“they were called a generation without heroes. then they were called upon to be heroes. within hours of 9/11, america’s war on terrorism fell to those like the twenty-three marines of the first recon battalion, the first generation dispatched into open-ended combat since vietnam. they were a new pop-culture breed of american warrior unrecognizable to their forebears—soldiers raised on hip hop, video games and the real world. cocky, brave, headstrong, wary, and mostly unprepared for the physical, emotional and moral horrors ahead, the “first suicide battalion” would spearhead the blitzkrieg on iraq, and be among the first american combat units baptized in the horrors of iraq’s terrifying guerilla war. generation kill is the funny, frightening, and profane firsthand account of these remarkable men, of the personal toll of victory, and of the randomness, brutality, and camaraderie of a new american war.”