Download Once a Marine: An Iraq War Tank Commander's Inspirational Memoir of Combat, Courage, and Recovery AudioBook Free
May 6, 1986: Nick Popaditch finds the Obtaining Barracks, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. April 9, 2003: An AP shooter captures a impressive image seen round the world of the Gunny Sergeant smoking a triumph cigar in his reservoir, the haunting statue of Saddam Hussein hovering in the background. Popaditch is immortalized forever as "The Cigar Marine." April 6, 2004: The tanker battles heroically in the struggle for Fallujah and suffers grievous brain wounds that leave him legitimately blind and partially deaf. The USMC honours him with a Metallic Star for his valor and combat innovation. April 18, 2004: "Gunny Pop" returns to handle the toughest fight of his life - a struggle to remain the person and Marine he was. This is the central drama of Nick's inspiring memoir, Once a Marine: An Iraq Conflict Tank Commander's Inspirational Memoir of Battle, Courage, and Recovery. Listeners in and from the military will operate and cheer because of this valiant Marine's Marine, a guy who embodies everything noble and proud in the Corps' long custom. Never has modern mechanized combat looked like so immediate and real, or the fight in Iraq looked like so individual and worth believing in. At first, Nick battles to get back to where he was at Iraq-in the cupola associated with an M1A1 main struggle reservoir, leading Marines in combat at the point of the spear. As the seriousness and permanence of his disabilities become more evident, Nick battles to remain in the Corps in virtually any capacity, to help the brothers in biceps and triceps he so aches to rejoin. Facing the inescapable carrying out a medical retirement living, he fights for rightful identification and settlement for his permanent disabilities. Throughout his harrowing ordeal, Nick battles to keep up his honor and devotion, waging all these battles the same way - the Marine way - because anything less would be a betrayal of most he supports dear.
