Latest Good Reads

[NJROTC-CC]

I got a Kindle Unlimited subscription for Christmas. I have had a couple of good reads already.

1. “Peter Charley” the story of PC 477 (a 175 ft steel hull sub chaser) in the Pacific In WWII written by an ensign right out of NROTC who served throughout the war. He got SO MUCH command experience. That was a different time and there’s no way anyone could get that experience in four years today. VERY well written (he went on to become a successful attorney in later life.) Most enjoyable read.

2. Hal Moore on leadership. Great pointers and stories about actual applications of leadership principles.

 

[alboul23]

Currently reading "What it is Like to Go To War" by Karl Marlantes of Matterhorn. Incredibly conscientious and organized account of what he learned and what he wished he knew coming back from Vietnam after a messy and exceptionally violent couple of tours as a Marine PL. It's basically what I thought I was going to get from Grossman's "On Killing" (which I personally did not really 'buy') and I feel more comfortable considering the profession of arms after reading it.

 

[Devil Doc]

Currently reading "What it is Like to Go To War" by Karl Marlantes of Matterhorn. Incredibly conscientious and organized account of what he learned and what he wished he knew coming back from Vietnam after a messy and exceptionally violent couple of tours as a Marine PL. It's basically what I thought I was going to get from Grossman's "On Killing" (which I personally did not really 'buy') and I feel more comfortable considering the profession of arms after reading it.

At the risk of giving inaccurate or misleading advice, I agree.

 

[UHBlackhawk]

I’ve taken to reading autobiographies and biographies of those involved in the actual combat of WWII, especially those often not available or tough to find for English speaking readers pre Kindle, such as German, Japanese, and Soviet accounts.
“The Forgotten Soldier”
“A Higher Calling”
“Japanese Destroyer Captain”, Tameichi Hara’s autobiography
“My Life in the Red Army”
“Against the Odds” the account of a German soldier of German-Czech descent who was raised in Ireland and England. His parents naively decided to send him and his sister to boarding school in Germany… in the summer of 1939. He was eventually drafted and served in the Herman Goering division, somehow surviving the war and reuniting with his parents 7 years later.
“Born Under a Lucky Star”, account of a Soviet soldier.
Often books on combat are “sanitized”. I’ve found autobiographies dealing with the infantry combat in the Pacific and the Eastern Front tend to give a truer account of the horrors of war. I once read an account by an SS panzer tanker of the Battle of Kursk. It was absolutely horrifying and was the closest thing to a description of Hell on earth that I have ever read.