Spare Parts: From Campus to Combat: A Marine Reservist's Journey from Campus to Combat in 38 Days Book

A powerful and harrowing look into the world of reservists—more than just the "spare parts" of our nation's military—as seen through one man's transformation from weekend warrior to combat Marine.

In 1990 Buzz Williams walked into a Marine recruiting office to follow in the footsteps of the deceased older brother he grew up idolizing, and signed up to join the reserves. Buzz had thought that he would only need to sacrifice one weekend a month and two weeks a year for training to earn the money that would help pay for his college tuition. He had no idea that even the newest reservists could find themselves on the battlefield in a matter of weeks.

Spare Parts recounts Williams's harrowing deployment to the Persian Gulf after only four weeks of combat training. Enduring both the condescension of full-time Marines and the danger of his limited preparation, he manages to form a core group that struggles to gain respect from a military machine that views them as mere "spare parts." In gripping, you-are-there detail, Spare Parts articulates the grueling physical and emotional trials that Williams and his comrades must face on the killing fields of Kuwait—where some of the woefully underprepared men are able to rise to the challenge and others are broken by the horrors of battle.

A compelling portrait of the more than 1.2 million reservists who stand ready to leave civilian life to defend our nation at a moment's notice, Spare Parts adds a moving new perspective to the literature of war.