Recommended Summer Reading

[XASA]

I thought I'd take a chance and list some of the books that capture what military life and combat is all about on the chance some of the kids will perhaps read them and, hopefully, stop wasting bandwidth on airsoft, where-to-buy "Blackhawk Down" gear and what they're going to do when they experience combat. I'd be interested in hearing from others what military books inspired them.

My top 10 are:

"To Hell and Back" Audie Murphy
"The Forgotten Soldier" Guy Sajer
"The Longest Day" Corneilus Ryan
"From Here to Eternity" James Jones
"The Naked and the Dead" Norman Mailer
"Band of Brothers" Stephen Ambrose
"Guadalcanal Diary" Ricahrd Tregaskis
"Starship Troopers" Richard Heinlen
"About Face" David Hackworth
"The Face of War" John Keegan

[papabear]

As far as I know, all of Cornelius Ryan's major books on WW2 are still in print. Let me double check...

Last Battle, Longest Day, and A Bridge too Far are all available at Amazon.

I'd also recommend Rommel's Infantry Attacks and Glover S. Johns' The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo

[Gordon]

Here's a few:

"Ghost Force" Ken Connor - Lots of good stuff about the SAS.

"Fighting Scared" Robin Horsfall - Good stuff about the Paras and the SAS, paints a slightly different picture of the SAS compared to the majority of books.

" Rogue Warrior of the SAS: The Blair Mayne Legend" - Martin Dillon, Roy Bradford - I'd highly reccomend this one, the story of Paddy Mayne and his contribution to the SAS and WW2.

"Inside Delta Force" Eric Haney - I'll second that one.

"The Mammoth Book of SAS & Elite Forces" Ed. Jon E. Lewis - A collection of various accounts of various incidents from WW2 'til the present day, near enough.

"SBS: the Inside Story of the Special Boat Service" John Parker - A history of the SBS.

"The Forgotten Soldier" Guy Sajer - I'll second that one too.

[ESCOBAR]

PABLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LONG LIVE ESCOBAR

Lol............juss kidding, there's no relation by the way..........

[Duke]

Go basic, such as
Introduction to Land Navigation
Sun Tzu's Art of War
Making the Corps
Book of the Five Rings...

[Seraphim]

Right now Im reading SEALS In Action.

[Duke]

If Sun Tzu's is boring, read the Book of the Five Rings. Very good. Its an autobiography and tactics book by a ronin or samauri without a master. This guy goes around like a gunslinger challenging samurai left and right. Until he kills all the great ones. Then to make it a challenge for himself, he stops using a katana or long sword and starts using a wooden sword. And he continues winning!

[James]

Anything by Lyn Macdonald - oral histories of the Brits in WWI.
The Illusion of Victory (WWI) - Thomas Fleming
Fix Bayonets - John Thomason
At Belleau Wood - Robert Asprey

That's just a few. If it isn't clear, I enjoy researching World War One.

[Apogee]

The Hunt for Bin Laden

Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice by McRaven

The second book sets up a great system for eveluating special operations.

[ESCOBAR]

I havent read the book, i should. I watched the CNN Presents about Mr.Escobar and how the AMericans helped the Columbians find him and then killing him at the end.

[MEGR]

"In the Company of Heroes..." Very good book....
"Guns Up!" Also a very good, quick, and hard to put down book.

[marcman16]

I hafto say "Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles" by Anthony Swofford.
Great book, fast read, really interesting.

Swofford hated being a marine, but he was apparently a good and skilled soldier during his service. He was recruited from the ranks of grunts for a reconnaissance and sniping squad and was on the front line of the Gulf War's ground attack. In this memoir, Swofford's portrayal of the battlefield also contains flashbacks and flash-forwards of his personal life, which serve as platforms for his recurrent cynicism. Expressing it gives Swofford's prose an exaggerated style as he searches for variant...

Check out more about this book at : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743235355/002-5621022-1920067?vi=glance#product-details

[a. enders]

Book of the Five Rings...

Imagine my disgist when I found Miayamoto's masterpiece in the Buisness section.*insert puking emoticon here*Very practical instruction on swordsmanship,though.

[Bootneck]

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

"Go, tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie"

[Chris196]

"Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich"

By David Webster, one of the characters from Band of Brothers.

An excellent read of one man's combat experience in the 101st in WWII.

[vryhpyammoadded]

This summer has been pretty much dead for reading since a coworker is still in Iraq and I have had little time to read while holding the fort till his return. He's coming back next month. Yippy, hurray, I can now think about some vacation and maybe read some of those books you are all recommending.
Last summer I read a lot of books on either pilots or spies.

"Punk's War": Its great fiction about the not so glamorous life of an F-14 Jock. A good read, I really enjoyed it.

The same week I read the bio of Rudal, the WWII German Stuka pilot. I highly recommend it. Sorry but I can’t remember the title and hope I spelled his name right.

I also reread the Puzzle Palace and started on Body of Secrets.

The Great Santini

[t*BoNe]

Non-Fiction

No Room for Error, Col John T. Carney - Survey of Air Force Special Tactics Units since its inception and some SMUs they support

Bush at War, Bob Woodward - A recounting of the reasoning, atmosphere, and events within the Bush Administration post 9-11 as they prepare for war in Afghanistan

Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy Seal , Capt Robert A Gormly - Bio of his career as a SEAL as well as the eventual commander of SEAL Team 6

[Fargin]

"The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World" by Mark Hertzgaard

[XASA]

Great suggestions. Makes one realize that there are a lot of good books out there. Some I've read ("Gates of Fire," "Jarhead" and "Inside Delta Force") and can wholeheartedly agree they are great reads. The others I'm going to put on my list to read in the near future. Also, this thread has restored my faith in this forum. Not one negative comment (so far at least). Nice to see there are literate folks out there willing to share their knowledge :P

[Trigger]

Amen to that!
Great list of books fellas. Has anyone else read a pair of books by a Vietnam era SEAL named James C. Taylor? They were called 'Mekong' and 'Covert Actions' I haven't read many of the books on the list here, but for some really good SEAL type action reading, I would highly recommend them. According to the books they are fictionalized accounts of real situations.

[Midtown]

Anything Written By Ambrose I love.

-D-Day
-Citizen Soldier (prolly best book I've read)
-Band of Brothers


Parachute infantry was really good, I dug that alot

Im trying to get my hands on Durrants book, and Ghost Soldiers right now.

And Im currently reading Clancys Inside spec ops

[ibstolidude]

Hey is the new Harry Potter any good? :oops:

[Trigger]

Booo!
EYES UPPER LEFT rofl

[Bootneck]

Hey is the new Harry Potter any good? :oops:

Ok, I'll admit it - I've read all four of the previous Harry Potter books. Despite my wife having plowed through the new book in three days I've had it sitting on my night stand for weeks now and have never got past the first fifty pages. Not a negative review, just haven't been able to get into it yet. I picked up a biography of Alexander the Great instead and can highly recommend it.

Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B. C.: A Historical Biography by Peter Green.

I'm sure I'll get to Harry sooner or later. Hanging my head in shame...

:oops:

[Fargin]

'JARHEAD is not only a work of reportage from a "privileged" observer. It is also a dispaly of genuine talent'




'JARHEAD will go down with the best books ever written about military life'


I bought Jarhead on an impulse, for beach reading. Is it any good?

[a. enders]

Hell yes.

[James]

More ideas -

Currahee, The Road to Arnhem, Seven Roads to Hell, and Beyond the Rhine, all written by Donald R. Burgett. He served with A/1/506 PIR during WWII (Band of Brothers was written about E/2/506 PIR). These four books comprise his memoir of service in WWII. Very good reading.

As far as fiction goes, anything by Ralph Peters is worth taking a look at. His non fiction is well written and thought provoking as well.