Nathanial Fick: One Bullet Away pre-reading exercise
Pair work
Nathaniel Fick and his platoon entered Iraq with no clear idea of their mission. The excerpt you are to read from his memoir, One Bullet Away begins with the statement “Our mission kept changing”, which he repeats several times during the text.
Imagine you are a platoon leader entering a war with no clear idea of the mission, and witness ever changing missions during your time there.
• What thoughts spring to mind?
• How would you feel?
• What would you tell your troops?
• How do you keep up their morale?
Jot down key words that spring to mind, and then discuss them with your partner.
One Bullet Away Ch. 23
1. The text begins with “Our mission kept changing”. What effect does the continuous change in mission have on the American Soldiers?
2. Describe Fick’s first impression upon the sight of Iraqi soldiers
3. To what extent does he see them as victims?
4. Fick wants to avoid taking prisoners. Why?
5. What is the role of the Recon?
6. Describe a humrat (humanitarian ration)
7. What do the American propaganda leaflets promise, and why are these soldiers so interested in showing Fick and his company the leaflets?
8. Do the Iraqi solders strike you as being pro-Saddam Hussein?
9. Describe the problems the American soldiers come across when trying to work out the strategy of the Iraqi soldiers.
10. Describe Fick’s thoughts as he watches Casevac (Casualty Evacuation) helicopters flying above.
11. Fick describes himself as a “cog in the machine”. What does he mean by that? Is it a negative or a positive thing?
12. “I thought of war stories that talked about hyperclarity in combat, seeing every blade of grass and feeling colors more intensely than ever before. But for me, whole city blocks faded into a gray fuzz.” Explain what Fick means in this quote. Why does he want hyperclarity?
One Bullet Away Ch. 24
1. “My first reaction was to laugh. We had stumbled onto the set of a Vietnam War movie…I half-expected the notes of “Fortunate Son” to come drifting through the trees.” Explain Fick’s experience at this point. Why would he, as a highly professional US Soldier, see his experience through the filter of war-films?
2. How does Fick feel when planning how to evacuate casualties?
3. “Sometimes, in mid-firefight, I would see Marines laughing mechanically” Explain why Marines would laugh in the middle of life threatening situations. What does this say about how we deal with potentially traumatic experiences?
4. Why is Fick denied permission to move 100 meters backward or forward? Although he does not say anything directly, what does Fick seem to make of the denial?
5. How do the marines feel when driving past the corpses of other marines?
6. One Iraqi is nicknamed “tomato crate man” because he has been squashed by dozens of tracked vehicles. What do you think of this choice of words?
7. Comment on the following quote: “Even if they died, they would enter heaven as martyrs to live in eternity with their thirty-nine virgins. It probably sounded like a pretty good plan until they saw a column of Marines stop in front of them.” What does it say about how the Iraqis are persuaded to fight? What does it say about the Western/American view on the Iraqis?
8. In between descriptions of the battlefield, there are also descriptions of the culture Fick meets. For instance, of the Shia way of life. What do these glimpses of humanity say about the American soldiers?
One Bullet Away Ch. 25
1. ”I was a passive observer watching this ambush unfold on a movie screen.” Why does Fick feel so detached, and why is a movie screen the first thing that comes to mind?
2. Explain what Fick means when he says “Survival and command tugged me in different directions.” What does this say about how marine training helps in battle?
3. Describe Fick’s thoughts as he starts shooting. How is his training put to the test?
4. Why does Fick give us a description of his mercy killing of a chipmunk?
5. Explain how and why hyperclarity finally kicks in for Fick.
6. Explain Fick’s thoughts as he passes RCT-1’s.
7. Explain the importance of telling and retelling the events after battle according to Fick.
8. What does Fick mean when he says “Platoons have institutional memory”?
9. “That was my memory, my accepted truth of what had happened.” In what ways does Fick show us that his story is only one version of the truth?
10. What does Fick’s interpretation of the relative truth of his own story tell us about eyewitness accounts of war in general?
11. There is a brief mention of the journalist Evan Wright, whose version of the experience appears as the next text in this book. How does he come across?
Evan Wright: Generation Kill Ch. 19
1. Describe the situation as we read about it in the first paragraph.
2. What is the situation like for the Marines of First Recon Battalion?
3. Define the genre(s) of the text.
4. Are there any elements that do not fit into the conventions of the genre?
5. According to Evan Wright, Fick has promised, “clarity of purpose was on its way.” Does that fit what we know from Fick’s own memoir, One Bullet Away?
6. Comment on the following quote: “We’re Pavlov’s dogs. They condition us through rules, through repeatedly doing things that have no purpose.” What does this say about the condition of being in the armed forces?
7. Comment on the following nicknames: the Coward of Khafji, Encino Man, Captain America. Who are given such nicknames and why?
8. How are the people in charge generally described?
9. How are the Marines generally described?
10. What do we learn about the background of the various Marines?• Espera• Trombley• Colbert• Doc Bryan• Carazelas• Person
11. Are they the kind of person you would expect to be Marines? Why/Why not?
12. Does Evan Wright sympathise with the Marines?
13. How does Evan Wright experience the situation, and how does his experience differ from that of the Marines?
14. List any absurdities you find in this chapter.
15. How do the Marines generally deal with the absurd nature of war?
Generation Kill Ch. 21
1. Describe the setting in this chapter
2. How is Fick described in the beginning of the chapter?
3. Comment on the Marines’ sense of isolation. • Why do they feel isolated? • How do they deal with that feeling?
4. Describe the problems Marines might face when operating a roadblock
5. How well do you think the Marines handle the situation?
6. What would you do in their situation?
7. Comment on the following quote: “Under the ROE (rules of engagement), a vehicle that fails to stop at a roadblock is declared hostile, and everyone in it may justifiably be shot.”
8. We are told just after this quote that the Marines seem to deliberately fail to hit an oncoming vehicle. What does this say about them as people?
9. Describe Hasser’s frustration as his weapon jams.
10. Hasser’s weapon has jammed because he does not have the necessary lubricant due to a supplies failure. Do you find any other examples of incompetence in this chapter?
11. Espera seems particularly affected by the killings he has participated in, stating, “Dog, whatever last shred of humanity I had before I came here, it’s gone.” Why is a trained Marine so affected? How might this incident haunt him when he returns home from war?
12. Why do the Marines start to laugh? Do they genuinely find the situation amusing?
13. Describe what Graves goes through as he finds the small girl in the back of the car.”
14. Graves states that, “This is the event that is going to get to me when I go home.” How can he learn to live with this situation?
15. Does Graves act in the right way? He has obeyed their rules of engagement. Why does he still feel a strong sense of guilt?
16. A young Marine, Jeschke, states that, “War is either glamorized—like we kick their ass—or the opposite— look how horrible, we kill all these civilians…After Graves and I went up to that dead girl, I was surprised, because honestly, I was indifferent. It’s kind of disturbed me. Now, sometimes, I think, “Am I a bad person for feeling nothing?’” Describe his reaction. Do you understand it, or do you find him unsympathetic?
17. Wright notes that “After this shooting and the others like it, Marines deal with the stress through black humor”. Why do they use humour in situations like this?
Generation Kill: Excerpt from the afterword
1. Describe the difference between Wright and Fick in their perception of the Iraq war.
2. Who is most critical and why?
3. Why is Fick so disturbed by the fact that Bush was behind bulletproof glass?
4. As Wright puts it, “Fick would eloquently work out his demons, while preserving his conservative instincts and his love of the Corps in his memoir of duty. One Bullet Away.”
- What is he saying here about Fick?
- Why did Fick need to write a memoir?
5. What is Espera’s world view as described by Wright when Espera visits him?
6. Why does he want to go back to war?
7. What is life now like for the double amputee, Eddie Wright?
8. Why does he want to go back to war?
9. Do you think this is a typical reaction?
10. Describe Wright’s reaction, “I understood then. He just wanted to go back to Iraq and relive that one moment again, but this time get it right. That’s the plot, by the way, of Groundhog Day.” Why is getting it right so important to the Marines, since they cannot change the past anyway?
11. Comment on the following quote, “Most of the people who return that I know are motivated by a sense of duty.” How does it differ from the common perception given in the media?
12. Describe the meeting between Person and the actors involved in the television production of Generation Kill?
- How do they experience him?
- How does he experience them?
- Is it understandable that actors may acquire PTSD?
Post reading One Bullet Away and Generation Kill
1. Make a list of differences and similarities between the two texts
2. Which of the two gives the most accurate account?
3. Is it possible to decide which is most truthful? Why/Why not?
