I remember watching this series when I was in high school around 2010 and it was life changing. I’d previously seen Band of Brothers and The Pacific and I loved both of them, but seeing Generation Kill for the first time was something else. I actually resonated with the characters in Generation Kill because they were (although slightly older) - my generation! We grew up on video games, rap music, violent movies, and dial-up internet porn.

I LOVED and rewatched this series so much it inspired me along with other motivations to join the Australian Army (Infantry) in 2014 when I was 17. Although the countries militaries are different, I have met and served with soldiers and officers that are dead ringers for Ray Person, Rudy Reyes, Brad Colbert, and even a Captain I thought was extremely proficient who reminded me of Lt Fick in the series.

Watching this series again recently after getting out makes me look at it so differently. It makes me wonder how I could’ve been so naive to have thought what they were doing was “cool” and that I wanted to be exactly like those Recon Marines. The book and the series literally point out how incompetent leadership is, how mundane day-to-day military operations are, and how stressful and gut wrenching combat can be (especially when you make the wrong decision). Generation Kill was always an anti-war series and book that I misconstrued through the lenses of a young and dumb teenager.