The U.S. Marine Corps in Crisis

"Fleming brings a knowledgeable eye and a discerning sense to Marine boot camp, an American institution that is much discussed but little studied or understood."—Infantry

"Fleming's study coolly dissects a major event in U.S. Marine Corps history [and] offers food for thought for military historians, defense policy analysts and shapers, and penologists as well as those concerned with group process, politics, and human conflict."—Journal of Southern History

"A valuable study of how a prestigious, even revered, organization can successfully react to a tragic incident that if mishandled could cause deep and lasting harm. . . . A commendable introduction to an event that helped shape a generation."—Bimonthly Review of Law Books

"This is much more than the story of one lone drill instructor's misguided attempt to 'instill discipline' into his platoon. Rather it is a look at the Marine Corps, at recruit training in particular, as an institution and at how changes in the institution allowed an incident like Ribbon Creek to happen."—Marine Corps Gazette

"Fleming traces the development of Marine boot-camp training since its inception on Parris Island in 1915, explaining why physical abuse of recruits became excessive in the post-Korean War era and revealing the changes put into effect after Ribbon Creek."—Publishers Weekly

"Fleming does an exceptionally even-handed job on the touchy subject of how an increasingly unskilled American youth can be turned into something resembling a military specimen. It is another paradoxical confrontation of ends and means, civil rights versus pragmatic necessity."—West Coast Review of Books