For more information:
Callie R. Oettinger, callie@o-a-inc.com
Ph: 703-451-2476, Fax: 703-451-6870

ONE BULLET AWAY
Surviving Leadership, Duty, and War

In the end, it was about survival and loyalty to our fellow Marines.

We wanted to help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Otherwise, what was the point of being there?

But when we fought, we did it for each other.

--Nathaniel Fick, former captain, First Reconnaissance Battalion, USMC

Nathaniel Fick was an Ivy League classics major who was more interested in living the experiences of the ancient Spartans he studied than in joining fellow classmates with six-figure Wall Street jobs.

By the time he was twenty-four years old, he had graduated from Dartmouth, joined the Marine Corps' Reconnaissance Battalion--for which only one Marine in a hundred qualifies--and commanded a special operations platoon during Operation Iraqi Freedom and an infantry platoon during Operation Enduring Freedom.

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer is Fick's memoir of his graduation from war. Iraq and Afghanistan are the severest schools, where lessons come in the form of ambushes, accidental deaths, and inadequate support.

Fick discloses the heroics and the horrors. Harrowing ambushes teach him how to survive. Injured children test his ability to decide who should be saved. Poor decisions made by some officers, and the unbending code of honor observed by others, teach him about leadership.

Fick's political stance--prowar or antiwar--didn't matter. When he volunteered to be a Marine, Fick pledged that he would defend America to the best of his ability.

During his time at war, Fick

• participated in the first large ground invasion of Afghanistan, only weeks after 9/11
• encountered the first serious Iraqi resistance in Nasiriyah on what became the Marine Corps' bloodiest day of the war
• battled, captured, and killed Taliban and Al Qaeda forces, Syrian jihadists, and soldiers of the Iraqi Republican Guard
• protected civilians, and watched them die
• shot at and saved children
• led sixty-five men to war and returned home with all sixty-five

Fick has already been sought out by national media, from 60 Minutes to the New York Times, to comment on the war in Iraq and the state of the military. He also speaks to such headline issues as

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• recruiting shortfalls
• the draft and the debate over mandatory public service
• friendly fire
• ROTC programs on college campuses
• Arabic language and cultural training
• inadequate protection of Humvees and lack of troop support
• interrogation procedures and prisoner treatment
• checkpoint procedures and protecting civilians
• private security contractors   and the pitfalls of using mercenaries
• relationships among Marines, contractors, and reservists, and their consequences

Fick is currently enrolled in a dual-degree graduate program at the Harvard Business School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He is also the lieutenant featured in Evan Wright's national bestseller, Generation Kill.

A portion of the book's proceeds will be donated to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, dedicated to funding higher education for the children of Marines killed in action.