The Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars

Product Information

China's Charm Offensive in Latin America and the Caribbean: A comprehensive Analysis of China's Strategic Communication Strategy Across the Region [Part I: Propaganda and Politics] by Jack D. To be fair one learns an awful lo about life at Sandhurst, about regimental life in general and about the culture junior officers are socialised into bit it stll reads much less like a memoir of war and more like a cleverly marketed and pitched faux-memoir/diary for the iPod generation. We take pride in offering a wide selection of used books, from classics to hidden gems, ensuring there? If shooting real people is “fun” it is because the proximity of death puts his own vitality into such stark relief. It is this journey that makes Hennessey’s book, which in the end is surprisingly thoughtful, honest and compelling, worth reading.

Junior Officers’ Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey: review The Junior Officers’ Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey: review

If he expresses it with reference to books and war films, it is simply because these are the only places that he – and indeed most of us – have ever seen such scenes. But if Patrick Hennessey is to be believed, none of these are uppermost in the minds of today’s young recruits. Of course he would like to be better equipped, but how can journalists criticise an army system that they have never themselves experienced? The rank arrogance comes through strongly from playing the old soldier after 2 months in Helmand to the know-all attitude virtually from the outset. Its like he read Rumors of War, Dispatches and John Masters' Bugles and a Tiger and then watched Apocalypse Now 10 times then wrote the book.Brought up on a diet of video games, Vietnam movies and adventure sports, they seem to view war as a slightly more extreme version of paintballing, whose only purpose is to provide them with an adrenalin high.

Junior Officers Reading Club by Hennessey Patrick - AbeBooks Junior Officers Reading Club by Hennessey Patrick - AbeBooks

When Hennessey admits that fighting gives him a “high”, perhaps he is being more honest than is good for him.His time at Sandhurst is described like a scene from Full Metal Jacket or An Officer and a Gentleman. It is only once we grasp this that we realise we might have misjudged this book and the officer who wrote it. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. When he finally gets to do so in Afghanistan he claims that it is better than sex, better than drugs, more exciting than free-fall parachuting – indeed, it is “the ultimate affirmation of being alive”. Although it is not as bad as Exum, Fick, or the other self-important young officers who had these books in mind when they were 10.