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Books: Amongst the Marines: The Untold Story

By Steven Preece

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AMONGST THE MARINES is Steven Preece's first hand account of life as an elite Royal Marine Commando. He delivers a direct and unflinching depiction of the excessive and often shocking lifestyle of the Marines and explains the impact this had on his own personality and behaviour.Preece fulfilled his childhood ambition by earning the coveted Green Beret from the Commando Training Centre at Lympstone when he was 18. He was unaware at that time of the brutal rite of passage that awaited him and all the other 'pieces of skin' (new recruits) at his first Marine Commando unit. Violence in the Marines, as Steven discovered, was not limited to the battlefield but a continual part of a pervasive cu...AMONGST THE MARINES is Steven Preece's first hand account of life as an elite Royal Marine Commando. He delivers a direct and unflinching depiction of the excessive and often shocking lifestyle of the Marines and explains the impact this had on his own personality and behaviour.Preece fulfilled his childhood ambition by earning the coveted Green Beret from the Commando Training Centre at Lympstone when he was 18. He was unaware at that time of the brutal rite of passage that awaited him and all the other 'pieces of skin' (new recruits) at his first Marine Commando unit. Violence in the Marines, as Steven discovered, was not limited to the battlefield but a continual part of a pervasive culture of bullying and aggression. It did not take long for Preece to be accepted into this culture and to adopt it as his own. His personality changed beyond recognition - from friendly and approachable to hard and unforgiving - as he embraced the customs and values of the 45 Commando Unit. On duty he was fit, committed and loyal, while off duty he displayed a mammoth capacity for drinking, fighting and, when the drink had run out, womanising. On home leave, Steven found it increasingly hard to adapt to civilian life. His drinking sessions in local pubs frequently ended in fights with the locals and even in violence against members of his own family. Preece earned a reputation amongst his fellow Marines for pranks and dangerous behaviour and his eagerness to accept any challenge from other commandos eventually led him to be court-maritialled. True to form, however, Preece was finally acquitted by the court. (more)

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Steven Preece

Steven Preece

I am the author of Amongst The Marines and Always A Marine.

I served in the Royal Marines for 7 years.

I’m a 3rd Dan Blackbelt in Ninjutsu and enjoy keeping myself fit in the gym.

Amongst The Marines (First Autobiography)

This is an inside story about the private life I experienced as a Royal Marine Commando in the 1980s. It is a no holds barred account of sex, violence and all kinds of antics that went on during that time. I finished basic training shortly after the Falklands War and experienced a very violent inception at my first commando unit. This changed my outlook on life and I made my mind up at that point that I would never allow that to happen to me again. Even in a very violent culture, I held my own.

I wrote this book to put my demons to rest and it really was part of the therapy I needed to do this. This first book will play with your emotions and will probably shock you a little. I wrote it when I was 28 years old and put it in the cupboard for 12 years before I looked for a publisher for it. If you read this, please read the sequal too (Always A Marine) as it does explain a lot of things including why I wrote this first book and how I managed to move on from the person I’d become during my military career.

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History, Biography, and Young Adult
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ISBN 13
9781840188523
ISBN 10
1840188529
Format
Paperback
Official publishing date
09/09/2004
Published by
Mainstream Publishing
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