I have one friend who's a highly decorated marine, purple heart and some others. Badass dude, 33 yrs old and has seen more shit then I'm sure any of us ever will.
He has plans to write a book but he said he doesn't want his other marine friends to ostracize him since most of the guys he's came across look down on profiting from their service (aside from the combat pay - which paid for his house)
He told me that these ghost writers really do embellish their words to make a "story" apparently for some of these book the US government has to "sign off" on them. That sounds shady to me...like authorized propaganda.
He also said that what actually happened, vs what he remembers varies dramatically..and thats a common thing during high stress situations.