5 Responses to “Spare Parts: From Campus to Combat: A Marine Reservist’s Journey from Campus to Combat in 38 Days”

• By Ramon Zayas on Mar 11, 2010

  While I found some of the stories interesting, what mostly caught my attention was the title and the color scheme used on the cover. Could it be just a coincidence or did the author select that title and cover design from my book which was released many months before. Either way, thank you.
  Rating: 2 / 5
• By Delta Company Marine on Mar 11, 2010

  I arrived at Camp Upshur in July of 89 and while I was not a member of “Drapers” tribe or the authors I do know all the characters written about in this book from Shomette, Pollack and McIntire to Williams, Moss and Dougherty, as I was a member of 1st platoon until I was moved to be the Company Commanders Gunner when our vehicles arrived in Saudi Arabia and stayed with Delta Company until the Fall of 92. All of us were as well trained as we could have been and while some had stronger personalities than others we all had our shortcomings and strengths.

  While Williams is clear that this is a memoir it would have helped to have some form of the truth written in the pages. Personal perspective will always be different between human beings; however, it is difficult to have a perspective on events that never took place. Other than attending drills at Camp Upshur, the road march to North Carolina, deploying to the Gulf War and returning home, the book was fiction. There was no fight with “Draper” during a road march in the desert, although the road march did take place. I know because I was right across from “Draper” during the march, and trained with him at Parris Island, Leguene and Pendleton and he never once complained about road marches, in fact he enjoyed them. There was no knife incident prior to leaving for the gulf and if “Sgt Krause” had favored anyone during training it would have been the scouts as he was a former fleet marine grunt not crewman. In reality he was a focused and dedicated leader who I myself had a few run in with, however, there was never any doubt of his professionalism. He demanded a lot of his marines and it was a culture shock to all of us, including myself, who had taken the reserve training lightly up until his arrival at Camp Upshur.

  Perspective can allow for a wide range of how events took place especially 13 years after the fact, but most of the book never happened and unfortunately I was really let down by it. While our actions were minor in the war I was hoping for, at a minimal, a book on real events regardless of how they are skewed based on memory and perspective but to completely re-create the adventure with events that never occurred is nothing short dishonest.
  
  Rating: 1 / 5
• By Anonymous on Mar 11, 2010

  Thank you Buzz Williams. I don’t know how I would be getting through parts of my life without reading this book. This book gave me an insight to the Marine Corps and the Reserve units that I didn’t have before. I’m currently involved with a Marine Corps Reservist and prior to this book I thought he was simply gone one weekend a month. Now I know what he’s doing and what he’s gone through to get where he is today. Thank you again for sharing your experience. I don’t know if I could understand it any better than going through it myself. You have given me so much more of an appreciation of what the Marine Corps does and how important the Reserves really are. I can’t stress enough how much your experience helps me to understand what goes on with his head when drill comes around and deployment shadows the future. You’ve given me that little extra sense of security that I needed to know that he’s going to be alright. Thank you again.
  Rating: 5 / 5
• By Anonymous on Mar 11, 2010

  I believe this to be an okay read. The problem I have with this book is its lack of fact checking. The author is flat wrong in his description of the friendly fire incidents on January 29th, 1991 at Observation Post 4 near the Kuwaiti border. I have spoken to several Marines who were there so I’m not just saying this off-hand. I think it doesn’t speak well of the book that the author would get such a simple matter so wrong (he mis-identifies the lone survivor of a infamously-bad friendly fire incident). He obviously didn’t even do a Google search on the topic. In short, I feel this to be a historically unreliable account.
  Rating: 1 / 5
• By Anonymous on Mar 11, 2010

  After I read Spare Parts, I was disappointed and confused because the accounts of his actions and our actions are grossly inaccurate. He owed it to his unit, those who returned and those who did not return, to get it straight. Unfortunately, he is not telling us what happened but what he wished would have happened. Williams was a contribution to the Marine Corps because he did his job. To make it any more than that is an injustice. He simply did his job and for that he should be commended. While his part and the unit’s part was important, nevertheless it was minor. Nothing in this world will change what really happened. It can only be changed in the pages of a book and unfortunately it was.

  I was there when Williams arrived and after he left the Marine Corps. There were no villains in Delta Company. There were good Marines and bad Marines – but no villains. Williams’ service to the Marines and his unit should be commended but not over exaggerated, especially at the expense of his fellow Marines. Williams was a good Marine but it is clear that he is not the type of Marine who can accurately portray himself, his unit or the Marine Corps in written form.

  I would love to recommend this book – I wish I could recommend this book but it is filled with events that never happened, statements that were never said, and characters that never existed. Perspectives are important but must take a backseat to facts. It lacks truth, clarity and the historical research demanded of a book written about men during, before and after combat – especially Reserve Marines. If he would have written it as it really happened, characters that really existed, events that really happened, what he really did or didn’t do – it would have been a better story and it would have been, most importantly the truth.
  Rating: 1 / 5

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