The not so ultimate guide
I purchased this book on the basis of many reviews in order to help prepare for boot camp. Admittedly, the author specifically had US Army basic training in mind in writing this, but even then it falls well short of an ultimate, or even pretty good, guide.
A large portion of the book is dedicated to physical fitness, but even this section is geared toward those who already know what they're doing and simply need to finish doing it the "Army way". Most of the other sections are jumbled, in poor order on all levels, difficult to understand, and riddled with typos. On the plus side, however, the many sidebars of direct quotes from the page you just read hovering over the text coupled with the humongous font meant I read this book cover to cover in about an hour. Great for speedreading, not so great for detailed information.
While I myself am not the best source for this information, some of the facts within the book are rather suspect. For example, Volin gives the phonetic equivalent of F to be fox rather than the NATO standard foxtrot.
Overall, it's not the worst book I've ever read, and all of the information contained within can be found elsewhere (specifically, message boards with current members of the armed services are wonderful, and free, resources for nearly any question you could want; or recruiters for that matter, though you should probably take what they say with a grain of salt as it is their job to slap a uniform on you), but it might be included in a reading list if you've already read every other book out there on the subject, but only for completeness' sake.
I don't know any books to reccommend over this one directly pertaining to US Army basic training, but on the subject of USMC boot camp "Into The Crucible: Making Marines for the 21st Century" by James B. Woulfe (only pertains to the end of training final excercise), "Boot" by Daniel Da Cruz (somewhat dated, and more history than training), and "Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps" by John and Frank Schaeffer are all better books. Even the rambling and mysogonistic "Making the Corps" by Thomas Ricks is superior to this one in nearly every way.
Unless you're a completist who absolutely must buy every book on the subject, give this one a miss. Borrow it from said completist if you must, but don't waste you're money on it (did I mention the price is ourageous for the size and quality of the book?).Read full review
