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Introduction to: ALWAYS A MARINE

StevenPreece

kickbox
Hi Guys, this is the Introduction chapter to my sequel autobiography:

ALWAYS A MARINE

Leaving the armed forces is a big step for a lot of soldiers. They spend their careers working with colleagues whom they can trust with their lives. Teamwork is crucial to their job, as is the ability to work alone when necessary. When they walk into civvy street, they need to learn to dapt quickly to a different life style in a world full of individuals.

I left the Royal Marines in 1990 after serving for 7 years in various parts of the world. I'd been trained to live, work, think, react and survive as a Marine. What I hadn't been taught was how to stop being one. It wasn't something I could just turn off. The propensity for anger, aggression and violence hadn't gone away. This was something that only time could heal: in my case 13 years of time.

This story portrays my journey through life as a civilian. I have worked in various locations throughout the world, where I have experienced many kinds of different challenges and emotions, including violence and desperation as well as warmth and laughter.

When I left the Marines, I expected to walk into a new job, but I found it hard to find work with my skills and background and had to register as unemployed. The respect I had grown used to from the people of my home town soon disappeared, as they began to realise that I was no longer a Marine. Suddenly I became a target for them to test their fighting skills on. They were even coming at me with baseball bats. Yet I was not defeated and I forged a life amongst them.

My aggressive reputation preceded me in the work place and eventually I was forced to work abroad. What follows at this point is a blow by blow account of the situations I got myself into and the types of people I met and worked with. At times the survival skills I was taught in the marines came in useful, when I applied them in violent and difficult situations. As you will see, what finally stopped me from unleashing my violent nature on those who crossed me was the love of my family and the healing non aggressive philosophy of the ninja.

Best Regards

Steven Preece
 
Synopsis

Sorry guys. I should have posted the synopsis too. Here goes:

Synopsis
In "Amongst the Marines", Steven Preece vividly depicted his excessive, violent lifestyle as an elite Royal Marine Commando. Now, "Always a Marine" covers the author's struggle to leave that lifestyle behind following his departure from the service. Back on civvy street for the first time in over seven years, Preece finds it extremely difficult to adapt and struggles to shake off the belligerent mentality he developed while in the Marines. Despite these difficulties, he marries and starts a family, but this positive change is not enough to turn his life around. Preece soon discovers that his tendency towards violence will not be tolerated in the civilian workplace and, after finding himself blacklisted by many companies in his area, he is forced to look for employment abroad. This quest for work takes Preece to France, where he is caught up in a hotel fire; Germany, where he is double-crossed out of his job and later teams up with an ex-SAS trooper; Morocco, where an incident lands him in jail and he is later shot at by border police; and Thailand, where he fights in a boxing ring with a former French Legionnaire and gets caught up in a business scam.
Having settled back in the UK, Preece's behavior remains excessive. He severely injures his head and suffers minor brain damage after a heavy-drinking session. Upon recovering, he looks for something else to believe in and begins training in ninjutsu, the martial art of the ninjas, who view aggression as a sign of weakness. This, combined with the love of his family, finally enables him to put his past behind him. "Always a Marine" is the action-packed, often shocking account of one ex-Marine's 13-year struggle to control the aggression he learnt as a serviceman in order to become a respectable civilian.


Also: This is a link to a newspaper interview following the releae of my seond book: 'I just couldn't stop fighting'

Best Wishes

Steven Preece
 
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