William

War is an addiction

Revisado: 02-19-23

War is an addiction, as Mat acknowledges near the end of his book.


I’ve long thought this—seen it in my friends and myself. Civilians look at me like I’m crazy when I try to explain this to them. Civilian life is hard, even 12 years after my EOS. I would much rather be a contractor overseas than deal with day-to-day life.

I respect and appreciate Mat’s honesty with himself and about himself in this book. He doesn’t shy away from his immaturity in his early years in the Army. Instead, he leans into it, with an openness and honesty that I wish more of us veterans would.

Most memoirs are written by middle aged (or nearly middle aged) men. (And, yes, Mat, you’re now in that category. Welcome to the club.) It is easy, sitting behind a keyboard with 10-20 years of hindsight, growth, life experience, and reflection to either consciously whitewash who we were when we enlisted or, as I am sure is often the case, forget entirely.

We all had our reasons for joining, but for all the Marines, infantry, and SOF types, at least part of our motivation was that we wanted to blow shit up and impress girls. I’m sure there are exceptions, but for everyone I know, you could have picked any branch and had an array of MOS from which to pick--if you picked the Marine Corps, or infantry, or, especially, SOF, you sought that out, and you did so because you wanted to be in the fight.

I joined the military because I needed a job and housing.

I joined the Marine Corps because they’re the people who get stuff done, they get to blow shit up, and girls (no offense to anyone) think Marines are tougher than the Army.

All of these memoirs written by people (particularly in a combat MOS) claiming that they *only* had these lofty, noble motivations for enlisting, particularly into a unit we all know will be on the frontlines, do a disservice to the veteran, active duty, and reserve community of today and to the kids thinking of enlisting. In Mat’s book, I learned that I’m not alone, and I’m not a psychopathic shitbird.


Thank you.

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Well-written, exhaustively researched

Revisado: 12-17-22

Highly recommend. Both a compelling personal narrative and an immersive examination of early-mid-century rural Mississippi and the prison system.

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Highly Recommended

Revisado: 07-19-19

Riveting story; well told and deeply honest. This book has helped me through my own dark time, and I am profoundly grateful. An earlier reviewer said he was skeptical of the truth. I could not disagree more. I am an attorney and in recovery myself. Joseph’s story resonates with me. He is, in many ways, a mirror image of me and many of my friends and colleagues. I doubt that anyone from Mr. Naus’ circle reads these, but I want to say thank you for sharing. Your story found me at a time when I needed it.

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