One Bullet Away : The Making of a Marine Officer Nathaniel C. Fick
I finished this remarkable book last night.

You'll want to read Evan Wright's Generation Kill first - to get a feel for the men under Fick's command, and the life and events they lived in Iraq. Wright's work for Rolling Stone makes him an outstanding teller of these men's tale.

But Fick's story of training as a Marine Officer and then keeping his men alive in battle -- runs a level deeper. Our schools have come to be about softening boys and young men. Fick's account of tempering them has force.