Preface -- Acknowledgments -- France, 1918 : "Come on, you sons of bitches!" -- Born fighting, Senator James Webb and his Lance Corporal son, Jim -- A college boy dodges the draft but ends up going to war -- Yale student John Chafee frets we'll defeat Japan before he gets there -- Ron Christmas outtwits the Corps and stays on duty despite his wounds -- Sergeant John Fitzgerald : "I killed an awful lot of people in two days" -- George Howe, one of the last Chinaside Marines -- "Iraq is lost" says Colonel Ward Scott, who's been there twice -- A Dubliner wanders into Times Square, joins the Marines, and heads to Vietnam -- Mack Allen, a Southern gentleman who fought the Japanese and Chinese -- Iwo Jima revisited by the Marines who fought there -- He fought at the "Chosin" and later joined the cast of Romper Room -- Coleman of the Yankees who played in the World Series and flew in two wars

A Long Island detective with a Bronze Star and three purple hearts -- A "proud mustang" who was in three wars and ended up a general -- Jack Rowe lost and eye and other parts and now grows avocados and chases rattlesnakes -- Combat Engineer Captain Lauren Edwards and her first firefight -- Bestselling author "Mick" Trainor learned his trade in Korea and lectured at Harvard -- General Smedley Butler, "I could have given Al Capone a few hints" -- NY Police Commissioner Ray Kelly cites the USMC's "principles of leadership" -- A Browning automatic rifleman on the day he became "a real Marine" -- Gunnery Sergeant Milks and his Afghan adventures -- A Marine who wouldn't have missed the "Chosin" for a million dollars -- A sailor, a Marine, and now a U.S. Senator, John Warner of Virginia -- After the war, Ramon Gibson plays it safe and becomes a test pilot -- Medal of Honor winner Hector Cafferata says "I was a Marine-happy kid -- A young Lieutenant hits the beach "sprayed with his sergeant's brains

Joe Owen was to tall and skinny for the paratroops, so the Marines took him -- Some Marines handle war better than peace -- Chuck Curley took a buddy's body home from Korea to Olean, NY -- An old man remembers Belleau Wood and who died there -- The Jesuits taught Pierce Power Latin; Hill 749 taught him the rest -- Frank Kiss won the Silver Star atop a tank on his "last raid" -- Why Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace joined the Marines -- Gonzalo Garza worked in the fields, became a Marine, and earned a Ph. D. -- "I was 'Dirty Harry' of the Marine Corps," said Bill Phillips -- Before he was a Marine, Jack Vohs joined the Army, and the Navy -- A machine gunner they all called "Hollywood" -- "Wild Hoss" Callan was saving his combat pay to help keep the ranch going -- Harvard footballer Doug Bradlee hoped in war to "find God" -- Stacking the rifles, one last time, and sounding "Recall."