Happy & Brainy Group discussion

Always A Marine

Why I wrote this book:

I wrote this book as a sequal to my first book, "Amongst The Marines." This book describes my journey in life through 13 years after I left the military. During my service I led a very excessive and violent lifestyle and undoubtedly changing back into an ordinary every day citizen was never going to be easy for me.

When I walked out of the Main gate for the last time I was still mentally a soldier and being one wasn't something I could just switch off. Through 13 years I travelled all over the world and experienced many difficult and challenging situations. The aggression I learnt as a serviceman was acceptable in the military but understandibly not in civvy street and unfortunatley I needed to learn to control this.

Eventually though I ended up in the world of the ninjas who view aggression as a sign of weakness and undoubtedly helped me to put a very violent past behind me.

See Link: http://archive.thisisthenortheast.co....

In truth, my wife won't read my first book (Amongst The Marines) as she didn't know me during those years and in her eyes its not the husband she married some years later. She does feature in my second book and truly I believe she is the real hero of my story and not I.




Synopsis and Introductory Chapter:

Synopsis

[close] In Amongst the Marines, Steven Preece vividly depicted his excessive, violent lifestyle as an elite Royal Marine Commando. Now, Always a Marine covers the author's struggle to leave that lifestyle behind following his departure from the service. Back on civvy street for the first time in over 7 years, Preece finds it extremely difficult to adapt, and struggles to shake off the belligerent mentality he developed while in the Marines, and succeed in work and family life. Always a Marine is the action-packed, often shocking account of one ex-Marine's 13-year struggle to control the aggression he learned as a serviceman in order to become a respectable citizen.

Introduction Chapter:

Leaving the armed forces is a big step for a lot of soldiers. They spend their careers working with colleagues whom they can trust with their lives. Teamwork is crucial to their job, as is the ability to work alone when necessary. When they walk into civvy street, they need to learn to dapt quickly to a different life style in a world full of individuals.

I left the Royal Marines in 1990 after serving for 7 years in various parts of the world. I'd been trained to live, work, think, react and survive as a Marine. What I hadn't been taught was how to stop being one. It wasn't something I could just turn off. The propensity for anger, aggression and violence hadn't gone away. This was something that only time could heal: in my case 13 years of time.

This story portrays my journey through life as a civilian. I have worked in various locations throughout the world, where I have experienced many kinds of different challenges and emotions, including violence and desperation as well as warmth and laughter.

When I left the Marines, I expected to walk into a new job, but I found it hard to find work with my skills and background and had to register as unemployed. The respect I had grown used to from the people of my home town soon disappeared, as they began to realise that I was no longer a Marine. Suddenly I became a target for them to test their fighting skills on. They were even coming at me with baseball bats. Yet I was not defeated and I forged a life amongst them.

My aggressive reputation preceded me in the work place and eventually I was forced to work abroad. What follows at this point is a blow by blow account of the situations I got myself into and the types of people I met and worked with. At times the survival skills I was taught in the marines came in useful, when I applied them in violent and difficult situations. As you will see, what finally stopped me from unleashing my violent nature on those who crossed me was the love of my family and the healing non aggressive philosophy of the ninja.


Steven Preece

Hello Steve,

Congratulations! Welcome to the group.

Best regards.

Thanks for the invitation and the welcome too.

Much appreciated

Steve

My pleasure.

Have a fun day.

Hi All,
Steven I was quite impressed with the part of your book, above. I love these types of books. I have read a lot of the series about the service by Web. Griffin. He makes you feel as if you are experiencing the Black Ops and other operations going on. I assume your book will be more gripping because it is real. The best of luck to you on both books, Donna.

Brad, Your pics were beautifully done. I looked at all of them. Great shooting, Donna.

Best to all,Donna.

Have a wonderful day, Donna, Steve, Brad, and all.

Its been a while since I visited this group.

Thanks for your comments guys.


Cheers

Steve

Cheers! Good fortune on your books, Steve.