Top 3 All-Time Favorite Military/Strategy/History/Other Books

Sunzi’s The Art of War is great, but it’s a foundational text that requires supplemental works to really make it shine.

This edition contains commentary from Ancient Chinese officials and officers as well as original essays from some of the most talented generals of Ancient China, including the famous Zhuge Liang, and Sunzi’s student Sun Bin.
 
My favorite books are those written or co written by servicemen and women.

The Things They Carried
The Forgotten 500
Faith of My Fathers
Give Me Tomorrow
Gates of Fire ( one of my favorite books of all time)
D Day By Ambrose
Boys in the Boat
Into the Fire (MOH winner Dakota Meyer)
 
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“This Kind of War” by T.R. Fehrenbach. It’s about the Korean War, but the first half is a discussion about how our failed diplomacy helped cause the war and how unprepared the US Army was to fight a ground war. I fear it has some parallels to today.
“If you Survive” An autobiography of an American infantry officer from just after D-Day to when he was wounded. The title comes from what his battalion commander said when he showed up. If you survive your first week I will promote you.
“With the Old Breed”Classic story about Marines in combat in the Pacific. Takes away the “glamor” of war.
I would recommend some of the German first hand accounts of fighting on the Eastern Front. It was horrific. I would recommend Russian books, but there are not many first hand accounts. It was dangerous for Soviet veterans to write about their accounts until the 1990s. A few-
“Red Road from Stalingrad”
“Born Under a Lucky Star”
Again, they don’t glamorize war.
“Devotion” The story of Jesse L Brown, the first US Navy carrier pilot and his friendship with another pilot, Tom Hudner. It’s being made into a movie. Hopefully they didn’t mess it up.
 
Also, Alone at Dawn. Taught me so much about Air Force combat controllers. Talk about leaders.

A novel I loved and really left an impression on me is The Last Green Valley. It tells the true story of a family pinched between the Russians and the Nazis and details the story of their journey fleeing Ukraine which eventually landed them in Montana. Hard to read but worth it. The mom (wife) really seemed to me to display so many qualities of a good leader.
 
Lots of awesome suggestions listed above, and I am not sure I can top most of those. I find today's younger men and women prefer "bite sized" vignettes as opposed to longer books. And I also think podcasts have become very popular. While I love GWU and all of the many offerings they have in their library, the Naval Academy has an absolutely exceptional grouping of podcasts which are leadership and ethics based. Their Radio Stockdale is available on the web for anyone to listen to.

Just a sample of some of what they offer:

Character by Dr. Mike Good (about 39 minutes)
Perseverance by RDML Alan Baker (10 minutes)
Latin America and Immigration by Sharika Crawford (14.30)
Power of Listening by VADM Sean Buck (17:15) **** If I was thinking of having an interview, I'd want to listen to this for sure. ****

Link is below. And sorry for posting in the book thread, but it seemed to sort of fit.

www.usna.edu

Ethics_and_the_Naval_Warrior

Ethics_and_the_Naval_Warrior page for Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at USNA.edu. Updated Fri Mar 29 14:21:27 EDT 2024.
www.usna.edu
 
Command, leadership, being an officer?

I have no suggestions at all

But if anyone is considering being a boots on the ground combat Marine I highly suggest Dispatches by Herr and With the Old Breed by Sledge.

if after reading those two books they still want to be a Marine in ground combat then the Corps might be for them.

Two of the most honest books about combat and what it can do to you I have ever read. If you want to truly understand fighting from an enlisted persons view books written by officers are not the way to go IMO.
 
DS just finished reading D-Day by Steven Ambrose for the second time. He started it over Christmas leave and finished it during the ROM period. His observation was that the US Navy role in D-Day is very underplayed in most re-telling of that famous battle. I quickly agreed as when I think US Navy in WW2, I immediately think of the Pac Theatre. When I think of D-Day, I think of the infantry beach landings and airborne assaults' elements completely disregarding the Seabees and landing craft elements. Heck even the ships providing cover fire to the beach were exposed to enemy fire.

I told him he needs to start work on a book that highlights the USN involvement in D-Day.
 
LT360 said:
His observation was that the US Navy role in D-Day is very underplayed in most re-telling of that famous battle.
Click to expand...
Several years ago, we toured the beaches of Normandy with an amazing guide (he was English, interestingly). One of the most memorable stories he told was of a cruiser captain who, upon seeing soldiers trapped on a beach by withering fire from above and in danger of being annihilated, sailed the ship dangerously close to shore. He maneuvered parallel to shore, firing his guns at the Germans above until they were silenced. He came perilously close to grounding the ship, but managed to save the troops on the beach. He was awarded a prestigious medal for his actions.
 
I thought of another one. During DS senior year he and I read The Prince by Machiavelli.
Excellent read.
 
GWU PNS said:
Their Radio Stockdale is available on the web for anyone to listen to.

Just a sample of some of what they offer:

Character by Dr. Mike Good (about 39 minutes)
Perseverance by RDML Alan Baker (10 minutes)
Latin America and Immigration by Sharika Crawford (14.30)
Power of Listening by VADM Sean Buck (17:15) **** If I was thinking of having an interview, I'd want to listen to this for sure. ****
Click to expand...
Big fan of Radio Stockdale here. "Blues" Baker is a classmate and friend. First USNA grad to achieve flag rank in
the Chaplain Corps and before he was a Chaplain, he was a SWO :cool: .

My class give a pretty good amount of financial support to the Stockdale Center.
 
Once an Eagle (historical fiction)
The Things They Carried
Fleet at Flood Tide
Arundel (historical fiction)
Northwest Passage (historical fiction)
Rabble in Arms (historical fiction)
D-Day
Killer Angels
Shelby Foote’s trilogy
Rick Atkinson’s trilogy
The First World War
The White Sniper
 
I liked One Bullet Away by Frick but for a more singular look at the combat part of his story I suggest Generation Kill which does a great job. Lt Frick comes off well in both books :)

The First Sgt comes off far worse in life after the fight than how bad he looked during the fight.

Someone suggested Marine by Davis and Puller. The autobiography of Gen Puller. For a really well researched very well written award winning biography the book Chesty by Col Jon Hoffman. (I think I have the author correct)

It’s a very serious balanced look at the legend. Being balanced Chesty comes off better in the book he wrote :)
 
OldRetSWO said:
Big fan of Radio Stockdale here. "Blues" Baker is a classmate and friend. First USNA grad to achieve flag rank in
the Chaplain Corps and before he was a Chaplain, he was a SWO :cool: .

My class give a pretty good amount of financial support to the Stockdale Center.
Click to expand...
The entirety of the Stockdale Leadership website is really very well done. Their scenario based interactive decision making is always a hit in my Ethics class.
 
Neptune's Inferno was quite good. It shows how the early Pacific campaign was quite precarious and that both sides made a lot of errors.
 
Storm of Steel -- Ernst Jünger
About Face -- Hackworth
Band of Brothers -- Ambrose
 
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