(Part 2) Best military leader biographies according to redditors
We found 1,932 Reddit comments discussing the best military leader biographies. We ranked the 705 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
If you really wanna hear about the horrors of tunnel warfare from both sides of the fence you might read this.
https://www.amazon.com/Tunnels-Chi-Harrowing-Underground-Battlefields/dp/0891418695/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484241637&sr=1-1&keywords=the+tunnels+of+cu+chi
But you won't find anything in there about the horrors Benoit and I saw.
In Canada, we have a man called Romeo Dallaire. He led the task force charged with stopping the Rwandan genocide.
As you may know, he essentially begged the world for help, and was turned down; it's detailed in his award-winning and utterly heartbreaking 2004 book Shake Hands With The Devil.
A few years after returning, he was found comatose under a park bench. He had tried to kill himself with liquor and medications.
He got the help he needed, and is now a Senator, and speaks out about veterans' mental health.
His story is so complicated to me - it's sad, tragic, but redemptive. The man saw genocide up close and personal, tried his best to stop it, and then had to sit by and watch while an entire country still burned to the ground despite his efforts.
Anyone would end up fucked up after that kind of experience.
It's definitely real: https://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Socialism-Guides/dp/1596986492
You beat me to the punch on this one, but it's not fair to say that Eddie Chapman "worked simultaneously" for both powers. Eddie, "Agent Zigzag," was a Briton by birth, was "turned" by the Germans (double agent), but upon being airdropped into England by the Abwehr (German for "Defense" -- the German spy agency before its late-war liquidation), turned himself in immediately to MI6 (triple agent), where he joined the Double Cross ("XX") team under Tar Robertson.
After joining XX, his handlers began to suspect that he was in fact a triple or quadruple agent (depending on how you count it), but he was faithful to England to the last.
Interestingly, there's also an indication that Chapman's German handler knew he was dealing falsely with the Abwehr, but kept running him anyways. The Abwehr was a known hotbed of anti-Nazi sentiment, which is why Himmler absorbed the department late in the war. (Source for the above: Agent ZigZag and Macintyre's other book, as well as Shirer's Rise and Fall).
Additionally, one of the XX Team handlers, whose name I forget, both ran double agents for England, and reported on the XX program to the Soviets. So he was a double-agent running double-agents.
Erwin Rommel (of WWII fame) served from the start. He has a memoir of his experience that, even while probably self-inflated, shows just how skilled he was as a tactician.
Edit: Crap, I forgot the even crazier one, Storm of Steel. This guy served almost the entire war on the western front, finally getting wounded (not for the first time) in August, 1918, 1.5 months before the war's end. No idea how he made it out, if his stories are even half true.
Read 'Shake Hands with the Devil', Peacekeeping can be a messy, nasty, expensive [not only in terms of money but morale and blood] business. I am not looking forward to a pivot back to being called a "Peacekeeping" force.
https://www.amazon.ca/Shake-Hands-Devil-Failure-Humanity/dp/0679311726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485302682&sr=8-1&keywords=shaking+hands+with+the+devil
If you want a no-bullshit amazing book about deployment, check out:
This book.
absolutely amazing and dead on.
I read it in this book..."The Tunnels of Cu-Chi".
From what I remember reading, it was rarely used and not really worth it, but they still did it here or there. It was extremely time-intensive to train them, but basically they would be used to the way the Vietnamese smelled or something, and they would be kept in an upside down jar...a "Tunnel Rat" would trip it or bump it and the lid would fall. Then you are stuck underground, on your stomach with hornets attacking you. I would rather get stung by a bunch of hornets than one of their poisonous snake traps.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Tunnels-Chi-Underground-Battlefields/dp/0891418695
This is the only article I could quickly find online.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19661128&id=Sv5XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=A_cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5188,1531543&hl=en
Jon Krakaur wrote a book, as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Men-Win-Glory-Odyssey/dp/0385522266
It really would not have been hard to look it up.
Roméo Dallaire is alive and well. He did suffer from pretty severe PTSD and attempted suicide, but survived. He is currently a member of the Canadian Senate.
His book Shake Hands With the Devil is required reading for anyone with an interest in the Rwandan Genocide. There is a documentary and a feature film of the same name.
Read Flyboys. Lots of testimonies, pictures, and evidence from both sides. The US had its fair share of atrocities during the war, but nobody is saying that both sides committing wrongs makes it right. I mean, at the ground zero of one of the nuclear bomb blasts was a PoW camp for captured soldiers.
TL;DR: It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we shall grow too fond of it. - R. E. Lee
Doesn't really line up 100% but could be Soldat by Siegfried Knappe.
https://www.amazon.com/Soldat-Reflections-German-Soldier-1936-1949/dp/0440215269
The same author also has a similar book on The Great Depression and the New Deal, feel free to take a crack at it. The author is also a creationist (pardon me, he actually "challenges the Darwinian paradigm" by promoting "intelligent design") who supports some of the craziest conspiracy theories about the UN.
Bonus: This book in the "Customers also bought this" section. Here's an enlarged cover and the books contents.
So here it is folks: Woodrow Wilson lead a Socialist coup on the US, Obama is a communist, healthcare reform is literally the Great Leap Forward all over again, it's just a matter of time before the US has Stalinist gulags around, "Socialism" has destroyed Sweden and Karl Marx has voted for Obama from beyond the grave!
I need a drink.
Not a direct answer, but if you want the American point-of-view during the same time period, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War and the companion PBS film
Whereas Flyboys is also a book about WWII pilots in the pacific theater and the horrible things that happened when they got shot down.
Yo, for the lot of you out there who do something other than stare at this boring comment all day, go read about Agent Zigzag. Fascinating character. Here's the Amazon link and the Wikipedia article. Discuss.
For anyone who would like to know, the following books I've read are my favorite and I'd really recommend them to anyone: The Martian by Andy Weir, Gerald's Game by Stephen King, The Panther by Nelson DeMille, Unflinching by Jodi Mitic, American Sniper by Chris Kyle, and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
EDIT: Oh, and Blackwater - The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill.
EDDIT 2: Oh, and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card which is so much better than the movie. The movie does not do this novel justice. And Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly.
Their tactics were better than decent. The Germans, Brits and French all developed effective tactics for seizing enemy trenches pretty quickly. That wasn't the problem. The problem is, how do you seize the first enemy line of trenches and hold it while you're under artillery fire and enemy infantry counter attack? You don't have effective radios and artillery is constantly cutting the phone lines you are able to lay. Signaling is difficult because of terrain, weather conditions, smoke created by fires and the fact that if you're visible enough to be seen by your support then you're also probably visible enough to be seen by the enemy. Even if the enemy doesn't counterattack immediately (which they would), how do you get to the second line of trenches under said conditions? How do you coordinate supporting fires and reinforcements when there is quite literally a wall of flying steel (barrage means wall/barricade in French, which is where the term comes from) between you and your start point?
The main issue was that the offensive technologies (communications, motorized vehicles, light supporting weapons, aerial weapons) hadn't caught up to the defense technologies (barbed wire, concrete pillboxes, heavy machine guns, massed artillery, rail-borne reinforcements). Even if you successfully seized line after line of trench, the enemy could always dig in behind their last line and pour in reinforcements via rail faster than you could break through. With all that said, strategically the allies were idiotic. Continuing to attack fortified German positions again and again and again with very little to show for it is just bad strategic judgement.
I've posted these links before, but if you'd like to educate yourself on WW1 infantry tactics/battle:
Stormtrooper Tactics
Infantry in Battle
To Conquer Hell
Infantry Attacks
Storm of Steel
PS. I know you can find the second one for free on the internet.
I think it is probably this one:
Attacks
https://www.amazon.com/Attacks-Erwin-Rommel/dp/0960273603/ref=la_B001H6J32W_1_1/168-0761651-4922548?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488196120&sr=1-1
Enjoy, great read. After this I would suggest Soldat. https://www.amazon.ca/Soldat-Reflections-German-Soldier-1936-1949/dp/0440215269
I agree with your concerns for the future of the moderate left, especially when I see the likes of Sanders and Corbyn. But, honestly, the party’s are responding to the incentives given to them. The last generation of liberal politicians was the most moderate produced by either political system in a generation. And what did they have to show for it? Torn apart by both sides as out-of-touch elite technocrats, with the attack from the right feeling even more vicious for the party’s moderation.
A couple of decades of that also makes it pretty hard to muster the energy to say, “no, no, we should take the other side’s concerns seriously.”
Take Kevin Williamson. I honestly just don’t have much concern left for defending the author of this. Jonah Goldberg is another good example. I follow him on Twitter and like his dogs, but every time he says something about civility in discourse, this cover flashes through my head.
My grandparents emigrated from the bloodlands of Europe of world war 2. I was raised to be well aware of the horrors of totalitarianism from either side of the spectrum. Telling me that because I think government has a role in the solution to societal problems puts me on the slippery spectrum to Stalin and Hitler is both intellectually lazy and deeply personally infuriating. It’s better articulated and researched, but it strikes the same chord with me as old school John Birch Society crap. It’s exactly why the one point I reacted against in the first place was claiming that no one links liberalism and communism.
So what motivation do I have to come to the defense of thinkers who apparently are willing to lump my political preferences in the same camp as the 20th century’s worst monsters? Again, I understand that nothing I’m saying is particularly fair or constructive, and you could point to plenty of authors on the left guilty of similar rhetoric. But I also don’t see a groundswell of discussion insisting that those authors get a voice on Fox News or the National Review. I’m tired of being in the only camp (moderate liberals) apparently expected to take everyone’s views and preferences into account.
I think my favorite thing is that almost every time I see a le fuk u amerikkka circlejerk, it's done via an American platform or website.
Snapshots:
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Your protocol is quite different than what I've seen in the past. Normally I've seen that the MDMA session is supported by therapy for a while beforehand to allow the person's issues to be front and center, and then a handful of sessions to work through the issues, normally three or four in the matter of a month or so. The therapy is there to get the ball rolling for the patient on their way to healing and to remind them how much in control they are over their own actions, beliefs, perceptions, and reactions, and so on.
The sessions are done for one person at a time, blindfolded, where the therapist is more of a sitter than a guide. The idea here is to let the MDMA do most of the work, not to treat it as a therapy session. The patient (one patient at a time) takes the MDMA puts on blindfolds, and sits in silence until they are ready to talk. The patient will inevitably bring up issues of their own, and often go through a psychedelic style internal journey as they work through their issues. The sitter is there to reassure the patient that they are safe and loved and to keep the patient on track if they get off course. The sitter also is responsible for the music because the music helps set the tempo, feel and can guide the patient deeper as needed. Music tends to be music without lyrics so as to let the patient go where they need to go on their own, without the external influence of ideas and notions. Music also tends to not be very popular or recognizable so the patient doesn't have preconceived notions and attachments. This is all to eliminate any outside stimulus and really be able to go into themselves smoothly.
The MDMA environment/setting is far more forgiving than other psychedelics. A comfortable place that feels safe, is clean and free of negativity in whatever form might upset the patient. Most of the sessions I've seen have been on a that curvy psychiatrist's chair or a couch.
After the sessions, the therapy is resumed to work through what came up during the session. The work needs to continue. The MDMA is not a magic bullet that will cure you. It's a tool to get you places so you can heal more directly.
It's not to say your protocol wont work, but I've just never seen it before. There is merit to taking it with that person and just talking. If you're not in a party setting you'll likely have a very good heart to heart. Through this method I was able to identify a deep loneliness I was experiencing and began a path to healing it. It's definitely healing, but a different beast than the prior described method, and far more gentle, but perhaps not as effective for really getting in there and pulling things up. The healing process of that particular wound took at least a year afterward and involved several sessions of different substances without a particular protocol. Here is the gist of my story specifically from the drug angle.
You can get really good examples of therapy sessions in TIKHAL chapter 14 - "The Intensive" where Ann Shulgin goes over her protocols for MDMA therapy, and in Acid Test which is a history of psychedelic therapy in the US and the story of MAPS. In the later chapters, I think around chapter 43, there is a really good narrative of a session, but I recommend the whole book since it all supports how the patient and therapist got to actually running the session and the reasoning behind it. You can read all of Tikhal/Pikhal, but there are only a few chapters that deal with therapy directly.
Also consider a psilocybin session, it can work very similarly. If nothing else research their protocols, which are again very similar, to understand what they are doing.
Some authors/notables to look up are Roland Griffiths and Stanislav Grof. Griffiths is currently conducting research at John Hopkins in MD with psilocybin, and Grof is a transpersonal psychologist who's done a lot of work in non-ordinary states and their healing potential.
Ti consiglio di leggere https://www.amazon.com/What-Like-War-Karl-Marlantes/dp/B0071UEX8W
È scritto bene, e spiega i fattori in gioco, alcuni dei quali noi civili non possiamo immaginare.
Hans-Ulrich Rudel writes of doing this pretty regularly in his Stuka in his book, the appropriately-named Stuka Pilot.
Basically, they'd pick up friends who got shot down. I'm not sure where they put them. Hang on tight?
If I did this in-game, I'm pretty sure I would manage to overshoot the landing and they would point-blank destroy me as I rolled past.
Check out "Acid Test"
It is a recent work and well supported. The MAPS website has been promoting it. Might be what you need.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0147516374/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1458189640&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=acid+test&dpPl=1&dpID=51cD8ss2AhL&ref=plSrch
My favorites:
Malarkey: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Company-Soldier-Legendary-Sergeant/dp/031256323X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394469882&sr=8-1&keywords=donald+malarkey
Winters: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Band-Brothers-Memoirs-Winters/dp/0425213757/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394469901&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+winters
Babe and Wild Bill: http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Battle-Friends-William-Guarnere/dp/0425224368/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394469927&sr=1-1&keywords=babe+heffron
And Compton: http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Before-During-Brothers/dp/0425227871/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394469942&sr=1-1&keywords=buck+compton
http://www.amazon.com/Band-Brothers-Regiment-Airborne-Normandy/dp/074322454X
>desinged to operate for long periods at 3.5 times the speed of sound
FTFY!
This is, to this day, my favorite aircraft ... hell my favorite machine, built by man.
May I recommend picking up a copy of Flying the SR-71 by retired Colonel Richard H. Graham? I always get the weirdest boner reading this book.
Edit: Hell, if you haven't read it yet and do not have the means to pick up a copy, I will buy it for you. Just send me your info in PM.
Agent Zigzag is the true story of a WW2 double agent that is so damn good you can't believe it all really happened. Do yourself a favour and read it. https://www.amazon.com/Agent-Zigzag-Story-Espionage-Betrayal/dp/0307353419
Thank you for sharing that! I agree! Once I had the chance to chat with the late Donald Malarkey, one of the "Band of Brothers," and he said to me: "I volunteered to serve my country, I was a paratrooper, I'm proud of what I did, but I am NOT a hero!" His book Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's "Band of Brothers" is a powerful read. He grew up in Astoria and attended the University of Oregon after the war.
With Wings Like Eagles
The Blonde Knight of Germany
Stuka Pilot Be forewarned, the man was an unrepentant Nazi.
Samurai!
Edit: If you want some non-aviation but still military books:
Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 World War I and Its Violent Climax
The Last Battle
Slaughterhouse 5 Fiction
The Things They Carried
To Hell and Back
Bam, hero'd.
It's named after the [autobiography] (http://www.amazon.com/American-Sniper-Autobiography-Military-History/dp/0062238868) he wrote about his experiences.
I'm currently reading Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman and your pictures immediately made me think of Pat Tillman.
Good luck man.
Karl Marlantes also covers this in considerable depth in his What It Is Like to Go to War. He focuses especially on the homecoming aspect. WW2 soldiers often (not always) returned from combat as part of a whole unit: in returning home, they had a pre-made support network of other men that they trusted and who had shared their experiences in combat. The ability to talk to and commiserate with those other soldiers probably (in Marlantes's view) helped to ameliorate the various psychological symptoms of exposure to combat. In contrast, the soldier returning from Viet Nam came home alone while his unit remained in-country. He didn't necessarily have the same sort of people around to talk to about what had happened. The people who would best understand what he went through were still overseas and even when they returned he might (for the personnel reasons you mention above) never have known or trusted his fellow unit members all that well to begin with.
Agent Zigzag
This dude was amazing. True story of a WWII double agent.
http://www.amazon.com/Agent-Zigzag-Story-Espionage-Betrayal/dp/0307353419/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410457610&sr=1-1&keywords=agent+zigzag
Cool vid. I've had his "Stuka Pilot" book in my Amazon.com wishlist for a while now, may finally pick it up and read it now!
"Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier""
Agent Zigzag is a non-fiction account of an actual WWII spy who was a double-agent. His spy career is the basis for a lot of fictional spies. The book is really well written and I couldn't recommend it highly enough.
This book doesn't really delve into politics very much, but it is set during World War II. As long as you have a passing knowledge of the most destructive event in human history, you shouldn't have any trouble understanding Zigzag's story.
Where Men Win Glory is a great but heartbreaking book about Pat's life.
I remember reading The Tunnels of Cu Chi: A Harrowing Account of America's Tunnel Rats in the Underground Battlefields of Vietnam which was fascinating. I'm not qualified to comment on its accuracy though.
What it is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes is a great read.
You can read it on amazon as a preview.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Sniper-Autobiography-Military-History-ebook/dp/B005GFPZYK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=#reader_B005GFPZYK
I just read the opening passage on Amazon and yeah... I agree with you. I'd have stopped reading too.
>
> IT WAS MY DUTY TO SHOOT, AND I DON'T REGRET IT. THE woman was already dead. I was just
> making sure she didn't take any Marines with her.
> It was clear that not only did she want to kill them, but she didn't care about anybody else
> nearby who would have been blown up by the grenade or killed in the firelight. Children on the
> street, people in the houses, maybe her child ...
> She was too blinded by evil to consider them. She just wanted Americans dead, no matter
> what.
> My shots saved several Americans, whose lives were clearly worth more than that
> woman's twisted soul. I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job. But > I truly, deeply hated the evil that woman possessed. I hate it to this day.
> SAVAGE, DESPICABLE EVIL. THAT'S WHAT WE WERE FIGHTING in Iraq. That's why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy "savages." There really was no other way to describe what we encountered there.
>
> People ask me all the time, "How many people have you killed?" My standard response is,
> "Does the answer make me less, or more, of a man?" The number is not important to me. I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives. Everyone I shot in Iraq was trying to harm Americans or Iraqis loyal to the new government.
I'm out
The book in the first photo.
http://www.amazon.com/Flying-SR-71-Blackbird-Cockpit-Operational/dp/0760332398
I believe it is in this book as an exert.
If this interests you, consider reading the book, The Tunnels of Cu Chi. I found it a rather interesting read.
What It Is Like To Go To War.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Like-War-Karl-Marlantes/dp/B0071UEX8W
What everyone said is correct: math, math, math, and enjoy your last summer ;) You may also want to learn how to code in C++ or Fortran (yes, yes, it's ancient, but pretty much all NASA codes are written in C++ or Fortran) or even Matlab, if you have access to it.
Also, if you want to read some inspirational type books: Kelly Johnson's Memoir, the man basically invented Skunk Works. I also loved Flying the SR71, which is all about the Blackbird. It may sound corny, but Rocket Boys is my go-to book and/or movie when I feel discouraged and like I can't hack it as an engineer. And Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was really interesting to me.
What I found pushed me through the grueling classes, assignments, 50% on a test... was my passion for space exploration and propulsion methods. So I suggest in addition to the math and enjoying the free time you have left that you find what makes you passionate to be an engineer :). Because sometimes, at 2 am in a computer lab, after staring at the same chunk of code for 3 hours and not understanding why it doesn't seem to friggin work out... passion is all you have!
Best of luck to ya!
Don't take this as me advocating the use of drugs, but you and your cousin should look into the MDMA therapy to treat PTSD. I'm not a doctor, nor can I speak for them, but the past trials have had success.
Look into the book ["Acid Test"] (https://www.amazon.com/Acid-Test-Ecstasy-Power-Heal/dp/0147516374) for more info on that. There's a story (one of many) about an Iraqi veteran affected by PTSD, although was not 100% cures, was better able to live life with reduced symptoms.
If enough veterans confirm that MDMA is helping them cope better, compared to already available drugs, the Department of Defence and the Veterans Affairs might consider funding. A solution would be much cheaper than what they're dealing with now.
I always found WWI to be highly interesting, so I've devoured my fair share of literature. I'll list a few of my favorites. All of these are biographical non-fiction books.
Poilu! - The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918.
This guy lived through the entire war, spending most of it at the front. It details their daily life, but also the poor leadership and his hatred for the war. This one changed my perspective on war itself. A great read! If you're only picking up one, get this one.
Somme Mud - Edward P.F Lynch
Australian private lives through the fighting at Somme Mud, somehow. This one is very captivating, and I might have to re-read it.
Storm of Steel - Ernst Junger
A German account of the war, most of it spent at the front. Apparently there's a 1929 version in which Junger's patriotism and nationalism is conveyed, so I might want to try to get a hold of this edition myself. The newer edition is still a great read.
Sniper on the Eastern Front - Josef "Sepp" Allerberger
Another German account, but this one stands out because of it's focus on the snipers of the war.
These are all I can think of at the moment. I hope I've been able to spark some interest in the subject! If these do not ticke your fancy, there are tons of books covering different aspects of the war. All Quiet on the Western Front is fictional, but still a great read.
I'm in the middle of reading 'Flyboys', a great book but terrible story. Cannibalism.
This. Also, there is a good book called [Soldat] (http://www.amazon.com/Soldat-Reflections-German-Soldier-1936-1949/dp/0440215269) by Siegfried Knappe, a Wehrmacht officer that fought on two fronts and visited Hitler's bunker toward the end of the war.
You should check out the book they wrote. It's really great, it just oozes south philly.
EDIT: Upon re-reading, I see you already referenced this book, so I'll just leave the link for those interested in checking it out. My bad.
There's a great book that just came out focusing on the nature of the OP's question: This Republic of Suffering: Death and the Civil War
From the description:
Drew Gilpin Faust reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation, describing how the survivors managed on a practical level.
That looks like something out of Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green. In the book, they were under heavy fire in the middle of the night and their CO was walking around yelling at people to be in proper uniform.
If you've never heard of it, the book is hilarious.
Read Jon Krakauer's book. Apparently the movie "The Tillman Story" is good as well, but I havn't seen it.
I agree that this is a great read. To add to this I think another great WWI books is Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger for a German soldier perspective
I've read "Holt Hartmann vom Himmel" which translates to "Shoot Hartmann down", its an biography of Erich Hartmann and was very very nice to read. I dont know if this is the correct book, but the authors are the same. I can highly reccomend this book.,
You should totally check out the book that Guarnere and Heffron did, if you haven't already.
https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Battle-Friends-William-Guarnere/dp/0425224368
If you want to read first hand accounts from both TRs and the VC of what it was like, this is the book to read.
This book expands some on that topic: http://www.amazon.com/This-Republic-Suffering-American-Vintage/dp/0375703837
Great read, and PBS created a documentary based on its contents.
The Blonde Knight of Germany, good book.
his autobiography
Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green.
It's a true story, but it's not as serious as the title makes it sound. A skinny nerd with dual Masters degrees changes his name to Johnny Rico and joins the Army as a grunt. There's a scene where he talks about unplugging the incoming fire RADAR so he can heat up a Hot Pocket. It's just that absurd.
I have read couple of books, like this one
https://www.amazon.com/Flying-SR-71-Blackbird-Cockpit-Operational/dp/0760332398
Quite hard core on it's level of detail, he literally flies checklist item by item on the book, so casual reader might want to skip this one.
But yes, I can believe it was stressful. Picture this: you are somewhere over freezing cold ocean. Flight has not gone by the book, you are low on fuel. Your planned rendezvous point with tanker is in the middle of thunderstorm. Neither has tanker's flight gone exactly as planned... your
radar screen is flickering... no contact yet... (insert heavy breathing here).
If you manage to survive this one, there's still two fuelings to go before you're home.
Also es gibt durchaus Ärzte, die Cannabis bei PTBS verschreiben.
Gerade bei Kriegsveteranen in den USA scheint das wohl nicht mal so ungewöhnlich zu sein, auch wenn manche argumentieren es lindert nur die Symptome und hilft nicht, die Ursache des Problems zu beseitigen.
(Ich kenne selbst eine PTBS Patientin in meinem Bekanntenkreis die deswegen auch Cannabis verschrieben bekommt. Von dem was ich höre hat es ihr sehr geholfen.)
https://www.amazon.com/Soldat-Reflections-German-Soldier-1936-1949/dp/0440215269 this is the memoir I mentioned and it's really good, otherwise no, just assorted reading/documentaries etc.
Agent Zig-Zag
An awesome read. It's spy stuff but in a different setting with historical context.
Have you ever read anything about Pat Tillman?
It might change your perspective about what being a hero means. That man was a hero.
For those of you with any interest in the horrors of WW1, I recommend a A Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger as a depiction of WW1 battlefields completely devoid of the romance and moralizing that WW1 novels such as All Quiet normally suffer from.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0147516374/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468016026&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=acid+test&dpPl=1&dpID=51vcCaXJ16L&ref=plSrch
Give this one a try.
That does! Thank you:) I think it is too! I know most people realy only focus on the Nazi part of it all, but there’s so much to German history! (Like the Barbaric Tribes).
World Wars are super interesting! Have tou ever read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque? There’s “sequel” to that book called The Road Back. It looks at what happens to a (German) soldier after World War I ended. That’s supposed to be an accurate representation of soldier’s sentiments at the time. Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger is a (German) soldier’s experience during WWI. Holocaust by Bullets, Ordinary Men, Sleepwalkers, Europe’s Last Summer, and A Woman In Berlin are some pretty incredible books about these wars. Don’t know of you’ve heard of them or have read them, but thought I’d made the suggestion! Movie wise I’d say Generation War if you haven’t see it yet:) The Darkest Hour movie was great if you haven’t seen that! I’m planning to watch Babylon Berlin soon. Don’t know if you were looking for suggestions but I thought I’d make some!
Faust is her name. Read the book. It is a good look at the history of the war.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0375703837/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/185-0712842-0048500
+1 to the GAP-10. It became one of Chris Kyle (America's most deadly sniper) mentioned in his autobiography that after shooting it after coming back from oversees, he considered it one of his favorite weapons.
At 2,750, it is surprisingly affordable for the level of accuracy.
Check out this vid of a 5" group at 1000 yards.
It has to be pressurized, there was 3 nitrogen canisters at the front of the ship in the landing gear bay to pressurize the 6 tanks.
As they empty of fuel during flight, the pressure increase from descending would crush them. They were integral tanks so if that happened, you would probably have catastrophic failure.
Source: https://www.amazon.ca/Flying-SR-71-Blackbird-Cockpit-Operational/dp/0760332398
A book called the Tunnels of Cu Chi can shed some light for you.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Tunnels-Chi-Underground-Battlefields/dp/0891418695
If you are interested, a few members of Easy company also wrote books:
David Webster
Dick Winters
Lynn Compton
William Guarnere and Edward Heffron
Don Malarkey Author, Bob Welch
If you haven't I highly recommend you read about Erich Hartmann - bio here - other more expensive book here.. honestly I can't remember which book on him I read as it was around 20 years ago, I think it was the bio. Absolutely amazing man and pilot.
Over 300 dogfight wins.
http://www.amazon.com/Flying-SR-71-Blackbird-Cockpit-Operational/dp/0760332398/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323891882&sr=1-4
Can someone confirm this is the book in reference? I see one on Amazon for like $200+ but it seems to be a "picture book". This book (linked) is what I get when searching "sled driver".
Soldat ... if you have any interest in WWII this is by far the BEST account I have ever read from the German perspective.
Also, I believe someone else mentioned them, but anything by Cornelius Ryan - I've read The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far and The Last Battle and all three were absolutely fantastic ... the historical detail that are in those books are UNRIVALED
Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green
The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell
Dexter Series
Dark Elf Trilogy and then all of the subsequent books in the Drizzt line, there are like 14 or so maybe
With Liberty and Justice for Some
and always some green reading
Cannabis A History
Why Marijuana Should be Legal
A slight correction to your post is that Pat Tillman was an Army Ranger, not a Marine (Krakauer, 2009; Wikipedia, 2011). But indeed, he was certainly atheistic.
I just read this book: Flying the SR-71
http://www.amazon.com/Flying-SR-71-Blackbird-Cockpit-Operational/dp/0760332398
It's in the kindle store.
It's a very instructional book. You could probably fly a sortie after reading it ;)
Now available in paperback at Amazon!
I just googled the title; apparently this is a work of dark humor fiction.
Penguin recently released this edition which I had pre-ordered
Storm of Steel: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108255/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_l9a7xbQ4251BF
The art is gorgeous
Nature's Metropolis by Bill Cronon - fascinating story about how Chicago developed into the urban powerhouse it is today
The Name of War by Jill Lepore - a history of King Philip's War of the 17th century, a profoundly bloody conflict between colonists + Indians
This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust - history of death and suffering in the Civil War (LOVE this book)
The Circus Age, by Janet Davis - a political and cultural history of the circus during the 19th century
Segregating Sound by Karl Hagstrom Miller - how pop music developed from racial categorization
Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre
or Agent Zigzag - Ben Macintyre
If you like Charlie Wilson's War you'll like either of these two. They are about the British counter-intelligence efforts during world war two. It is funny how bizarre, yet successful some of their efforts were.
I highly recommend them.
Just FYI, I enjoyed this one a lot more than I did reading Band of Brothers, even though watching the miniseries absorbed pretty much every waking hour of a week of my life.
Chris Kyle goes into some detail about his training in his book .
Basically its constant running, swimming and push ups. Endurance cardio seems to be far more important than strength and quick recovery is crucial.
Waaaayyy too late, but he was a pretty badass tactician. He was a First World War vet and was awarded the Frederician [Pour le Mérite] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pour_le_M%C3%A9rite) for valor, and [wrote a book] (http://www.amazon.com/Attacks-Erwin-Rommel/dp/0960273603) about it in the 1930s which still circulates among US military.
Edit: see u/kami 232's comment below
Shake Hands With The Devil really good and depressing book if you wish to read it.
A second reply;
UN peacekeepers were in Rwanda in 1994. And while being there, a million (say that again if you must because its a staggering number) people were slaughter. Actually butchered with machettes and sharpened tools. How do you think peacekeeping works now?
So how did this happen? According to the Canadian Commander on the ground, he was not mandated, and "EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN" by headquarters in New York, to use force, marauding and murderous gangs roamed the streets of Kigali. Before long chaos reigned in the capital.
Fuck peacekeeping. Yea, its a feel good tool to stick your head in the sand. Yea, I know it sounds nice.... "Peacekeeping"... people say that and think its "maintain peace and help form stable democratic societies... ".
"Never again".
https://www.amazon.ca/Shake-Hands-Devil-Failure-Humanity/dp/0679311726
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History 6-part podcast on WW1 is something you should listen to if you’re interested in this part of history. Also, the audiobook for A Storm of Steel is really good at portraying the Western Front from a German conscript’s perspective.
https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/
https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Steel-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0143108255
Yup -- > HERE
Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism
[https://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Socialism-Guides-Paperback/dp/1596986492/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486239980&sr=8-1&keywords=Politically+incorrect+guide+socialism]
I will give you the russians. I often don't think of them as allied but they were. They were fucking pieces of shit... They hated the Japanese for the Russo-Japanese War. Doesn't excuse what they did just shows their mindset. One of the things I loved about the book Flyboys is that it was really impartial. James Bradley gave a wonderfully unbiased look into both sides of the war... I'd suggest you read it if you haven't already...
Anyway, this:
> If killing japanese, mutilating them, decapitating them and sending the skulls to loved ones back home isn't savage
Was way worse on the Japanese side...
and this:
> BECAUSE WE DIDN'T TAKE POWS. If you want to be retarded, the death rate for Japanese POWs were nearly 100%.
Is hyperbole at best and a flat out lie otherwise.
You seem passionate about this though. Read this book... Seriously, it's really great!
http://www.amazon.com/Flyboys-A-True-Story-Courage/dp/B000ESSSGG
Seven Roads to Hell: A Screaming Eagle at Bastogne, Donald R. Burgett
A guy who was in another company from the Band of Brothers guys wrote his memoirs shortly after the war. Has a bunch of volumes, from training and D-Day to the Eagles Nest.
To be honest, I preferred it to Band of Brothers, because it was first-person and was less about how awesome the war and the US Army were.
Don Malarkey who was one of the guys in Band of Brothers had an interesting memoir... also talked about the post-war and how the guys who came back had a lot of the same difficulties as Vietnam and Iraq vets, which people didn't really want to think about in those days.
I went through a Band of Brothers phase.
This will tell you everything you want to know.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Sniper-Autobiography-Military-History-ebook/dp/B005GFPZYK
Yes, it's called American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. Amazon are selling a trade paperback for $6.45, and the Kindle version for $4.10.
Thanks for sharing your grandfather's story. Those tunnel rats were hard-core and I have tremendous respect for their service. If you're interested in more stories about exploring tunnels in Vietnam, check out this book, it's one of my favorite on the topic.
Tom Shroder Wrote about a book about healing power of LSD.
http://www.amazon.com/Acid-Test-Ecstasy-Power-Heal/dp/0147516374/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452616841&sr=1-1&keywords=acid+test
edit: that sounded fruity here:
Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal
Despite their illegality, many Americans are already familiar with the effects of psychedelic drugs. Yet while LSD and MDMA (better known as Ecstasy) have proven extraordinarily effective in treating anxiety disorders such as PTSD, they remain off-limits to the millions who might benefit from them. Through the stories of three very different men, awardwinning journalist Tom Shroder covers the drugs’ roller-coaster history from their initial reception in the 1950s to the negative stereotypes that persist today. At a moment when popular opinion is rethinking the potential benefits of some illegal drugs, Acid Test is a fascinating and informative must-read.
Good luck finding it at a book store. Here is one at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Flew-Fuhrer-Greenhill-Military-Paperback/dp/1853672637
This one looks good, maybe I'll get it next: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1908476877/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YB4JP3P4EHV1XPSP9VQ9&dpPl=1&dpID=518c0O9gJWL
James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom is immediately the first book that comes to mind. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it is “the book” to read on the Civil War. It is a highly readable account of the build-up to the Civil War, causes, and the war itself. It also won a Pulitzer Prize. For more, I’d also check out Ta-Nehisi Coate’s online book club on Battle Cry of Freedom over at The Atlantic.
Other excellent works on the period I would recommend are:
Also, the Civil War produced some of the greatest memoirs in American letters:
And, I always recommend reading poetry and fiction, so I would also encourage you to look at Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, as well as the war poetry of Walt Whitman and Herman Melville, particularly Melville’s poem The Martyr, written days after Lincoln’s assassination. More contemporary fiction would be Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, or EL Doctorow’s The March.
Finally, check out David Blight’s Open Yale Lectures on the Civil War. Prof. Blight is a fantastic lecturer. They are free, and the course syllabus is online, and in 26 hours you can take a full Yale course completely on your own.
Karl Marlantes' book is also an excellent read for those who may or have found themselves in combat. Should be required reading for anyone in Washington about to order soldiers into war as well. He's also a decorated former Marine.
I don't think he specifically wrote it for Amazon, but my cousin has a couple books for sale.
Book 1
Book 2
If you're interested in the topic, http://www.amazon.com/What-Like-War-Karl-Marlantes/dp/B0071UEX8W is an interesting read.
Okay, first of all it would help if you narrow your search down to a specific country, since many different nations employed Cossack riders over time. You have Poland, Lithuania, Imperial Russia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Belarus, and Ukraine to name name most. However, and correct me if I'm wrong, I believe you are referring to the Russian Cossacks.
​
In that case, or just in general, here are some links:
The History and Origins of the Cossacks
Uniforms
Ranks
​
General Information on a Soldier's Kit:
Britain
Austria-Hungary
Serbia
Canada
Germany
Unites States
Japan
France
Italy
​
​
In general, Wikipedia has a decent amount of information on a soldiers during the Great War (Whether they were fighting for Germany, Britain, America, Russia, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, Japan, France, Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Italy, and so on), so just check Wikipedia out. Books-wise, I am a less in touch. I do recommend Storm of Steel and All Quiet on the Western Front (both memoirs of a German Soldier) and Goodbye to All That (Memoirs of a British Soldier). Cheers!
AdventurerSmithy, I understand your point and I agree with you in some aspects capitalism sucks. Obviuoslly you have to pay for all in a capitalist society, but will pay anyway even in a socialist country working in a state factory and you still poor while the rulling class lives with all priviledges. I know what is working for a/or less than minimum wage just like you and I know your pain. There are poors in Canada like Brazil, but being poor here is different being poor in your country or USA.
You mention the .1% but we have to consider the following: how could they get there? They just earn money because invented a product that anyone wants to pay or had some little help from state? Why I'm saying that? That's because a company cannot eliminate from market their competitor. The great companies hates the capitalism because they can be thrown out of the market by more efficient companies, remember Microsoft loosing its monopoly and Apple loosing market to low cost android smartphones of several brands and IBM. So, the some giant companies, mainly financial companies, create links with polititians to control the market because they need the state's power to do that, you cannot concentrate the wealthy without a central control and no companie can do that in genuine capitalist market where the competition can win from you, turning the capitalist system in a corporativism system. They need the state control to control the markets, destroying in long term the economy.
And, in socialist countries like Russia, China, Vietnam what measures those governments took to decrease the poverty? Adopting capitalism, and the worst kind of capitalism that has no respect to worker's rights, like China does. The capitalist system fits up well in any power framework, even in a socialist country because socialism and capitalism are not in the same category. Capitalism is a economic phenomena, the best system to distribuit wealty. Period. Socialism is a power framework that can live above a capitalist system like China or a corportative system like our contries, pretending to be a democracy.
You think that socialism is a solution for the injustices but I think different because whenever a socialist party get the power happens the same thing: mass murdering and porverty just like Venezuela nowadays and just like the past century socialist states. Why should I support, so? I cannot believe in a system that when implemented always ends up with the same results (poverty and mass murdering) and the excuses (that was not true socialism or the fascist screw up the system). The history shown that to us. I suggest you reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Socialism-Guides/dp/1596986492
In my opinion, I believe that in economics the capitalist system works well, just look at the most free economic countries and notice that wealthy it is more distribuited than in socialist countries. In politics, I believe in democracy and equality in law, and I don't have any problem if the state gets some some money from my pockets to help the poor people, but I strongly against when the state get your money to build a power system to control everyone economically and politically. That is exactly happening in Latin America socialism, and there a few bankers making profit with our disgrace. I know you disagree, but I respect your freedom of thought.
I have a paperback copy I bought when I was a teanager.
EDIT Found a paperback version on Amazon for around $17 and the Kindle version is only $6:
http://www.amazon.com/Stuka-Pilot-Hans-Ulrich-Rudel/dp/1908476877/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374849519&sr=1-1&keywords=stuka+pilot
I'd also recommend Adolph Galland's "The First and the Last" and a book called "Horrido"
http://www.amazon.com/Horrido-Raymond-Constable-Trevor-Toliver/dp/0553126636/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374849615&sr=1-1&keywords=horrido
If you're into japanese aces, "Samurai!" by Saburo Sakai is also very, very good: http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Unforgettable-Japans-Greatest-Fighter/dp/B0025ZXCQW/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374849652&sr=1-4&keywords=saburo+sakai
And then of course, read "Baa Baa Black Sheep" by Gregory Boyington
Would you be interested in American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Under the Banner of Heaven, or Where Men Win Glory?
If you're feeling like reading a depressing but informative book, Shake Hands With The Devil was written by Roméo Dallaire. Or, for the time-starved, there's a movie.
Irwin Rommel was an infantry lieutenant in WWI, and wrote Attacks, a fascinating book on his experiences.
There are some amazing stories of grenade fights on near-vertical mountainsides. Highly recommend!
Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green by Johnny Rico.
If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien
I also liked Going After Cacciato, by O'Brien.
[ Memoirs of Dick Winters] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0425213757/ref=pd_aw_sims_1?pi=SL500_SY115)
EDIT. Malarkey's book
Wild Bill & Babes
[ Shifty ] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BCUHKLO/ref=pd_aw_sims_4?pi=SL500_SY115)
74,000 vs 147,000 according to very respected US historians. Pretty easy to corroborate. Edit: Combat deaths is what I count, not disease.
Read a book read a book read a mother fuckin' book.
I liked Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949 by Siegfried Knappe, and Red Road from Stalingrad by Mansur Abdulin.
Edit: Sorry, I gave you the Canadian Amazon links. I'm sure you can find them on the regular Amazon.