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Service: A Navy SEAL At War (2012)

by Marcus Luttrell(Favorite Author)

4.28 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0316185361 (ISBN13: 9780316185363)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Little, Brown and Company

review 1: Unfortunately I think the only way you can rally enjoy this book is if you are very patriotic. There is a difference between being proud to be American and blindly consuming any patriotic feed bag book they publish.I have also read Lone Survivor which I gave a full 5 stars because of the amazing story within. However after reading this book I have lost a lot of respect for Luttrell. I am truly thankful for his service and sacrifice, but in this book he just milks the attention to death. He is so elitist and condescending throughout the book that I couldn't even finish the last 48 pages. What I did appreciate was the inside look at the day-to-day of the special operators in Iraq. Some of the stories about interactions with the citizens of Iraq offered a perspective that you... more rarely see on CNN or Fox. No one can deny that the job that SEALs have in combat zones is beyond difficult, but Luttrell turns it around and makes it look like nothing would ever get done without the SEALs. Paying little respect to the Marines and Army units serving in the same area, Luttrell tries to make it out to be that without the SEALs everyone else would have been dead. Of course this is not true. Near the end of the book Luttrell even compares the loss of 22 SEALs to the loss of an aircraft carrier. A devastating loss, yes, but not on the scale of losing an aircraft carrier, not to mention all the personnel on board.I know that the majority of people in the military believe in god, but Luttrell really just slams you with Christianity every chance he gets. He thanks god for the survival of many of his teammates, not to mention his own rescue. Of course the pilots, rangers, berets, marines, soldiers, seamen and countless others had nothing to do with it and it was all only possible through god. He does thank them and mention them by name, but he closes it all with a thanks to god which, to me, completely negates the efforts and sacrifice of so many.Many of the stories he tells about premonitions and knowing something was wrong before getting the call are just not true. Of course, in hindsight we can all say that before finding out bad news we "just knew something was wrong," but his stories and dialogue just don't ring true for me at all. In the end, and I didn't read the end, the book merits two stars. I appreciate that he wrote the book to honor his teammates and all who serve, which is a very admirable thing, and I am grateful to him for his service. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of respect of Luttrell who has fallen in love with his own story. Again, I am grateful for his service and the service of so many others, just disappointed in the man.
review 2: Very informative book, filled with great stories about Luttrell and his Navy Seal brothers: their training, their victories, their defeats, and the women and families back home that make it all possible. From the title and cover I expected something of an essay. Instead, this book tells the story of Luttrell's life, picking up, more or less, where LONE SURVIVOR left off. These life-and-death stories could hardly be any more exciting or dramatic. This book is more episodic than LONE SURVIVOR, of course, and structurally it may lack the unities of time and place that lend such power to that tale. But this book provides a greater sense of the context in which Seals live and work, and it tells the stories of numerous operations, some good, some bad, and a better sense of the day-to-day life in between. Books like this should be required reading for those who despise and misunderstand the American military and its mission and purpose. I wish our nation had one million more men like Luttrell and his brothers. less

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