My review of "Once A Marine: An Iraq War Tank Commander's Inspirational Memoir of Combat, Courage and Recovery" by Nick Popaditch with Mike Steere was published in today's edition of The Birmingham News.
This was one of those books that made me wish I had more column space. In all, readers get a clear view of Marines - the training, the values, the reasons why someone would join. He makes it *understandable*, even to those people who have no family members in the service.
Anyway, Popaditch was wounded in Fallujah. He writes:
"'After the ssst, the whole world goes blinding white like I'm inside a camera flash," Popaditch writes. "Then comes total darkness and a horrible electric-sounding hum in my ears. ... The RPG -- a four-pound missile going 300 miles an hour, more or less -- hit and blew up on my helmet.'"
