In the places where the author focusses on a particular individual and describes what he did, it is an interesting and stirring book that leaves you amazed at the bravery each Marine displays. The victories, tragedies, and horrors of war become clear, and while reading about their deeds, you come to realize just how incredible are these men who earn this medal.

Unfortunately, the author spends too much time NOT writing about heroes.

Although there are places where there is a lot of interesting detail about the actions of the medal-winner, all too often the text will have three paragraphs about a battle in general, and then literally have only one or two sentences about what the Marine did. Other places, the author simply lists names, saying something like "Other Marines who gave their lives to save fellow Marines during the battle were..." and reels off 8 or 10 names.

There is a lot of explanation about various wars and police actions and other activities. Indeed, the book really reads more like a history of the Marine Corps than a compilation of descriptions of the deeds of heroes. Although some of this is interesting and provides a useful context for the Marines' actions, it sometimes seems out of place and all too often wanders off into unwanted political opinions and judgements, or tangential ramblings that are distracting and even at times downright boring.

For an experienced writer, the author also has some annoying habits that I was amazed to see the editors allow through. The author is in love with the words "butcher" and "slaughter." Nobody is ever killed in this book, they are butchered or slaughtered, sometimes both at the same time.

After a while, the words lose their shock value and meaning, and actually denigrates the seriousness of the situation. I'll agree that killing all 700 Japanese soldiers attacking your position is a slaughter, and when people are killed in their tents during a surprise attack to the rear of the action it's butchering, but when 50 out of 500 are killed during a day-long battle, "butchering" is hyperbole and annoying.

I still think it's a good book. It should be required reading for every Marine. Anyone interested in the military or stirring stories of heroism will probably like this book.

But be forewarned that the writing is uneven at best, the book covers a lot more territory than just telling the stories of heroes, and unfortunately it sadly shortchanges many of these heroes by failing to actually tell their stories.

Riveting reading. Stories of heroism, triumph, and tragedy set against the backdrop of our nation's various conflicts. We also learn about the history of the Corps and its traditions. Cerasini did a very thorough, comprehensive job. (Frankly, he does the subject right. Not like the Wallace Medal of Honor book, which covers only about 8 service people over ALL services in our ENTIRE military history--pretty quick and dirty approach.) In THIS book, Cerasini does the subject RIGHT. He covers the HUNDREDS of individuals who were awarded the medal, just in the Marine Corps alone. He covers the details of the conflicts in which they earned the medal and he puts those conflicts in context with our history. One small thing. You are awared the medal, you don't win it--so that title has GOT to be the publisher's wrong-headed choice because the author certainly knows his stuff. Anyway, other than that, if you know a Marine, this is one book or she is going to appreciate and enjoy. Again, a real tribute.