A good read that I was excited to gain access to and it hit a sweet spot in this genre. A story about the author's time in the military where he was part of a lot of the conflicts the West has fought in the last 20 years. The author has a very easy style about him and makes the book very readable. He does not try to sugarcoat anything which makes his story all the more believable. He may have not been the most conventional of military men but seemed to care about his men and the mission.
Thank you Netgalley, by Col Andrew Milburn, Pen & Sword and Pen & Sword Military for the ARC for my honest review.

"When the Tempest Gathers" is a very different type of book than most military memoirs I have read. It's much better, in fact, I would put it at the top of my favorites.
The author, Andrew Milburn is an excellent writer. His intelligence and passion are way above the norm. Thirty two years in the Marine Corps! What a patriot. And his descriptive abilities are outstanding. While many authors can (almost) make you feel like you are in the event, Milburn's ability is to make you feel like you are INSIDE his head! The result is sometimes actually frightening. You are seeing the battles as if he is wearing a Go-Pro camera, and you are actually reading his mind.
The author did not come to the Marine Corp via the "normal" route. Far from it. He is the son of a British father and American mother, and was born in Hong Kong. He attended English boarding schools, went to St Paul's School in London (studying philosophy), then University College in London, and finally studied law at Westminster University. All followed by a crazy journey to see a girl in Australia, via travel through Europe and Iran. How he ended up in the USMC is a great story, but I don't want to spoil it for you.
Starting out as an infantryman (another great story), over the course of the next three decades he found himself in Somalia, Columbia, Ethiopia, Liberia, Iraq, Libya, back to Iraq and on to Afghanistan. Worked his way up the ranks until he commanded a Special Operations Joint Task Force. The man has seen it all!
I found myself taking notes throughout the book. Just to reread later. Way too many to list here (besides, it would ruin the story for you).
Suffice it to say that he covered his thoughts on the Iraqi Army; on combat stress; the beginnings of ISIS (and why it happened); the contrasts in different country's military's (especially interesting was the different principle of mission command from Canada to the United States). He covers his feeling about the top heavy command in the United States (never in the field of human conflict have so many invested so much, to lead so few). I enjoyed his explanations on various Marine Corp doctrines. Finally, I really appreciated his thoughts on our current administration's policy of killing the top people of an organization, and how he would do it differently. If only from his lips to the President's ears!
Milburn's battle scenes were incredible. But what I found unusual was his willingness to share his personal feelings, doubts, and regrets. Not at all the typical Marine.
I wish that I could meet the author. I feel that one couldn't help but improve one's self just by being around him.
I highly recommend this book!

Milburn is a very good writer, his rather unusual education (trained to be a lawyer in England) really infuses his powers of description and pacing. He gives an unglossed account of his career with the marines and every bit of blood, sweat, tears, dust and grief is given a good airing.

At no point does the book lose its way or become boring, it maintained my interest throughout and the cast of side characters he meets along the way certainly add spice to proceedings.

I thoroughly recommend this book for anyone with even the slightest interest in military history. Milburn, rather helpfully, names books and authors of military history who cover some of the events he speaks of. I found this very useful as some of these books he mentions I have never heard of.

An excellent book.

You don’t need to be ex or serving in the military to enjoy this book, it’s been many many years (and a different army) since I served but this is a great book with candid honesty and emotion