Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Squaddie' is the British 'Jarhead' - but better!, 3 Jun 2006
At long last a book that tells us what it is really like to be one of HM's soldier's at the sharp end! Having read well over a dozen SAS books and numerous ex-Colonels accounts i was begining to despair of ever finding a book that showed what plain, dirty old fashioned soldiering is all about - until i discovered this gem.
Squaddie is not about supermen diving through windows or marching hundreds of miles on bleeding feet, but about the very unglamourous and frequently violent existance of everyday infantry troops at home and abroad - in this case the Royal Green Jackets.
No stone is left unturned, and in great detail Mclaughlin takes us on a often hilarious journey through a tough basic training, daily barracks life and culture, and a chaotic Iraq tour, finishing with a sharp insight into the modern-day Northern Ireland operational tour.
His honesty is both painfull and apealing, such as when told he was off to Iraq, he confessess his immediate response was 'bollocks to winning medals' and how 'the s..t was pouring out of him' as departure day loomed.
Squaddie is a grimly bleak and humourous account of life at the sharp-end in the British infantry, and i can not commend it highly enough - read it and you will understand just what our soldiers have to go through on a daily basis.
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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The essence of being a Squaddie laid bare., 4 Oct 2006
Squaddie is without doubt the most original soldier's story of recent times; it is long overdue and most welcome, particularly for anyone who has ever served in the British Infantry. I myself served eight satisfying years in the QLR and left as a Platoon Sergeant, but until now I had never read a book that accurately captured the Squaddie experience - both the good, bad, and truly awful bits too!
The level of detail that McLaughlin goes into is astounding, and whether he is describing weapons systems, basic training, battalion life or operational tours - his descriptions are always bang-on, totally convincing, and unnervingly accurate. Several times reading this book I had to put it down and have a little daydream, such is the level of personal recall it stirred inside.
Those of us who have been there will know what he is talking about; being beasted around Catterick by depot-screws, trying to reassemble an SA80 in the field and losing your camstud, scraping the carbon off a Gimpy when your hands are so cold you just want to curl up and die, platoon mongs and stag bitches, etc - I swear this book took me right back in an instant.
In this day and age of overblown and exaggerated Special Forces accounts it's refreshing to see an ordinary soldier embracing his experience and celebrating the sheer bloody grind of being an Infantryman. What I particularly liked about this book is the total lack of heroics and the grim honesty with which the author appraises his own fears and weaknesses - and he confesses to many. McLaughlin is his own severest critic and openly admits his failings, going so far as to show himself in an extremely bad light at times - unlike other `heroes' we could mention.
As with himself, McLaughlin is a tough but fair judge regarding his comrades and regiment. Overall he gives a very good impression of the Royal Green Jackets and he has done them a great service with this book - certainly I would be happy for my son to join them. Yes there are a few `bad apples', but this is the Infantry for God's sake, and none of us should be surprised - that's life!
Totally believable, bang up to date, unpretentious, and a fine testament to a great regiment from one of its own - Squaddie does exactly what it says on the tin and I heartily recommend it.
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The voice of the Squaddies. , 4 Jun 2006
This book was recommended to me by a pal who served in the authors regiment(Royal Green Jackets) many years ago, and i have to say i can now see why! The book is a brutally honest and at times extremely disturbing portrait of life in the lower ranks of the infantry.
If your looking for a tale of heroic leadership under enemy fire then i am afraid 'Squaddie' is not the book for you, and you will be very dissapointed. But if you want to know how it really is - both the good bits and the bad - then give it a whirl. Mclaughlin's book should be made compulsary reading for the following people:
Schoolboy dropouts searching for an identity and trying to escape from an abusive steparent - as Mclaughlin clearly was.
Privately educated and privaleged Sandhurst cadets who want to understand and motivate their men - take note Prince Harry!
Concerned parents worried about teenage boys being taken in by recruitment sgt's tales of skiing and surfing - only to end up in Iraq.
And anybody else with merely a passing interest in the army. The book would make a good film and i look forward to maybe seeing that come about. One thing is for certian, the working-class British Squaddies now have a voice, and about time too.
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