G. Michael Hopf
"Lerette's, Guns, Girls, & Greed, gives an inside and candid look into the life and times of a United States contractor serving with this now infamous company. A topic and the story so serious in nature, yet Lerette still weaves in his unique brand of humor and levity into each page. Welcome to Blackwater is a welcome addition to the vast array of books on the American involvement in Iraq and gives a perspective most don't."
Maj Scott A. Huesing
A brilliant, one-of-a-kind story—Guns, Girls, and Greed is where I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (Tucker Max) meets Generation Kill (Evan Wright). Dark, real-life, humor tipped with a murkier shade of war that every American must read. An amazing, fast-paced ride with men who dared to be mercenaries during the Iraq War who were paid for by the US Government.
Lerette shares it all in this exceptional story. A must-read that is so gripping and humorous at the same time you won’t be able to put it down.
Greg Young
“Guns, Girls, and Greed may be the most important book about the reality of one of America’s longest and most controversial wars—and how America still operates in the gray in hot spots and wars around the world.”
Benjamin Sledge
"Imagine a narrative where Hunter S. Thompson takes on the role of a Blackwater mercenary during the Iraq War. Picture absurd antics, devastating loss of life, and a scathing critique of political elites growing rich off the backs of those in the war zones, all while using private military contractors to do their dirty work. This is what Morgan Lerette's book delivers, and it's bloody brilliant."
Jay Mohr
Lerette delivers a powerful; piece of literature.
Every single page of this book is fascinating! Guns, Girls, and Greed is a book you put down just so you won’t finish it. The idea of the book coming to an end was a true source of anxiety for me.
Lerette has shared with us a life overflowing with both purpose and chaos - delivering a mellifluous read that feels like you’re on a water slide or free falling through most pages.
Kirkus Reviews
2023-11-11
An ex-Blackwater contractor’s account of the 18 months he spent in Iraq between 2004 and 2005.
As military veteran Lerette writes, he joined Blackwater “to help rebuild Iraq, protect diplomats, and make a shit-ton of money in the process. I was successful with the latter two.” At the time, the situation was “anarchy.” The armored trucks he and his colleagues were told they would drive were actually “soft-skinned vehicles,” and their personal body protection was inadequate. “This [was] a shitshow, but after the military, it [didn’t] faze me,” he writes. “The Air Force sent me into Iraq with a single chest plate with the option of choosing to put it in the front or the back of my Kevlar vest.” The author is unsparing in his depiction of the bloody combat and the toll it took on men who worked through incipient PTSD by “getting wasted, ordering hookers, and screaming in the hallway.” Lerette is also unafraid to share the colorful expletives he and his colleagues used among themselves—and which appear on almost every page. At the same time, in the tradition of Joseph Heller, Lerette manages to see gallows humor in almost every situation. Aware of his own mortality and expendability, for example, he likens the “white-trash mug shot” ID badge to “a medallion Flavor Flav would envy.” Like “a character at an amusement park,” he was simply a short-term hire meant to play a role with no intrinsic meaning other than to help an organization profit from a conflict to which the U.S. government would not commit ample troops. Though not likely to appeal to a general audience, this book will no doubt interest those seeking a boots-on-the-ground perspective on both Blackwater and the Iraq War.
Gritty, candid, and darkly funny.
