Author: Peter S. Kindsvatter Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 480
Book Description
Some warriors are drawn to the thrill of combat and find it the defining moment of their lives. Others fall victim to fear, exhaustion, impaired reasoning and despair. This book synthesizes the wartime experiences of American soldiers, from the doughboys of World War I to the grunts of Vietnam. Focusing on both soldiers and marines, it draws on histories and memoirs, oral histories, psychological and sociological studies and even fiction to show that their experiences remain fundamentally the same regardless of the enemy, terrain, training or weaponry.
Author: Tommy R. Franks Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 0061739219 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 640
Book Description
To America, he was a hero. To his troops, he was a soldier. Now hear his story. Each new era in American history has given rise to a military leader who defines the nation’s proudest traditions—of leadership and honor, of vision and commitment and courage in the face of any challenge. From Washington and U.S. Grant to Dwight D. Eisenhower and Norman Schwarzkopf, these men have captured the nation’s imagination, and entered the small pantheon of
Author: Mary Louise Roberts Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226923096 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 364
Book Description
How do you convince men to charge across heavily mined beaches into deadly machine-gun fire? Do you appeal to their bonds with their fellow soldiers, their patriotism, their desire to end tyranny and mass murder? Certainly—but if you’re the US Army in 1944, you also try another tack: you dangle the lure of beautiful French women, waiting just on the other side of the wire, ready to reward their liberators in oh so many ways. That’s not the picture of the Greatest Generation that we’ve been given, but it’s the one Mary Louise Roberts paints to devastating effect in What Soldiers Do. Drawing on an incredible range of sources, including news reports, propaganda and training materials, official planning documents, wartime diaries, and memoirs, Roberts tells the fascinating and troubling story of how the US military command systematically spread—and then exploited—the myth of French women as sexually experienced and available. The resulting chaos—ranging from flagrant public sex with prostitutes to outright rape and rampant venereal disease—horrified the war-weary and demoralized French population. The sexual predation, and the blithe response of the American military leadership, also caused serious friction between the two nations just as they were attempting to settle questions of long-term control over the liberated territories and the restoration of French sovereignty. While never denying the achievement of D-Day, or the bravery of the soldiers who took part, What Soldiers Do reminds us that history is always more useful—and more interesting—when it is most honest, and when it goes beyond the burnished beauty of nostalgia to grapple with the real lives and real mistakes of the people who lived it.
Author: Howard L. Rosenberg Publisher: ISBN: Category : Atomic bomb Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
While focusing on one victim in particular, Rosenberg examines the grim statistics concerning the 300,000 American soldiers who, between 1948 and 1963, were deliberately exposed to high-level radiation durin g Pentagon-sponsored nuclear tests.
Author: United States Army Publisher: www.bnpublishing.com ISBN: 9781607960805 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 56
Book Description
The advice in Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq during World War II, presented here in a new facsimile edition, retains a surprising, even haunting, relevance in light of today's muddled efforts to win Iraqi hearts and minds. Designed to help American soldiers understand and cope with what was at the time an utterly unfamiliar culture-the manual explains how to pronounce the word Iraq, for instance-this brief, accessible handbook mixes do-and-don't-style tips ("Always respect the Moslem women." "Talk Arabic if you can to the people. No matter how badly you do it, they will like it.") with general observations on Iraqi history and society. The book's overall message still rings true-dramatically so-more than sixty years later: treat an Iraqi and his family with honor and respect, and you will have a strong ally; treat him with disrespect and you will create an unyielding enemy.
Author: Stephen E. Ambrose Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1476740259 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 528
Book Description
From Stephen E. Ambrose, bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of the bitterest days of World War II. In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war. From the high command down to the ordinary soldier, Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews to re-create the war experience with startling clarity and immediacy. From the hedgerows of Normandy to the overrunning of Germany, Ambrose tells the real story of World War II from the perspective of the men and women who fought it.
Author: Aaron Hiltner Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022668718X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
American soldiers overseas during World War II were famously said to be “overpaid, oversexed, and over here.” But the assaults, rapes, and other brutal acts didn’t only happen elsewhere, far away from a home front depicted as safe and unscathed by the “good war.” To the contrary, millions of American and Allied troops regularly poured into ports like New York and Los Angeles while on leave. Euphemistically called “friendly invasions,” these crowds of men then forced civilians to contend with the same kinds of crime and sexual assault unfolding in places like Britain, France, and Australia. With unsettling clarity, Aaron Hiltner reveals what American troops really did on the home front. While GIs are imagined to have spent much of the war in Europe or the Pacific, before the run-up to D-Day in the spring of 1944 as many as 75% of soldiers were stationed in US port cities, including more than three million who moved through New York City. In these cities, largely uncontrolled soldiers sought and found alcohol and sex, and the civilians living there—women in particular—were not safe from the violence fomented by these de facto occupying armies. Troops brought their pocketbooks and demand for “dangerous fun” to both red-light districts and city centers, creating a new geography of vice that challenged local police, politicians, and civilians. Military authorities, focused above all else on the war effort, invoked written and unwritten legal codes to grant troops near immunity to civil policing and prosecution. The dangerous reality of life on the home front was well known at the time—even if it has subsequently been buried beneath nostalgia for the “greatest generation.” Drawing on previously unseen military archival records, Hiltner recovers a mostly forgotten chapter of World War II history, demonstrating that the war’s ill effects were felt all over—including by those supposedly safe back home.
Author: Ryan Zinke Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM ISBN: 0718081676 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 298
Book Description
In recent years, the world has learned just what is required to bravely serve America through the navy’s most elite SEAL Team. Now, for the first time, we hear from their commander. For more than half a decade, Ryan Zinke was a commander at the most elite SEAL unit. A 23-year veteran of the US Navy SEALs, Zinke is a decorated officer and earned two Bronze Stars as the acting commander of Joint Special Forces in Iraq. Zinke trained and commanded many of the men who would one day run the covert operations to hunt down Osama bin Laden and save Captain Phillips (Maersk Alabama). He also served as mentor to now famous SEALs Marcus Luttrell (Lone Survivor) and Chris Kyle (American Sniper). Written with #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of American Sniper, Scott McEwen, American Commander will offer readers the hard-hitting, no-nonsense style the SEALs are known for. When Zinke signs with the US Navy he turns his sights on joining the ranks of the most elite fighting force, the SEALs. He eventually reaches the top of the SEAL Teams as an assault team commander. Zinke shares what it takes to train and motivate the most celebrated group of warriors on earth and then send them into harm’s way. Through it, he shares his proven problem-solving approach: Situation, Mission, Execution, Command and Control, and Logistics. American Commander also covers Zinke’s experience in running for Montana’s sole seat in the United States Congress. Zinke’s passion for his country shines as he conveys his vision to revitalize American exceptionalism. Scott McEwen and Ryan Zinke take readers behind the scenes and into the heart of America’s most-feared fighting force. American Commander will inspire a new generation of leaders charged with restoring a bright future for our children’s children.
Author: United States Army Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226841758 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 87
Book Description
“You are about to play a personal part in pushing the Germans out of France. Whatever part you take—rifleman, hospital orderly, mechanic, pilot, clerk, gunner, truck driver—you will be an essential factor in a great effort.” As American soldiers fanned out from their beachhead in Normandy in June of 1944 and began the liberation of France, every soldier carried that reminder in his kit. A compact trove of knowledge and reassurance, Instructions for American Servicemen in France during World War II was issued to soldiers just before they embarked for France to help them understand both why they were going and what they’d find when they got there. After lying unseen in Army archives for decades, this remarkable guide is now available in a new facsimile edition that reproduces the full text and illustrations of the original along with a new introduction by Rick Atkinson setting the book in context. Written in a straightforward, personal tone, the pamphlet is equal parts guidebook, cultural snapshot, and propaganda piece. A central aim is to dispel any prejudices American soldiers may have about the French—especially relating to their quick capitulation in 1940. Warning soldiers that the defeat “is a raw spot which the Nazis have been riding” since the occupation began, Instructions is careful to highlight France’s long historical role as a major U.S. ally. Following that is a brief, fascinating sketch of the French character (“The French are mentally quick;” “Rich or poor, they are economical”) and stark reminders of the deprivation the French have endured under occupation. Yet an air of reassuring confidence pervades the final section of the pamphlet, which reads like a straightforward tourists’ guide to Paris and the provinces—like a promise of better days to come once the soldiers complete their mission. Written by anonymous War Department staffers to meet the urgent needs of the moment, with no thought of its historical value, Instructionsfor American Servicemen in France during World War II nevertheless brings to vivid life the closing years of World War II—when optimism was growing, but a long, demanding road still lay ahead.
Author: Peter S. Kindsvatter
Author: Tommy R. Franks
Author: Mary Louise Roberts
Author: Michael V. Uschan
Author: Howard L. Rosenberg
Author: United States Army
Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Author: Aaron Hiltner
Author: Ryan Zinke
Author: United States Army