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RH, you're correct obviously, but there are degrees of scale. Scale-wise, very few soliders had anywhere near the hyper-dramatic experience that is portrayed in Jarhead, particularly not the non-combatant screen writer who "massaged" the book for the bigscreen adaptation.
They want this to be the "Platoon" of Gulf War movies, and frankly that's just silly. Whereas you could say the majority of Vietnam Vets had situations that were eerily similar to Platoon (my father being one of them), there will be very few Gulf War vets who can relate to the more intense emotional events in Jarhead. Basic training? Yes. Deployment? Yes, they all went through it. The terror of war? Of course, even if they never fired a round and rounds were never fired at them. Again, this is the majority.
But the hardcore "soul searching" and overlydramatized reactions of the lead charater being under massive fire with his unit? Not likely. Very few Gulf War vets participated in live fire exchanges, and even fewer were fired back at, according to Pentagon statistics the Army logs. Those statistics may be wrong, or manipulated, but the friends I keep who were there echo the same.
Regardless, seen as entertainment, and not a non-fictional work that attempts to attribute general events to every common solider that simply weren't on the scale that the studio would have us belive, I'm sure it will stand as a good work. I'm looking forward to it myself.
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