Freaks of a Feather
A Marine Grunt's Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Patrick Kirchner
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By:
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Kacy Tellessen
About this listen
Kacy Tellessen is a grunt. After completing high school in rural Washington, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and began the hero's journey he imagined might parallel those epic tales he'd consumed throughout adolescence. But what Tellessen lived through—from boot camp to the battlefield and home again—had little in common with Homer's tales or Hollywood's depictions.
In his memoir, Tellessen offers a truer account of life as an infantryman: the complicated, conflicting, adrenaline-pumping, and traumatic experience of war. Though much of our country's fighting and dying is done by infantry members, few accounts detail the grunt experience with as much clarity and vulnerability as Freaks of a Feather.
Kacy was born in Spokane and raised in Spangle, Washington, a small farming community that clings to the edge of the Palouse. Kacy joined the Marine Corps infantry directly out of high school and deployed twice to Iraq as an Infantry machine gunner with Second Battalion, Third Marines from 2005-2009. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Zero-Dark-Thirty literary journal, as well as the soflete website.
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Critic reviews
"Powerful prose, honest and humble. Only a Marine could write this. I’d be proud to have Kacy in my gun-team. Semper Fi." (Johnnie Clark, author of the best-selling military classic Guns Up!)
"As introspective as he is entertaining, Tellessen uses a captivating blend of muscular and minimalistic prose to give us an uncomfortably honest look at where courage and nature diverge. Freaks of a Feather immediately separates itself from the litany of exploitative military accounts by avoiding political grandstanding or vicarious violence in favor of a remarkably intimate and often heart-pounding narrative. Despite this being his debut, Tellessen is able to use the deft touch of a seasoned writer to relay his story in a way that feels universal and yet wholly personal. This book will stay at the front of my mind and my shelf for years to come." (James Wade, Spur award-winning author of All Things Left Wild and River, Sing Out)
"Tellessen’s memoir opens at the cyclic rate and never lets up. Freaks of a Feather is a book that you’ll stick in your cargo pocket and never leave more than one arm’s distance until you’ve read it cover-to-cover." (Major Thomas Schueman, USMC infantry officer and English instructor at the Naval Academy)
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Story
The Last Punisher is a bold, no-holds-barred first-person account of the Iraq War. With wry humor and moving testimony, Kevin Lacz tells the story of his tour in Iraq with SEAL Team Three, the warrior elite of the navy. This legendary unit, known as The Punishers, included Chris Kyle ( American Sniper), Mike Monsoor, Ryan Job, and Marc Lee. These brave men were instrumental in securing the key locations in the pivotal 2006 Battle of Ramadi, told with stunning detail in this book.
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Good story, poorly read
- By Dusty on 09-03-16
By: Kevin Lacz, and others
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The Long Walk
- A Story of War and the Life That Follows
- By: Brian Castner
- Narrated by: Brian Castner
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq. Days and nights he and his team—his brothers—would venture forth in heavily armed convoys from their Forward Operating Base to engage in the nerve-racking yet strangely exhilarating work of either disarming the deadly improvised explosive devices that had been discovered, or picking up the pieces when the alert came too late.
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Heart wrenching and a compelling read
- By J. Masters on 08-08-12
By: Brian Castner
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The Reaper
- Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers
- By: Gary Brozek, Nicholas Irving
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Groundbreaking, thrilling and revealing, The Reaper is the astonishing memoir of Special Operations Direct Action Sniper Nicholas Irving, the 3rd Ranger Battalion's deadliest sniper with 33 confirmed kills, though his remarkable career total, including probables, is unknown. Irving shares the true story of his extraordinary military career, including his deployment to Afghanistan in the summer of 2009, when he set another record, this time for enemy kills on a single deployment.
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Great story
- By SteveS on 11-18-15
By: Gary Brozek, and others
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Policing Saigon
- By: Loren W. Christensen
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Policing Saigon isn't Platoon or Apocalypse Now, but the story of Loren W. Christensen's experience as a military policeman (MP) in a city of millions at a time when chaos and fear reigned. As a 23-year-old from a small town in Washington State, the author was plunged into a chaotic city of brawling servicemen, prostitutes, racial violence, enemy rockets, riots, and death. It was a place that would give him a unique opportunity to see up close a different side of the Vietnam War and its effect on the human condition.
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Forget about it.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-22-21
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The Hooligans of Kandahar: Not All War Stories Are Heroic
- By: Joseph Kassabian
- Narrated by: Thomas Dukeman
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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During the peak of the Afghanistan War, a group of soldiers is dropped by helicopter into the remote mountains outside of Kandahar City. Mismanaged and overlooked by command, the squad must rely on each other to survive. Their mission is to train and advise the Afghan National Police and help rebuild the country of Afghanistan. The Afghan Police station they are assigned to live in is falling apart and disease-ridden.
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The narrator is important
- By H Lambert on 05-21-19
By: Joseph Kassabian
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Scars and Stripes
- An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself
- By: Tim Kennedy, Nick Palmisciano
- Narrated by: Tim Kennedy
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Tim Kennedy has a problem; he only feels alive right before he’s about to die. Kennedy, a Green Beret, decorated Army sniper, and UFC headliner, has tackled a bull with his bare hands, jumped out of airplanes, dove to the depths of the ocean, and traveled the world hunting poachers, human traffickers, and the Taliban. But he’s also the same man who got kicked out of the police department, fire department, and as an EMT, before getting two women pregnant four days apart, and finally, been beaten up by his Special Forces colleagues.
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First review!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 06-07-22
By: Tim Kennedy, and others
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Dispatches
- By: Michael Herr
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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From its terrifying opening to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time.
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All of the reviews are correct.
- By Mark Thoreson on 01-18-22
By: Michael Herr
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Shade it Black
- Death and After in Iraq
- By: Jessica Goodell, John Hearn
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Jess enlisted in the Marines immediately after graduating from high school in 2001, and in 2004 she volunteered to serve in the Marine Corps' first officially declared Mortuary Affairs unit in Iraq. Her platoon was tasked with recovering and processing the remains of fallen soldiers. With sensitivity and insight, Jess describes her job retrieving and examining the remains of fellow soldiers lost in combat in Iraq, and the psychological intricacy of coping with their fates, as well as her own.
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Credit-Worthy Slug to the Gut
- By Gillian on 03-25-14
By: Jessica Goodell, and others
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Cold Zero
- Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team
- By: Christopher Whitcomb
- Narrated by: Christopher Whitcomb
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
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With the immediacy and force of a sniper's strike, Cold Zero is a blistering first-person account of life inside the FBI and its elite Hostage Rescue Team.
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Fact check
- By Rob on 12-18-06
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Outlaw Platoon
- Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan
- By: Sean Parnell, John Bruning
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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At 24 years of age, U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell was named commander of a forty-man elite infantry platoon - a unit that came to be known as the Outlaws - and was tasked with rooting out Pakistan-based insurgents from a mountain valley along Afghanistan's eastern frontier. Parnell and his men assumed they would be facing a ragtag bunch of civilians, but in May 2006 what started out as a routine patrol through the lower mountains of the Hindu Kush became a brutal ambush.
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Great book...Everyone should listen to this book!!
- By Chris on 04-09-12
By: Sean Parnell, and others
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Two Wars
- One Hero's Fight on Two Fronts: Abroad and Within
- By: Nate Self
- Narrated by: Nate Self
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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For the first time, Army Ranger hero Nate Self tells his story. Self recounts the Roberts Ridge Rescue mission, the ferocious battles in Afghanistan, and the lone war of attrition that Nate Self has waged against post-traumatic stress disorder. This audio will become a go-to work for understanding the long-term effects of the war on terror. Thousands of families are fighting this battle, and Nate Self opens up his whole life - tragedies, successes, failures, and a struggle with suicidal thoughts - to share the facts.
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a incredible story of a true man of character
- By T Wilcox on 12-21-24
By: Nate Self
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Germline
- The Subterrene War, Book 1
- By: T. C. McCarthy
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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One hundred years from now, Russia and the United States are at odds again. This time the war has gone hot. Heavily armored soldiers battle genetically engineered troops hundreds of meters below the icy, mineral-rich mountains of Kazakhstan. War is Oscar Wendell’s ticket to greatness. A reporter for the Stars and Stripes, he has the only one-way ticket to the front lines. The front smells of blood and fire and death—it smells like a Pulitzer.
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Great Story Marred by Poor Performance
- By The Lance Gifford on 09-10-11
By: T. C. McCarthy
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WAR
- By: Sebastian Junger
- Narrated by: Sebastian Junger
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Junger turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat - the fear, the honor, and the trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.
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Why we fight re-visited
- By J on 09-20-10
By: Sebastian Junger
What listeners say about Freaks of a Feather
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ryan Lundquist
- 04-29-22
An irreverent and real look at life in a combat unit
This book captures the fighting spirit of boys who voluntarily force themselves into manhood. It’s an egotistical memoir (not in a bad way) that is honest about how young men think before, during, and after wartime.
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- Bob Johnson
- 05-08-22
A very personal and moving memoir
If you’ve never served in a war zone, or even if you have, this story walks you through that experience in a very raw, personal and, sometimes, graphic way. The author is honest, reflective and sharing and doesn’t mask what a tour is like and how it impacted himself, his friends and his family. Patrick Kirchner’s narration was well paced, emotional and told as only a fellow Marine could tell. This story will make you cry, make you laugh and, most importantly, make you think about what war does to soldiers, both in the field and when they return home. Thank you Kacy for sharing your story and thank you Patrick for your narration.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-11-23
A look into what it was really like
As an Iraq veteran I haven’t read many books about the war, but this one captured my attention from the start. Kacey descriptively explains what felt like my own personal journey as a young man going to the Marine Corps looking for heroism and glory. Great book! Thanks for writing it!
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- Anonymous User
- 10-18-22
Honest telling of expectations and reality
Imagine Ralphie goes to Iraq type dialogue and narration. Brought up many feelings I had forgotten and shows a familiar tape that all Marines will recognize.
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- Sean
- 04-16-22
An honest telling of war and the struggle after.
To truly listen to this tale will change a person's perception of what those of us who go to war feel, live and hide. Kacy is brutally honest in his words and gives voice to many of us who have been there, done that and really can't explain.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amanda Bradford
- 05-02-22
Semper Fidelis fellow Island Warrior brother
Phenomenal book by a fellow Island Warrior brother! Long live the brotherhood and Semper Fidelis to the 23 Heroes who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Haditha triad deployment
Cpl. Matthew Bradford 2/3 Echo
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- John
- 10-16-22
Awesome
Kacy Tellesen pulls no punches when it comes to his tale of his experience in the Marine Corps infantry. He drills home almost every aspect of training and deploying like only someone who was there can. His understanding of the drive of the young grunt and the turmoil of returning home is raw and exactly on point.
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- Greg
- 07-21-23
I enjoyed this book.
Kacy is an intelligent, talented writer. His account gave me an insight into a world I will never experience in real life, but a valuable taste of what Marines have survived and overcome.
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- Josh C.
- 04-11-22
The full arch of the GWOT grunt experience
A cliché GWOT grunt’s story made EXCEPTIONAL through Kacy’s beautiful writing and heartbreaking candor. From insecure teenager, to salty grunt, then combat veteran; his hero’s journey does not shy away from the human consequences of experiencing war. This book belongs on any shelf, next to Leckie, Sledge, and Caputo.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Brandon Hart
- 07-26-23
great book for overseas veterans to read
it was a good book to describe a lot of similarities to a lot of veterans with deployment experience and I would recommend this for any of them to listen to or read
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