His vast skill set puts him in front of the front lines, leading twenty-two Marines into the deadliest conflict since Vietnam. He vows he will bring all his men home safely, and to do so he'll need more than his top-flight education. He'll need luck and an increasingly clear vision of the limitations of his superiors and the missions they assign him. Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won

insights into the differences between the military ideals he learned and military practice, which can mock those ideals. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but it is an ultimately inspiring account of mastering the art of war.

After receiving a B.A. in classics from Dartmouth in 1999, served in the Marines' elite First Recon Battalion (the analogue of the Navy's SEALs or Army's Delta Force). He saw action in Afghanistan and Iraq before leaving the Corps as a captain. He is now in a dual-degree program at Harvard's Business School and Kennedy School of Government.