Jun 22 2008
“Hard Corps” by Marco Martinez
Well, one thing I can say about Hard Corps: From Gangster to Marine Hero by Marco Martinez: I was never bored while reading it. The story is a remarkable one: A boy who grew up in a stable, loving family, but ended up joining a gang anyway on the first day of seventh grade. Things went downhill really fast from there, and he ended up spending his nights doing drugs, trying to avoid getting shot, stealing from stores, and any other grand schemes he and his buddies could dream up.
Now comes the remarkable part: Marco Martinez’s life turned around when he met his first Marine ever, Staff Sergeant Marquez. His muscular physique and daunting demeanor made an impression on Marco. He went home that night and thought about his life and where it was headed. What was he going to do with his life? Where was he going to end up? He didn’t like what he saw, and he decided right then and there to join the military. He scoped out the different branches, and decided that he too wanted to be a Marine.
I don’t want to tell the whole story, so I’ll just quickly sum it up by saying that after he survived boot camp, he ended up a decorated hero because of his actions in Iraq. All in all, a very inspiring story.
Having said all that, I have to give some HUGE caveats to recommending this book:
A) Martinez was once a gang member, then became a Marine. Neither of those lines of work are conducive to clean mouths. I have never, ever seen so many swear words packed into one book before. Here’s an excerpt from the book - I have starred out the swear words:
“Is dat **** seeded, Cuz?” Tyrone said while punching De Andrea.
“Who do you think I am, ****?” De Andre said. “I already **** did that **** last **** night, Cuz!”
Tyrone and De Andre said “Cuz” at the end of every other sentence.
“Hit that **** as hard as you **** can, iiight, Cuz?” De Andre said.
“Iiight. But we need some music up in this ****,” Tyrone said. “Put on some Brotha Lynch Hung, Cuz!” Page 17, Hard Corps
Luckily, the whole book doesn’t read that way, or I would have put it down long before the end. Sometimes Marco even goes a whole page without a swear word, LOL!, and other than dialog between gang members, he uses very little gangster slang. The book is very easy to read, fast-paced, and interesting - it doesn’t read like Gangster Rap 101 or something. But still, some of that is in there.
B) Martinez serves in Iraq as a soldier, and he makes absolutely no bones about supporting the war and what’s being done in Iraq. He also doesn’t make any bones about wanting to kill someone (no, I’m not kidding). If that kind of thing would be offensive to you, then I suggest you skip this book.
I picked it up originally because a patron came into the library and applied for a card for the sole purpose of checking this book out. When I asked why it he was so deadset on reading it, he told me that he had served with Marco Martinez in Iraq, and wanted to see what he had said in his book. Since my father was in the Marine Corps for 20 years and I spent my formative years on military bases, I figured the book would be fun to read. After I finished it, I passed it on to my father, who, upon giving it back, said, “That was pretty hard core, even for me. And boy does that kid have a dirty mouth on him!”
If the book were ever made into a movie, I have no doubt that it would be rated R for language and violence. 
The saving grace for me was his love for this country, and serving his fellow Americans. He said at one point, “I’ll always regret being a [gangster]. I’ll never regret being given the privilege of becoming a Marine.” He has a lot of patriotic pride for America, but unlike many of us flag-waving Americans on the 4th of July, he was actually willing to lay down his life to defend America.
Overall, I enjoyed the story line and I enjoyed the author’s style of writing, but I’d still have to give it 3.75 out of 5 stars. If you’re in the mood for a real “tell it like it is” memoir on the Marine Corps, I don’t think it would get anymore real than this.
Hava
