Always a Marine: The Return to Civvy Street

by Steven Preece

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 7 years, Preece finds it extremely difficult to adapt, and struggles to shake off the belligerent mentality he developed while in the Marines, and succeed in work and family life.  Always a Marine is the action-packed, often shocking account of one ex-Marine's 13-year struggle to control the aggression he learned as a serviceman in order to become a respectable citizen.

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

I'm an author of two autobiographies and am a former Royal Marine Commando (7 years Service) I left in 1990. Recently, I have released my debut Novel, "Wasted Resource."

I currently work in the I.T. Industry in the UK as an IT Project Manager for Northern Rock Bank.

I am happily married and have been with my wife for 21 great years. We have two fabulous sons.

My hobbies are reading, writing, keeping myself fit (mainly Bodypump), Martial arts (Blackbelt in Ninjutsu) and playing and coaching table tennis competetively in my local town leagues.

I tend to read mainly non fiction books, but still dabble from time to time with fiction stories. Reading, I feel, is a great way to relax.

Steven Preece

Reviews

[Ade Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this immediately after reading the first, companion book, 'Amongst the Marines'. Both are best thought of as two volumes of one book.
The prose is startlingly simple, a clear account of a young man's entry from a none-too-perfect childhood into the marines, then onto the difficult adjustments as he matures and develops a life in civilian worlds.
Extreme in its depiction of violence as a way of life, fuelled by alcohol more often than not, the extreme swings of emotion are violent too. From almost automatic fullness of flowing with a tremendously vital spirit of living to suicidal despair, from intense joy to self-reproach, most of the harm that came to the writer was self-inflicted.
Fascinating in itself for an insight into the 'untold story' of the off-duty life of a section of the elite marine soldiers, what made it most potent for me is less to do with the brutal depiction of a soldierly mindset and culture that is foreign to me than that the overarching journey of a human life is something which deep down I recognised. The process of maturing to what is variously called actualisation or self-realisation, integration etc is a universal one.
So the settling of a violence and chaos - ultimately, a deep loneliness and bewilderment - into love and a growing awareness of the spiritual life at the core of our existence makes this an honest revelation of our shared condition.
If all this sounds a bit too heavy, I should add that is very moving at times. And often very, very funny!

[Paulm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book, read it straight off the back of Amongst Marines which I thought was great and this book did not disappoint. Steven details his struggle to make the transition from Marine to Civilian and takes you on the journey through all the problems and struggles to his acceptance that he had to put closure on his Marine days to get on with life as a civilian, great writing

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book as a sequal to my first book, "Amongst The Marines." This book describes my journey in life through 13 years after I left the military. During my service I led a very excessive and violent lifestyle and undoubtedly changing back into an ordinary every day citizen was never going to be easy for me.

When I walked out of the Main gate for the last time I was still mentally a soldier and being one wasn't something I could just switch off. Through 13 years I travelled all over the world and experienced many difficult and challenging situations. The aggression I learnt as a serviceman was acceptable in the military but understandibly not in civvy street and unfortunatley I needed to learn to control this.

Eventually though I ended up in the world of the ninjas who view aggression as a sign of weakness and undoubtedly helped me to put a very violent past behind me.

See Link: http://archive.thisisthenortheast.co....

In truth, my wife won't read my first book (Amongst The Marines) as she didn't know me during those years and in her eyes its not the husband she married some years later. She does feature in my second book and truly I believe she is the real hero of my story and not I.



Best Regards

Steven Preece

[Mary Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is shocking in places, but the author does a good job of showing how impulsively violent he became, and his struggle to change. It is a timely memoir, nailing the problem right on the head: the military turns men into killing machines, insecure and immature young men become violent, kill or be killed becomes their mantra. After the military uses them for war, soldiers are sent back into society, where they are expected to be emotionally equipped, even socialized. We are living this problem every day in America, but curiously most of the memoirs written by our soldiers are not half as honest about the problem as Preece is. In that case, this book is more courageous and honest than most I have read. Things eventually turnaround for Preece, the threads which keep the reader hopeful are his rigorous honesty about his problem, and his love for his wife and child. The real stroke of brilliance here is when he "reclaims his body" by learning the martial arts. There's no cheesy Steven Sigal-like move here. Instead the author realizes that he must make peace with and work against the fight or flight mechanizism that drives his pain. (It made me want to start my Tai Chi classes again!)

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Steve’s book, and could relate especially to his struggles for looking for work and, working different jobs (after he got out of the Marines). This continuous search for employment happens to me in the legal field, where I work as a legal secretary. Steve had to learn to tolerant some of the fools that he has worked with too. I can relate to that too! Steve sounds like he was a good worker and kept trying to advance in his career by learning more and trying to be very helpful to his employers. He did, however, have to learn to curve his temperament, which he shows in his first book got completely out-of-control. He missed being a Marine and it took him a long time to get over that and adjust to his life as a civilian. He got married and had two boys. I like his smooth writing. I would read some chapters during my lunch hour at work and one of my coworkers said, “Wow, you must really be into that book.” And I was. I think the writing is excellent and Steve held my interest throughout. Steve says that he is now working on a novel and hoping to get that published some day. I look forward to that. Steven supports his family by working in the tech field. However, he should always keep up on his writing as well.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still finishing off this book. Absolutely, got totally absorbed in Steven Preece s' first book "Amongst The Marines-The Untold Story." So, I suppose I feel his first book is hard to live up too, however, I will read all of his books as I thoroughly enjoy them.

[Jennie Cameron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stupid man