Hate the War Honor the Soldier

Hate the War Honor the Soldier
Author: Robert M. Givens
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1480895210

Robert M. Givens grew up in the Midwest, graduating in 1966 from Millikin University in his hometown of Decatur, Illinois, and from Indiana University in 1968. He married his college sweetheart, Connie, and by age twenty-four worked as assistant to the dean of students at the University of Connecticut. His wife was a schoolteacher, and they both were hopeful that his job at a respected university and his age would help him avoid the draft. However, as the US increased its military involvement in Vietnam, more bodies were needed to fight in this unpopular war. Robert received his draft notice in early 1969, and, after five months of training, he was sent to serve in the infantry in South Vietnam. The war experiences were intensely personal for Robert. He thought his education somehow made him intellectually superior to most soldiers; he thought his age and marital status gave him some vocational privilege; he felt secure in his religious agnosticism. All of these views were challenged during his time in Vietnam. The war-time experiences were life changing for him. He and his fellow soldiers came home from a war in the fields of Vietnam to a war of protests raging in the streets of our cities. This story tells in poignant ways how these experiences eventually reformed Robert’s life including a new-found faith in the Lord. And years later, he found heroes who emerged and encouraged him and other returning soldiers, helping both them and our country to heal.

The Warrior Ethos

The Warrior Ethos
Author: Steven Pressfield
Publisher: Black Irish Entertainment LLC
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2011-03-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1936891018

WARS CHANGE, WARRIORS DON'T We are all warriors. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in. Do we fight by a code? If so, what is it? What is the Warrior Ethos? Where did it come from? What form does it take today? How do we (and how can we) use it and be true to it in our internal and external lives? The Warrior Ethos is intended not only for men and women in uniform, but artists, entrepreneurs and other warriors in other walks of life. The book examines the evolution of the warrior code of honor and "mental toughness." It goes back to the ancient Spartans and Athenians, to Caesar's Romans, Alexander's Macedonians and the Persians of Cyrus the Great (not excluding the Garden of Eden and the primitive hunting band). Sources include Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, Vegetius, Arrian and Curtius--and on down to Gen. George Patton, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan.

The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers

The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers
Author: Nancy Sherman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2010-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0393078078

"Brilliant . . . a must read for veterans and those who seek to understand them."—Huffington Post The Untold War draws on revealing interviews with servicemen and -women to offer keen psychological and philosophical insights into the experience of being a soldier. Bringing to light the ethical quandaries that soldiers face—torture, the thin line between fighters and civilians, and the anguish of killing even in a just war—Nancy Sherman opens our eyes to the fact that wars are fought internally as well as externally, enabling us to understand the emotional tolls that are so often overlooked.

Thank You for Your Service

Thank You for Your Service
Author: David Finkel
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0374710961

Now a Major Motion Picture Directed by American Sniper Writer Jason Hall and Starring Miles Teller No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous “surge”. Now, in Thank You for Your Service, Finkel tells the true story of those men as they return home from the front-lines of Baghdad and struggle to reintegrate--both into their family lives and into American society at large. Finkel is with these veterans in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover, and in doing so, he creates an indelible, essential portrait of what life after war is like--not just for these soldiers, but for their wives, widows, children, and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done. Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding, and it offers a more complete picture than we have ever had of two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for? “Finkel sketches a panoramic view of postwar life....A book that every American should read.” —Jake Tapper, Los Angeles Times Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. One of Ten Favorite Books of 2013 by Michiko Kakutani (The New York Times), a Washington Post Top Ten Book of the Year, and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

You Are Not Forgotten

You Are Not Forgotten
Author: Bryan Bender
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2014-05-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307946460

In 1944 Major Marion “Ryan” McCown Jr., an earnest young Marine Corps pilot, came under attack by enemy fire and went down with his plane, lost to the dense jungle of Papua New Guinea. Some sixty years later, Major George Eyster V would find himself in the same sweltering and nearly impenetrable rain forest searching for evidence of MIAs. Coming from a long line of military officers dating back to the Revolutionary War, army service was Eyster’s family legacy. After a disillusioning tour of duty in Iraq and almost ending his army career, he accepts a posting to JPAC instead, an elite division whose sole mission is to bring all fallen soldiers home to the country for which they gave their lives. While Eyster’s search for McCown proves difficult, what emerges at the end of the unforgettable mission is an inspiring true tale of loss and redemption.

What This Cruel War Was Over

What This Cruel War Was Over
Author: Chandra Manning
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2007-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307267431

Using letters, diaries, and regimental newspapers to take us inside the minds of Civil War soldiers—black and white, Northern and Southern—as they fought and marched across a divided country, this unprecedented account is “an essential contribution to our understanding of slavery and the Civil War" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). In this unprecedented account, Chandra Manning With stunning poise and narrative verve, Manning explores how the Union and Confederate soldiers came to identify slavery as the central issue of the war and what that meant for a tumultuous nation. This is a brilliant and eye-opening debut and an invaluable addition to our understanding of the Civil War as it has never been rendered before.

A Long Long War

A Long Long War
Author: Ken Wharton
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2008-05-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1907677607

The author of Bloody Belfast delivers “a vivid and unforgettable record” of the Northern Irish conflict that captures the “true horrors of war” (Best of British). There are stories from some of the most seminal moments during the troubles in Northern Ireland—the Crossmaglen firefights, the 1988 corporals killings, the Ballygawley bus bombing, and more—told from the perspective of the British soldiers who served there between 1969 and 1998. This was a war against terrorists who knew no mercy or compassion; a war involving sectarian hatred and violent death. Over 1,000 British lives were lost in a place just thirty minutes flying time away from the mainland. The British Army was sent into Northern Ireland on August 14, 1969, by the Wilson government as law and order had broken down and the population (mainly Catholics) and property were at grave risk. Between then and 1998, some 300,000 British troops served in Northern Ireland. This is their story—in their own words—from first to last. Receiving a remarkable amount of cooperation from Northern Ireland veterans eager to tell their story, the author has compiled a vivid and unforgettable record. Their experiences—sad and poignant, fearful and violent, courageous in the face of adversity, even downright hilarious—make for compelling reading. Their voices need to be heard. “One of the first and only books to offer the perspective of regular British soldiers serving in the Northern Irish conflict . . . a valuable addition to the extensive literature about the Irish Troubles.” —Choice

The Perilous Road

The Perilous Road
Author: William O. Steele
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2004
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780152052041

"This is one of Mr. Steele's best books, an engrossing, realistic story of a Tennessee mountain boy who, during the Civil War, comes to realize that war is terrible no matter where one's sympathies lie."--"Publishers Weekly."

They Were Soldiers

They Were Soldiers
Author: Joseph L. Galloway
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2020-05-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400208815

They Were Soldiers showcases the inspiring true stories of 49 Vietnam veterans who returned home from the "lost war" to enrich America's present and future. In this groundbreaking new book, Joseph L. Galloway, distinguished war correspondent and New York Times bestselling author of We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young, and Marvin J. Wolf, Vietnam veteran and award-winning author, reveal the private lives of those who returned from Vietnam to make astonishing contributions in science, medicine, business, and other arenas, and change America for the better. For decades, the soldiers who served in Vietnam were shunned by the American public and ignored by their government. Many were vilified or had their struggles to reintegrate into society magnified by distorted depictions of veterans as dangerous or demented. Even today, Vietnam veterans have not received their due. Until now. These profiles are touching and courageous, and often startling. They include veterans both known and unknown, including: Frederick Wallace (“Fred”) Smith, CEO and founder of FedEx Marshall Carter, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange Justice Eileen Moore, appellate judge who also serves as a mentor in California's Combat Veterans Court Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state under Colin Powell Guion “Guy” Bluford Jr., first African American in space Engrossing, moving, and eye-opening, They Were Soldiers is a magnificent tribute that gives long overdue honor and recognition to the soldiers of this "forgotten generation."