It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. GATES OF FIRE is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. 'No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again.'įorty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined. In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. I graduated from Duke University in 1965. troops I was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother. 'No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again.' Forty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined. I was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother.

Steven pressfield the art of war