Summer Reading

WorkforJesus

5-Year Member
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Jun 9, 2014
Messages
69
Hello,

I will be starting AROTC in the fall and I am an avid reader, so I was wondering if anyone had any books they could suggest in the topics of military history or biographies, or any books that would help me in ROTC. Thanks!!
 
Try some picks off of the Chief of Staff of the Army's Reading List. Each new CSA publishes one and staffs it through the Center of Military History and Training and Doctrine Command. Typically, you'll hear gripes about what is on there or omitted but it is a pretty good start and provides a broad overview of the Army, its history, missions and perceived future challenges.

http://usarmy.vo.llnwd.net/e2/c/downloads/332649.pdf
 
So many books...

A couple of WWII books that I liked

Company Commander by Charles B. MacDonald

There's A War to Be Won: The U.S Army in World War II - Geoffrey Perret. This is a good one. It's more than a campaign history. It talks about how the Army ramped up from a relatively small army prior to the war. It also has a chapter on the interwar years, and how the army set up organization and training to reflect what was learned from WWI. It has chapters devoted to weapons that won the war and to special units such as Airborne, 1st Special Service Force, and the Rangers.

also

American Caesar by William Manchester. A biography of arguably America's greatest general. Written interestingly enough by a Marine.
 
Well if you are interested in history - Rick Atkinson's trilogy about the US Army in WW2 are great books with a lot of lessons for today as well :" An Army at Dawn" - (North Africa) - "The Day of Battle" (Sicily and Italy) culminating in "The Guns at Last Light" (Normandy to the end of the war). These are really readable and you see the Army go thru tremendous growing pains in training, tactics, strategy & leadership. Carlo D'Este has written 3 really good Biographies : " Eisenhower- A Soldier's Life" ; " Patton- A Genius for War" and Churchill " Warlord" . A classic of the Korean War (The Army doesn't look too good in it) is TR Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War" . Finally- "We were Soldier's Once and Young"by KLTG Hal Moore and Joe Galloway is a must about Vietnam and talks about it at the Battalion to Platoon level thru the battle of the Ia Drang .
 
"We were Soldier's Once and Young"by KLTG Hal Moore and Joe Galloway is a must about Vietnam and talks about it at the Battalion to Platoon level thru the battle of the Ia Drang .

Great read, a must for new Army cadets in my mind.
 
"Not a Good Day to Die" by Naylor (Robert's Ridge)
"War" by Junger (Korengal Valley)
"On Killing" and "On Combat" by Grossman (Psychology and Physiology of combat and killing)
"This Kind of War" by Fehrenbach (Korea)
"Fighter Pilot" by Olds
 
Lots of great books mentioned on here. Just one note... As an officer you will build your own professional reading library. What you read now you might want to revisit as a new Lt. These books will take on new forms and meaning as you develop as an officer and progress through the ranks. So some folks like hard copy books for this... Just a thought.
 
"Up Front" by Bill Mauldin is a spectacular read. He was an American war correspondent and sergeant in Italy during WWII. He mixes the first hand realities of life on the front with satirical 1940s-era cartoons.

It's a quick read too, I love to read but I'm not a novel type reader, I prefer massive books of facts and information myself, but still burned through it as I couldn't put it down.
 
Visit platoonleader.net (I don't think you need a CAC for that site) and it should have suggested reading for company grade officers. Granted, your years away from being an officer, but many of the books are similar to, or include, those listed above and are geared towards people in the positions , or soon to be in those positions, you will have immediately following commissioning.
 
Great thanks for all the suggestions, I have already read a few of them!! Just for anyone else interested the best books I have read so far are If You Survive and Leading With Honor both really good books!
 
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