Save the Last Bullet for Yourself

The down-to-earth memoir of a modern mercenary via Harvard … This is the tale of Rob Krott, a U.S. Army officer who after leaving active duty found adventure in the early days of the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Somalia. Stripped of the glamour and mystique surrounding the mercenary profession, Save the Last Bullet for Yourself is a no-holds-barred look at private soldiering in the 1990’s, pulling no punches in chronicling the role of modern day soldiers of fortune in the most violent, bloody, ethnic conflicts of the past decade.Krott recounts soldiering with a mixed bag of humanity’s flotsam: the has-beens, wannabes, gutter-trash, homicidal psychotics, criminals, and the occasional professional soldier for hire. In the middle of all this is the author—an idealistic, Harvard-educated ex-Army captain who just wants to follow his true calling: leading troops in combat.Krott, travels to Croatia in early 1992 and joins the fledgling Croatian Army as a volunteer in the war against Serbia, which is backed by the former Yugoslav Army. Commissioned as an officer in a Croatian Commando unit, he leads combat patrols along the free-fire-zone border. He then sets up a training program for the Commandos, leads forays against Serb positions, snipes enemy soldiers, becomes involved in intrigue, and leaves Croatia just as the Bosnian conflict starts.He then undertakes a mission in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope as a contracted consultant to the U.S. Army, supervising 100 Somali speakers recruited in Washington.Krott then returns to the Balkans, this time to Bosnia, commanding a unit of multinational “volunteers” and serving as a brigade staff major with the Bosnian-Croat Defense Force. It was there that a foreign mercenary attempted to kill him.With humor, insight, and a keen eye for the often-absurd world of ad hoc warfare, Krott’s account provides the reader an inside look at the shadowy world of professional soldiers for hire, for all its hardship and excitement.