Always Forward, both the title and the mantra of this raw and stirring memoir by US Marine combat veteran John Mattia. It's a saga of survival and personal growth that takes the reader from the grit and despair of inner-city Detroit to the war-torn slums of Mogadishu. A troubled family life left Mattia homeless at the age of thirteen and while living on the streets, he saw firsthand how the Motor City deteriorated into one of the most corrupt and dangerous cities in America, where graft was routine and finding dead bodies seldom raised eyebrows. As a teenager hustler he rubbed shoulders with notorious urban gangs, sold drugs to middle-class housewives, carried and used a gun for self-protection.

However, this hunt-or-be-hunted existence couldn't smother Mattia's dreams of a better life. But no matter how hard he tried to improve his circumstances, as long as he remained in Detroit, his choices narrowed to prison or getting murdered.

Mattia saw the military as a way out and he was drawn by the challenge offered by the USMC. Because of his hard-driving attitude and expert marksmanship, he was selected for elite Scout Sniper training. We share Mattia's anxieties and fears as he takes us alongside combat deployments for Operation Desert Storm, then Somalia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. We're boots on the ground in classified sniper missions to take out "high-value" targets in what Mattia describes as cold-blooded "mob hits" for Uncle Sam.

This is not a politician or general's account of world affairs but a grunt's view from the sharp point of international diplomacy by force. Mattia credits his wife for keeping his moral compass fixed in the right direction, helping him navigate the high and lows of a traumatic upbringing, a demanding military career, and the eventual return to civilian life, proving that love, discipline, and a belief in yourself is what keeps you moving Always Forward.