CAMP PENDLETON, CA – One of the most anticipated military stories of the past decade will arrive in bookstores June 14th, Flag Day. National Defense... Medal: My Journey through the Frontlines of a Marine Corps Recruit Depot, by Private First Class Nick Rattee, will be published by Random House Books.

It has received considerable advance praise. David Brooks calls it “a quintessential military chronicle that will rival those of Winston Churchill, Phil Caputo, and Sun Tzu.” Bill Gertz says it's "Much more realistic than Tom Ricks' Making the Corps. Only a real Marine could tell the story this well."

Pfc. Rattee, a Basic Marine who's waiting to be medically separated, is gearing up to start promoting the memoir.

“I’m semper excited,” said the eighteen year-old from Crane, TX while doing his best drill instructor voice. “What we went through down the road … it was frightening and life changing. I felt that our story needed to be told. It's a tribute to my brothers, who so willfully put themselves in danger of being yelled at.”