and watch netflix.

I'm a 19-year-old boy from Ottawa, Canada (you may have heard of our little country :P ). While I was not homeschooled per se during my public school years (I went to regular English schools), I definitely learned more quickly, more thoroughly and more widely due to my parents' constant efforts to teach me things that went way above and beyond what I was "learning" at my high school.

My parents are both high school teachers, and have each spent roughly 30 years teaching their respective subjects.

My dad actually just retired last year, but he taught most of the Social Studies curriculum during the course of his career (History, Philosophy, Psychology, World Religions, etc.). He is a bilingual Francophone from Ottawa, so he taught at one of the French Catholic high schools in our area. He also happens to be somewhat skeptical of religion (not an atheist, but damned close). Odd combination, yes, but it has resulted in him introducing me to
military history, everything from the Roman legions to the Knights Templar to the Taliban.

My mother was born in Ottawa, to Greek parents who had left Greece after the Second World War; my grandparents are from a village about 20 minutes away from the modern city of Sparti (Sparta). During the war, the village was at some point occupied by Axis forces (I'm not sure when or to what extent, because my grandparents' English is not great and only my mother speaks Greek).

I decided to include a list (below) of works that I've found particularly interesting (I've never actually written down a list of my favs before, so this may be somewhat... sprawling and will be in no particular order :P ). Depending on the ages of your kids, some of this stuff might be inappropriate for them right now, but they can always check it out when they're older. It's mostly military/wartime history that interests me (it's what I plan on studying in university), but I've learned so many little tidbits about other things as well from having access to these works. Since your kids are all boys, I hope they'll find at least some of this stuff to be interesting :) .


Books

• http://www.amazon.com/Apache-Inside-Cockpit-Fighting-Machine/dp/0802144780/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375711529&sr=1-4&keywords=apache
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/American-Gun-History-U-S-Firearms/dp/0062242717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375712862&sr=1-1&keywords=american+gun
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743271734/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375712990&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gun+cj+chivers
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Kill-Evan-Wright/dp/0425224740
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Fist-Education-Humanitarian-Making/dp/B0098RLDT8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375713827&sr=1-1&keywords=the+making+of+a+humanitarian
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Shake-Hands-Devil-Failure-Humanity/dp/0786715103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375713894&sr=1-1&keywords=shake+hands+with+the+devil
  
  
  Movies and TV
  
  
• http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/lovehatepropaganda/
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Military-Combat-Megaset-Dogfights-Seasons/dp/B002D1XJUW/ref=sr_1_6?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1375714091&sr=1-6&keywords=dogfights
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Tank-Battles-N/dp/B0055HK6V6/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1375714235&sr=1-1&keywords=greatest+tank+battles
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Deadliest-Warrior-Season-Geoffrey-Desmoulin/dp/B0037TPIAI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
  
  
  This is all non-fiction. If you like this list, let me know, and I can expand on it further, and also include my favourite works from other genres, as well as my favourite fiction books as well :) . I left out tons of stuff that I'm too much of a lazy teenager to type in here, lol.
  
  
  
  
  

I can think of a few off the top of my head but in the interest of keeping this short:

Generation Kill by Evan Wright. If you're even remotely interested in military-type things, this is a really great read.

Not trying to sell anything here but read this book. One of the most amazing pilots and warriors in the US Military ever. He gives you great insights into taking out air defenses.

http://www.amazon.com/Viper-Pilot-Memoir-Air-Combat/dp/006213034X

Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green

The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell

Dexter Series

Dark Elf Trilogy and then all of the subsequent books in the Drizzt line, there are like 14 or so maybe

With Liberty and Justice for Some

and always some green reading

Cannabis A History

Why Marijuana Should be Legal

Came here to suggest Dan Hampton. Ive read and loved all his books. His newest one, The Hunter Killers, was a great read.

Viper Pilot, is a great account of his time in the F-16.

For anyone who would like to know, the following books I've read are my favorite and I'd really recommend them to anyone: The Martian by Andy Weir, Gerald's Game by Stephen King, The Panther by Nelson DeMille, Unflinching by Jodi Mitic, American Sniper by Chris Kyle, and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

EDIT: Oh, and Blackwater - The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill.

EDDIT 2: Oh, and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card which is so much better than the movie. The movie does not do this novel justice. And Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly.

? What? That book is awesome! And so's the one Fick wrote

Edit: Fick's book: https://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436/

The TV show is pretty good too!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the book Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton. An amazing book by a Wild Weasel pilot who flew the F-16CJ. Although it is packed full of information from how one becomes a pilot in the Air Force, the Wild Weasel mission, to fighter pilot culture, it reads just like a novel. The audiobook is also excellent - the recitation of some of the comms on the 1st night of the Gulf War is alone worth the price of admission. I can't recommend either highly enough.

While looking up the book again, I discovered that the author also released a new book, The Hunter Killers, last year about the original Wild Weasels in Vietnam. I obviously have not read it yet, but I bet it is excellent if you want to dive into the history of the mission.

Yeah it's pretty good.

Here's the Rolling Stone article by Evan Wright that started it all.

Here's the book Wright wrote.

FYI, the guy that plays Rudy, is the actual Rudy in real life. Other core members of the story also worked as consultants on the TV series. There was also some controversy later as several other people involved wrote of their own experiences and points of view.

I suggest reading One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer; it's an autobiography that gives a lot of insight into the sort of path you want to take, as well as the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions (the author is the Lt. Fick depicted in Generation Kill). Someone who is actually in the military would be able to better vouch for the accuracy of the book, but my impression is that it's a pretty solid account.

Thanks so much for doing this. Though [this comment] (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/yp545/im_kim_barker_a_campaign_finance_reporter_at/c5xlcnv) paints a pretty bleak picture about our efforts to halt unlimited fundraising, I'd really like to know what is realistically within the reach of private citizens. What can we redditors do to affect transparency within our districts? In another vein, why isn't free political advertising a condition of broadcasting licenses?

And I'll admit that I am much more familiar with your work through having read your book (The Taliban Shuffle, which everyone should read) and some of your correspondence pieces with the Chicago Tribune. Are there any unexpected ways that those two bodies of knowledge have overlapped?

Marine Sniper. This is a classic book about Carlos Hathcock, a Marine who served in Vietnam and for many years (1967 to 2002) held the world record longest confirmed sniper kill. There are several famous encounters, including a multi-day stalk through exposed terrain to kill a Vietnamese general, the time he and his spotter pinned down an entire NVA battalion, the time he was being hunted by a counter-sniper and shot the guy through his scope (probably inspiring the similar scene in Saving Private Ryan), and the record-breaking long range shot itself with a .50 cal M2 machine gun modified for single shot and using a scope mounting system of his own design.

For a more modern take, I recently read Sniper One and thought it was pretty good. It's by British Army Sgt Dan Mills, about his tour in Iraq in 2004. I thought it was interesting to see the perspective of a modern sniper in a completely different environment.

And for what I think is the best fictional book I've read about sniping, check out Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. Don't confuse it with the movie "Shooter" staring Marky Mark; the book is actually quite good. The descriptions of long range shooting are excellent, and have matched up well to my own (admittedly limited, strictly at the shooting range) experiences.

No worries, man. Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were both major studs that disobeyed orders to do the right thing... Saving dozens of lives. May they rest in peace... Anyways I recommend everyone to check out Jocko's book called Extreme Ownership. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1250067057/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1464285041&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=extreme+ownership&dpPl=1&dpID=41cmM6UedGL&ref=plSrch

It is a great read and I got a LOT out of it. The podcasts where he was a guest on the Joe Rogan show and on the Tim Ferriss show are also definitely worth checking out. He has his own podcast now too and so far I've also gotten a lot of value from that as well.

I want this man to become President someday. Cannot speak highly enough about him. His experience and leadership... And perspective, is quite humbling to say the least.

If you liked American Sniper (which is honestly mediocre in terms of story telling and book flow) then I suggest Outlaw Platoon. It is written by an infantry platoon commander about his units tour of duty in Afghanistan. Its action packed and well written, so you get a great story along with the combat.

http://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Platoon-Renegades-Brotherhood-Afghanistan/dp/0062066404

Yeah.

​

Not going to lie, I didn't really read a whole lot but the title says it all and /u/cyanocobalamin sums it up.

​

Circumstances suck but happiness is really condensed to taking ownership of those circumstances. Sometimes things are beyond our control but overall they are a byproduct of what situations we allow ourselves to get into.

​

I recently read a book called Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink. It's about how you pretty much need to take responsibility for everything in your life even when you think it has nothing to do with you. I'm also reading Everything is Fucked: A Book About Hope - Mark Manson right now. I'm about 4 chapters in and it talks a lot about having something to really believe in even though everything in the world is fucked.

​

1. Find something to research that excites you and makes you money if you want to keep going.
   
2. Relationships come and go. Someone worth keeping will be patient with you and understand that you're working hard to build a sustainable lifestyle.
   
3. You can really do whatever the hell you want my friend, you just have to accept the consequences of whatever you do, good or bad.
   
   Don't overthink it. Things are only as good as you let them appear to be.
   
   ​
   
   Comparison is the thief of joy, but it is also a humbling endeavour.

And centipedes, I'd like to plug Jocko's book Extreme Ownership. I HIGHLY recommend it to all centipedes. Excellent lessons on leadership, toughness, self reliance, and taking ownership in life and business.

Are you looking for pulse pounding, believable-but-still-inventive enough, hardcore mercenary action? Well look no further.

Direct Action - Written by a former Ranger/SF guy, this is the first in a set of (so far) 3 books featuring Deckard as the main character. Deckard is a former SF and CIA SAD guy who ends up getting contracted by a shady cabal to form a PMC for them to use in their attempt to bring about a NWO. He says "fuck that." This is honestly some of the best in the genre of military fiction. Written by a dude who has been there and done that, it's well written and believable enough, and the action...gritty, hardcore, doorkicking, operating action. It does not stop once it starts, and neither do the sequels, Target Deck and Direct Action. They're a blast to read and I can't recommend them enough.

Task Force Desperate - America's dollar has collapsed. The military is incredibly underfunded and no longer has the ability to project power. This all comes to a head when an American military base in Djibouti is attacked and taken over. With the US no longer able to respond to events such as these, Jeff's PMC, Praetorians, are contracted to handle the situation. The guy that wrote it is a former Recon Marine, so similar to Jack Murphy, he's been there, done that, and it shows. If you want hardcore action, this is another solid book for you. The plot is a bit out there, but hey, fuck it, it's fun.

Moving away from fiction...

Level Zero Heroes - Written by one of the first MARSOC dudes that went into Afghanistan when MARSOC was first stood up. He's his MSOC's forward air controller, and it's just a pretty cool and interesting look into the special operations world from a new (at the time) SOF unit.

Horse Soldiers - About the first ODA that went into Afghanistan within weeks of 9/11. They worked really closely with CIA SAD, and it's an incredibly interesting write up on what these guys managed to do in incredibly austere conditions. They rolled around the country on horseback. That's bad ass.

First In - Similar to Horse Soldiers, but written by one of the CIA paramilitary officers that coordinated with the Northern Alliance and the SF ODAs when they first came in country. A bit dry, but if you're interested in this sort of thing, it's one of the best (and only, from its perspective) accounts of the early parts of the Global War On Terror.

Now for some non military stuff.

Dune - The best sci-fi novel ever written, bar none. It has political intrigue, an oppressed people against an overwhelmingly larger force, oh, and giant sandworms. It's hard to describe just how rich the world of Dune is in a simple paragraph, so I won't even try. If you're into sci-fi and you haven't read Dune, you owe it to yourself. You're in for a treat.

The Road - The bleakest thing I've ever read. It takes place after some type of apocalyptic event in the US (which is never detailed), and is the story of a father and his young son attempting to survive in the wasteland amongst cannibals that keep their "livestock," chained in a basement, roving bands of marauders, and other horrors. It's written in an incredibly minimalist style which adds to the tone and atmosphere so much. If you want something heavy, this is your book.

I'll probably add more but here are my recommendations for now.

Start with these two:
https://www.amazon.com/Afghanistan-Graveyard-Empires-History-Borderland/dp/1605981893/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1496177236&sr=8-5
https://www.amazon.com/Forever-War-Dexter-Filkins/dp/0307279448/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1496177260&sr=8-3

Read this one to understand America's behavior: https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Great-Power-Politics-Updated/dp/0393349276/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496177330&sr=8-1

Update with a simple read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2015%E2%80%93present)

End with this: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Latest-Longest-War-Afghanistan/dp/022626565X (on my kindle TBR list, but it's gotten good reviews from reputable publications, which is key when reading any sort of history, unless you're interested in becoming one of those looney right-wingers or bat-shit lefties).

The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander by Pete Blaber

>As a commander of Delta Force-the most elite counter-terrorist organization in the world-Pete Blaber took part in some of the most dangerous, controversial, and significant military and political events of our time. Now he takes his intimate knowledge of warfare-and the heart, mind, and spirit it takes to win-and moves his focus from the combat zone to civilian life.

>As the smoke clears from exciting stories about neverbefore-revealed top-secret missions that were executed all over the globe, readers will emerge wiser, more capable, and more ready for life's personal victories than they ever thought possible.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0425236579/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=81L6TNMLAXFN&coliid=IBUHZCVGIWB98

Critical thinking, small unit leadership,

They didn't "come to America," but yes of course the conflict between the United States and the Islamic world started before the events you outlined. I'll outline the relevant points as summarily as I can. For brevity, I will include history only related to the United States and not broader Western civilization. The case of the United States is salient and representative.

History of Islam: Muhammad to 1776

Muhammad first began teaching among Pagan Arabs who were more or less friendly until he began to teach that there is only one God and all other religions' followers shall burn in hell. When they began to threaten him and his people, he fled to Mecca and Medina, subsequently taking over the western half of Saudi Arabia along with the eastern tip (Oman). Almost all secular scholars of the Qur'an agree that it is as much a political guidebook (how to run a society) as a religious text (how to be a good person). Upon his death in 632, his followers interpreted the book as they did, and a system of Caliphates began to rule the Islamic world. By 661, all of what we call the Middle East and northeastern Africa was under the Caliphate. By the 8th century, the Caliphate had extended to include land from Spain to Pakistan. This was unsustainable militarily (given few people liked being ruled under Islamic law), so it was pulled back. The Turkish peoples were to become the new military force of the Caliphate, and took Constantinople just before Columbus "found" the "New World." When the United States declared independence, Abdul Hamid I was sultan, with even Baghdad under his rule (that article makes him sound friendlier than he actually was -- he was compelled to sign treaties after military defeats).

Barbary Slaves and Pirating

Before the United States had first elected Washington as President, the Congress found itself at odds with the Caliphate controlled lands. At this time, the Muslim world was taking Europeans and Americans as slaves, estimates are that as many as 1.25 million slaves were taken from the Western world (source: Robert Davis). John Adams, America's London ambassador, was sent to the Tripoli ambassador to discuss the matter, and was met with a demand of money for various levels of peace. Terms were set for the release of slaves, short term peace, and even a price for long term peace. The United States argued that it was a new nation. If their military had previously quarreled with Europe, that was of no concern to the United States. Could not peace with a new nation be had?

When Jefferson took the Presidency in 1801, he was immediately met with a demand of $4,000,000 (adjusted for inflation but not %GDP or federal budget) to be paid to the Muslim lands. Jefferson demanded repeatedly to know by what right these demands were made. By what right did they capture Americans as slaves, seize her ships, take her property, and demand payment in exchange?

> The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners.

Thomas Jefferson to Congress and the State Department

Barbary Wars to Usama bin Laden

President Jefferson found himself in the fortunate position of having a capable Navy that he, ironically enough, had fought against funding before being elected. With it, he began the first conflict between the United States and the Caliphate. The second line of the Marine Anthem (To the shores of Tripoli) celebrates the result even today. Congress authorized Jefferson to use the full might of the United States Navy to suppress the military aggression, with permission to seize and destroy property as the Navy was able. The language was quite strong and general.

The modern Islamic revival that began in the 1970s has seen a large surge in the total Muslim population, which we must admit is in some sense responsible for the recent surge of the lower jihad as well (this being the military jihad as opposed to the higher jihad meaning an inner struggle). Al Qaeda's number one demand was restoration of the Caliphate. The crime for which America has been subject to the violence from the radical Islamists was committed after approval by the Saudi royal family to use American troops to free Kuwait from Iraq rather than using their own, limited resources and relying heavily on the local mujahidin. In other words, Usama bin Laden was angry with America because he thought that local insurgents could fight Saddam the same way they had in Afghanistan against the Soviets rather than relying on smart bombs to do the same. (He forgot, or perhaps never knew, that Afghanistan was liberated only through American assistance. People who assert the unsophisticated non-distinction between Al Qaeda and the Taliban forget this. America gave aid to the Taliban, not The Base.)

Also central to crimes committed by the United States in Bin Laden's mind was our admission that we had begun to support the right of East Timor to self determination of government. Here is one of his first speeches after the 2001 attacks.. Ctrl+f "east timor" to see that his complaint is that the Caliphate's maximum extent is no longer in effect, with the world recognizing that the military devastation committed by Indonesia was invalid.

Specific Points: Iran in WWII, The Taliban, Gulf War vs. bin Laden, and Diplomacy

So, yes, the Barbary wars happened before the Iranian coup. Keep in mind also that 1953 is also after 1945 when Nazi Germany surrendered. At that time, Iran was already under the full control of Britain and Russia (mostly the British), essentially a colony like India was. This invasion was necessary because Reza Shah was attempting to play neutral while supplying the Nazi war machine with crude oil necessary for its logistical world domination. "Iran" in Persian means "The Land of the Aryans," which Persia abruptly changed its name to in 1935, just as it was becoming friendly toward the Germans. After the war was over, Britain had a number of privately owned fields, purchased legally from the owners of the land. When Iran elected Mosaddegh to nationalize the oilfields, they did so illegally. Their country or not, the heart of libertarianism is the right to free exchange and free markets. Unless you agree that the United States can simply seize the property of any foreign corporation who operates in any way through the United States, you cannot support the right of anyone, anywhere to loot by law. The course of action taken by the West was perhaps morally wrong. But it was in response to a moral wrong, not the initiation of one. I find that very few internet historians know the history of Iran before 1953. This has always seemed odd to me -- where are you all getting your similarly edited information?

The military bases in Islamic lands were widely supported at the time by both governments and peoples. They still celebrate it as a national day of pride. Again, bin Laden considers this the great evil of America because he wanted the local mujahidin to fight Saddam rather than bringing in any Western aid. You may freely be against the Gulf War, but you cannot rationalize that the intervention was innately immoral since the United States determined that losing control of the Kuwait and Saudi oilfields would have been damaging to her interests. In other words, the United States did not initiate force but responded to the initiation of force upon a friend.

The United States used the Taliban to fight the Soviet Empire. I fail to see this as a moral evil.

The United States necessarily has diplomatic relations with all countries who are willing, including bad guys. Egyptians and Tunisians far and away have more warm feelings for the United States than ill-feelings. Only with sources such as Russia Today can you attempt to support the notion that we stood between these leaders and their people. The West was crucial to their overthrow, including freezing of their foreign assets.

Recommended Reading

Islamic Radicalism and Global Jihad History of radical Islam and current resurgence. Takes a look at the old scholars and new.

The Looming Tower Everything leading up to 9/11

Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters Details the Barbary coast slave trade

The Trial of Henry Kissinger Outlines US war crimes

Qur'an My English translation.

Instructions for American Servicemen in Iran During World War II Self explanatory.

The Forever War Solidly good book.

The Rape of Kuwait Iraq war crimes in Kuwait


Edits

• Corrected a couple subject-verb agreements.
  
  
• Added section headers.
  
  
• Added recommended reading list.
  
  
• Reworked a paragraph in the last section.

Not specifically tailored to divorce, but were helpful to me in general reorientation of approaches to life:

"Extreme Ownership" by Jocko Willink

"A Guide to the Good Life" by William Irvine

The Taliban Shuffle

http://www.amazon.com/The-Taliban-Shuffle-Afghanistan-Pakistan/dp/030747738X

The romance in this book is amazing.

I read this book a while back. It's got a ton of information about being a good military leader. I highly recommend it if you are interesting in learning some leadership skills.

The Mission, The Men, and Me

Did no one read No Easy Day? It was damn near required reading among 80% of the guys I know the first month it was released. It goes over all this shit in incredible detail.
I'll leave the moral judgement to his community; the book is fantastic.
Clarification: the book was not written by O'Neill, but describes, in great detail, the team's perspective on the operations listed by OP.

If you found these helpful, I'd definitely recommend checking out the source. I'm mostly parroting what Jocko's described or explained in his book/podcasts.

https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057

Band of Brothers and Generation Kill were both good books that made for great mini series, I'd check them out.

The Billion Dollar Spy is a fascinating story of how the CIA ran a Soviet spy while he was working at an advanced radar facility. It is estimated that the intelligence he passed to America ended up being worth nearly one billion dollars.

First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror is about the first Americans to land in Afghanistan in the weeks after 9/11

The Code Breakers One of the most comprehensive anthologies on all forms of cryptology of the past 5,000 years.

They admitted to DNA testing from the get go, it was also mentioned in the books No Easy Day and No Easy Op, also mentioned in the movie Zero Dark Thirty.

Looking at other options after the corporate world. I was surprised at the number of Ivy league graduates in the US military (check out http://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436, great read).

I get the whole IBD circlejerk, but there are definitely a host of options after HBA, or down the road as an aspect of your career.

The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell

> A tremendous book ... incredibly gripping and incredibly well-written... It's a remarkable story... I urge everyone to go...grab it. -- Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Its a very short, very illuminating insight into one soldier's experience in Iraq.

EDIT: Fixed link

I enjoyed it. From what I've heard, it's pretty accurate. However, I did prefer Nathan Fick's One Bullet Away.

In Viper Pilot Dan Hampton talks about his time in the air directly after 9/11. He does a good job conveying how much confusion there was. He was actually given the green light from the ground to take out a SEAL team helicopter. Luckily he stayed cool and called everyone off before that chopper was downed.

OP, here's a book you may enjoy and benefit from: https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486323161&sr=8-1&keywords=extreme+ownership

It's a miniseries by HBO IMDb here it based on a real story about a Rolling Stone Magazine reporter who goes with the First Reconnaissance Battalion of the US Marines while they invade Iraq.

And it is one of my favourite TV series. I hope you have fun watching it.

Check out the Commandant's Reading list recommendations for Officer Candidates. I'd add One Bullet Away and What it's Like to go to War to that list as well.

How is your general knowledge? Do you know all of your Troop Leading Steps, Leadership Traits, General Orders, and Operational Order sub-paragraphs?

Chris Kyle goes into some detail about his training in his book .

Basically its constant running, swimming and push ups. Endurance cardio seems to be far more important than strength and quick recovery is crucial.

This. And Afghanistan has been the SEALs playground for awhile.

2 great books by Delta Os, BTW:

Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man

The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander

Mark Hunt: Born to fight

Forrest Griffin: Got Fight?, Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down

John McCarthy: Let's Get It On!

Stich Duran: From the Fields to the Garden

Chuck Liddell: Iceman

John Kavanagh: Win or Learn

Brian Stann: Heart for the Fight

Chael Sonnen: The Voice of Reason

Bruce Buffer: It's Time!: My 360-Degree View of the UFC

GSP: The Way of the Fight

Jeremy Stephens: Who the fook is that guy?!

Viper Pilot is a great read about the Wild Weasels. http://www.amazon.com/Viper-Pilot-Memoir-Air-Combat/dp/006213034X

This guy did it, then led an Infantry platoon in Afghanistan, and wrote a pretty solid book.

I'm nearly sure I read a book by a sniper from the Princess of Wales regiment, or something like that. That said, I don't claim to be an expert. I was just floating the possibility.

edit link to book's page on publisher's site https://www.amazon.com/Sniper-One-Scope-Under-Siege/dp/0312542429

try outlaw platoon. awesome and very challenging read. Parnell pulls no punches.

http://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Platoon-Renegades-Brotherhood-Afghanistan/dp/0062066404

• Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
  
  
• Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda.
  
  
• No True Glory.
  
  
• The Volunteer.
  
  
• Invisible Armies.
  
  
• One Bullet Away.
  
  
• War of the Flea.
  
  
  Also, most senior officers put out public reading lists every year - so you might try searching that way too.

> From personal experience military intelligence is an oxymoron.

Unfortunately, anecdotally this is too true for most military's. Information in the modern world changes so rapidly that the military bureaucracy and chain of command tend's to do nothing more then to just slow down the rate at which accurate info is provided to front line troops.

A great example is in the now famous Generation Kill and One Bullet Away. The unit is constantly supplied with FRAGO's and new mission objectives based on faulty and outdated information that time and time again places them in ambushes, traps, and situations where the only reason they leave alive is because of the ineptitude of the enemy, not their own skill.

Do you recall which one it was?

These are some of my favorites...

https://smile.amazon.com/Magnum-Weasels-Desert-Elimination-Defence-ebook/dp/B005D7FLL8/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517679129&sr=1-3&keywords=wild+weasel

https://smile.amazon.com/F-105-Wild-Weasel-SA-2-Guideline-ebook/dp/B01BY34K9I/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517679129&sr=1-12&keywords=wild+weasel

https://smile.amazon.com/Viper-Pilot-Memoir-Air-Combat/dp/006213034X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=006213034X&pd_rd_r=8WMAQ52QBK32SPHVQN6S&pd_rd_w=p2r2i&pd_rd_wg=efvEa&psc=1&refRID=8WMAQ52QBK32SPHVQN6S

and this one is on my wish list...

https://smile.amazon.com/Hunter-Killers-Extraordinary-Maverick-Dangerous/dp/0062375121/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0062375121&pd_rd_r=0MV8ENFG0Q747QE4WRAJ&pd_rd_w=d7Byq&pd_rd_wg=NA79Y&psc=1&refRID=0MV8ENFG0Q747QE4WRAJ

That's just based off of a highly regarded book I enjoyed:


The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander

Into the Fire is a good book, I recommend Generation Kill as well if you haven't read it, I liked it more than the HBO miniseries.

It's actually from the title of the book the series is based on, which is surprisingly as nonpolitical as possible. It's a rather good read, if you've got the time. It's simply a first hand account of the author when he was embedded with one of the first Marine units to enter Iraq. The only social/political commentary in it is from the Marines themselves. In fact the primary focus of the book is the Marines themselves, examining them as real people. Not so much on the war really.

Yes, it's called American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. Amazon are selling a trade paperback for $6.45, and the Kindle version for $4.10.

Great feedback from /u/volci - I would take heed.

Along with that, buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469622981&sr=8-1&keywords=extreme+ownership

Listen to these podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jocko-podcast/id1070322219?mt=2


I usually don't say "buy a book and do X" but these two things have given me more insight on leadership than anything else in my 30 years on earth. I have a management degree that cant hold a candle to this stuff.

If you liked the series read the related books:

https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Kill-Captain-America-American/dp/0425224740

https://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9REQB2ZFA33Y0R7C9F58

Generation Kill. Its an HBO mini-series based on the book by Evan Wright.

I highly recommend it.

Interesting looking book.

https://www.amazon.ca/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057

Viper Pilot: A Memoir of Air Combat

by Dan Hampton

https://www.amazon.com/dp/006213034X

not an English written book but I also like this...

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4871493911

Looks like it's The Taliban Shuffle by Kim Barker.

+1 to the GAP-10. It became one of Chris Kyle (America's most deadly sniper) mentioned in his autobiography that after shooting it after coming back from oversees, he considered it one of his favorite weapons.

At 2,750, it is surprisingly affordable for the level of accuracy.

Check out this vid of a 5" group at 1000 yards.

Mitt was the one who wrote No Easy Day under the pseudonym Mark Owen (obviously because Mark/Mitt, and you owe him more money), and picked Matt Bissonette as his scapegoat! It all makes sense!

Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton is a great read about F-16s on Wild Weasel missions in both Iraq Wars. These guys had balls of steel.

Read Dan Hampton's Viper Pilot: http://www.amazon.com/Viper-Pilot-Memoir-Air-Combat/dp/006213034X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1462823120&sr=8-5&keywords=dan+hampton

Awesome book. 10% of what is written here is folksy bullshit.

Very much so. The reporter was embedded in a truck with a specific Squad Leader. You end up seeing the whole invasion over-the-shoulder of just that Squad Leader. Gen Mattis is just a cameo and the whole US Army doesn't exist except for a brief mention of Jessica Lynch's convoy getting captured. It's a very narrow (albeit uniquely and redeemingly indepth) view of the invasion.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the Platoon Leader, Nathaniel Fick, published his own account if you want to contrast the view from literally just one echelon higher.

https://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436

Don't forget to also read Fick's One Bullet Away.

Generation Kill was written by the embedded Rolling Stone reporter, but One Bullet Away was written by the officer commanding that platoon.

> And I'm actually obese myself, I am not healthy. I own up to that

This is what we lack, as a society; accountability for one's own behaviors. If we owned up to our actions, not even to the degree of Extreme Ownership, we'd be much better off as human beings.

Requisite, The book is amazing.

Check out the book Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton. Story of F-16 Wild Weasels in Iraq in 2000s.

Extreme Ownership

This one or this one?

The Mission, The Men, and Me -Pete Blaber

Bam, hero'd.

his autobiography

It's named after the [autobiography] (http://www.amazon.com/American-Sniper-Autobiography-Military-History/dp/0062238868) he wrote about his experiences.

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer by Nathaniel Fick

One Bullet Away

Not so much an infantry memoir, but the men, the mission, and me is something every leader should read.

[This] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0071NMCKA/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1374966522&sr=8-2&pi=SL75)

D

Avoid treadmills. If you haven't already, read Nate Fick's book 'One bullet away'.
From memory he scored well on the 3 mile run but had to give it 100%.

Maybe there's something to being separated by the Atlantic. I'm not really interested in other American experiences with GWOT, but I read Sniper One to see what some of you guys have been up to over there.

I liked reading Generation Kill too. With that in mind, I would like to add One Bullet Away By Nate Fick.

I read a book called Viper Pilotby a retired wild weasel pilot. They have the latest in countermeasures and are all extremely well trained, he says most of the guys have their masters degree on top of the Air Force level of special forces intensity training. When those guys hear missile lock they react like someone has a gun to their head- they immediately shit pants and evade, evade, evade. Drop everything and pilot like your mother’s life depends on it. It’s terrifying.

After loads of reading on the bus to work every day, here follows my reading list for military aviation:

Modern

• Viper Pilot - memoir of an F-16 Wild Weasel pilot who flew in both Iraq Wars
  
• A Nightmare's Prayer - memoir of a Marine Harrier Pilot flying out of Bagram.
  
• Warthog - Story of the A-10C pilots and their many varied missions in Desert Storm
  
• Hornets over Kuwait - Memoir of a Marine F/A-18 pilot during Desert Storm
  
• Strike Eagle - Story of the brand new F-15C Strike Eagle pilots and their time in Desert Storm
  
  

  Vietnam
  

• The Hunter Killers - look at the very first Wild Weasels, their inception, early development, successes, and failures
  
• Low Level Hell - memoir of an OH-6 Air Cav pilot
  
  

  WWII
  

• Unsung Eagles - various snapshots of the less well-known but arguably more impactful pilots and their missions during WWII (pilot who flew channel rescue in a P-47, morale demonstration pilot, etc.)
  
• Stuka Pilot - memoir of the most prolific aviator of Nazi Germany (and an unapologetic Nazi) who killed hundreds of tanks with his cannon-armed Stuka
  
• The First Team - more academic historical look at the first US Naval Aviators in WWII
  
  
  

  Overall/Other
  

• Skunk Works - memoir of Ben Rich, head of Lockeed's top secret internal firm and his time working on the U-2, SR-71, and F-117 including anecdotes from pilots of all 3 and accounts of these remarkable planes' exploits.
  
• Lords of the Sky - ambitious attempt to chronicle the rise and evolution of the "fighter pilot" from WWI to the modern day
  
• Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs - the story of the long-top secret group of pilots who evaluated and flew captured Soviet aircraft against US pilots to train them against these unknown foes.
  
• Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage - story of the US submarine fleet starting at the outbreak of the Cold War and their exploits
  
  
  
  

  Bonus non-military aviation
  

  I highly second the recommendations of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Diamond Age. I would also recommend:
  
  

• Neuromancer - defined the cyberpunk genre
  
• Ghost in the Wires - memoir of prolific hacker Kevin Mitnick
  
• Starship Troopers - nothing like the movie
  
• The Martian - fantastic read
  
• Heir to the Empire - first of the Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy and the book that arguably sparked the growth of the Extended Universe of Star Wars
  
• Devil in the White City - semi-fictional (mostly non-fiction) account of a serial killer who created an entire palace to capture and kill his prey during the Chicago World's Fair
  
• Good Omens - dark comedy story of a demon and an angel trying to stop the end of the world because they like us too much
  
• American Gods - fantastic story about how the old gods still walk among us
  
• Dune - just read it
  

Also a vet:

If you want to at least get an idea of what these wars have been like..I suggest you read The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-True-Story-Ever-Tell/dp/157322314X

Since you asked, I read a book on the raid, and I recommend you read up too before spouting bullshit. It's public information, that's how I know.

The bestselling book: http://www.amazon.com/No-Easy-Day-Autobiography-Firsthand/dp/0525953728/ref=la_B0099F6QS2_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395642062&sr=1-1

I find it hilarious that your only rebuttal to my arguments is that I am employed by the government; even if I was, your arguments have no merit, and my points have yet to be refuted.

Eh the Pk would probably be extraordinarily low. Even the actual HARMs that we love in our flight sims are, by every pilot account I've ever read, absolutely useless. The actual Wild Weasels, the F-16CJ's, those guys prefer to carry CBU's to ensure that SAMs are actual dead, as opposed to a missile that most of the time will not hit it's desired target.

Check out Dan Hampton's "Viper Pilot"...it is an excellent first hand account of performing the Wild Weasel role in both conflicts in Iraq. Very interesting info in there!

I read this for the first time today, in this book. Weird coincidence...

Highly recommend the book by the way, it's written by the Lieutenant from the TV series Generation Kill.

This is starting to make sense. You aren't willing to hold Baker more accountable for his poor play in much the same way that you refuse to hold yourself accountable for your own poor spelling and grammar.

You say that Baker's focus can't be taken away by external factors like his tweeting and at the end of the day he is just a bad QB.

At the same time, your grammar and spelling can't be controlled by you because it's an autocorrect problem.

I am reading a book right now I think might benefit you, cheers!

I have a few books collecting dust if you're interested...

Hunting the Jackal
http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Jackal-Soldiers-Frontlines-Terrorism/dp/0060564105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293764592&sr=8-1

Brotherhood of Warriors
http://www.amazon.com/Brotherhood-Warriors-Behind-Commando-Counterterrorism/dp/0061236160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1293764614&sr=1-1

Generation Kill
http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Kill-Evan-Wright/dp/0425224740/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293764637&sr=1-1

Legion of the Lost
http://www.amazon.com/Legion-Lost-Experience-American-Foreign/dp/0425210154/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293764668&sr=1-1

I'll mail em to you if you want em... I didn't participate in the secret santa so think of it as a late gift. Let me know if you want any of em.

Push to/Battle of Badhdad: Generation Kill (The book), written by a reporter assigned to Marine Recon: https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Kill-Captain-America-American/dp/0425224740

Definitely Generation Kill, to look into the dynamics of modern war. It's a seriously good, impartial, truthful and entertaining account of the first stages of the second Iraq war seen from the eyes of a battalion of first recon marines. Very well written, too.

War Nerd. Gary Brecher is a tongue-in-cheek military amateur analyst. His views on modern and past warfare are very lucid, albeit controversial and leftfield. His writing style is pretty original, kinda like the Hunter Thompson of war pundits. A backlog of his articles is also available online.

Making A Killing. It's the first person account of a British private security contractor in Iraq. I was expecting the worst when I read it, but it's actually very well written, informative and entertaining. Some of the lingo and drills described in the book actually helped me understand a lot of these videos.

Das Boot is my favourite war book, and it's an embedded reporter's account of a year in a german U-boat during the second world war.

If you liked Generation Kill, read the book "One Bullet Away" written by Nathaniel Fick who was one of the officers covered by Generation Kill (which was started from a Rolling Stone article written by Evan Wright.)

1. CIA drone strikes: 4000 killed over 10 years.
   
   Civilian casualties Iraq over 10 years: No less than 200 000
   
   Civilian casualties Afghanistan over 10 years: No less than 60 000
   
   
2. I'm assuming those military officers are stupid based on the number of people they shot. Here's >0 evidence.
   
   
3. Having served in Iraq you should know the National Guard is not controlled by the President. Nor is local police departments; and contrary to what you desire to believe the FBI and DHS are micromanaged by the President.
   
   
4. Having taken accounting in school, I can tell you being an armchair economist just makes you look stupid.
   
   Regardless of what merit Obama may have or may lack, you do not speak the truth.
   
   Judging by your unsupportable opinions I'm going to say whatever Confederate state you hail from is a greater threat to your liberty than the federal government.

Even Wright, an embedded combat reporter during Operation Iraqi Freedom and author of Generation Kill brandished a rifle while on patrol at the request of the marines he was riding with.

It is mentioned in a Huffington Post interview:

>Did you feel useless because you couldn't fire a gun?

EW: On a human level it would have been really exciting to shoot a gun over there. I can hit a target with a rifle generally but that very different from what they do.
There's one moment that's not in the show where they handed me a weapon in the vehicle. We were rolling through a sketchy town. Everyone was like, "You're occupying a seat; you're useless, take a gun." The enormity of the responsibility you have -- it sounds corny here back home -- but if you're really out there with these Marines and you're holding a weapon ... I was like, what if I hear an engine backfire and I pull the trigger? It wasn't [so much the fear] that I'd kill an innocent Iraqi -- that was a problem -- but if I fuck up, I'll get kicked out of the embed. That was my practical reason. When Geraldo was in Afghanistan and he was like, "I'm packing a .45," I was like, "C'mon dude."

I read his book and if I remember correctly it was a short lived occurrence as the author did not maintain proper gun discipline. He unintentionally swept the barrel of the rifle at the marines which is a big no no. The author never fired a weapon while embedded, but I don't recall if the gun was loaded or not. I don't think that it was.