This week on SOFREP Radio we were joined by Bing West, Marine Force Recon veteran, former Assistant Secretary of Defense to the Reagan administration and prolific author. In this episode, West walks us through his latest book, The Last Platoon, and talks about the Corps, the war in Afghanistan and much much more.

Read our full review of West’s latest book on SOFREP.

About Bing West

During the Vietnam War, he was a platoon leader in Force Recon leading over 100 combat patrols. When his tour (66-68) was completed, the Corps asked him to write a guide for Marines coming into the country. The guide was titled Small Unit Action in Vietnam and the military published over 100,000 copies of it.

Bing West spent time in Afghanistan with Marines on the ground when he was 70 years old.

Afterward, Bing served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Reagan administration. His son, Owen West, was also a Marine officer in Force Recon. Owen later became the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict under General Jim Mattis with whom Bing has co-authored a book.

Bing has authored 10 books centering on the Marine Corps. Many of them are about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where he made about 40 trips and spend time on the battlefields and with Marines in the field.