U.S. Army: A Complete History Review

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(More customer reviews)Boots on the Ground" has been the foundation of U.S. Army thinking for more than two centuries. I first got an understanding of what it meant at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. In walking down from the top of the mountain was a display of a shallow pit in the ground where a picket would have lay down looking for an attack. I don't know which side occupied this particular pit, in retrospect of course, it was an American soldier. Hunkering down in this pit, probably scared to death, this man was effectively saying, "This is my piece of ground, and you gotta go through me to get it."
You need ships, and airplanes, and tanks, and the big guns, but when it comes down to it, it's the single man with his boots on the ground that makes the difference. And it continues today in places all around the world.
This is a huge book, 3 and a half inches thick, about ten by 13 inches in size. It is profusely illustrated and discusses almost every battle in which the U.S. Army has been involved. It starts in the 1600's, with the formation of militia formed by the colonies for protection from Indian raids. It continues through every war, almost every battle until the finding of Saddam in Iraq. It's authors are all either Army officers or professional historians with a heavy Army history. It's a supurb book.

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In 1775, determined and angry colonists took up arms against a common foe, and their battle cries signaled the birth of the United States Army. The Army has been forged in the fires of revolution, tested on continental battlefields, battered at the shores of Normandy, and hardened on the sands of the Persian Gulf and Iraq. Published in conjunction with the Army Historical Foundation, this beautifully illustrated large-format book is both a major reference tool and a handsome addition to any military history collection. Building on official Army chronologies, U.S. Army: A Complete History presents a year-by-year summary of significant Army activities, from before the American Revolution to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Key historical entries, as well as significant operations, technological advances, and the people instrumental in shaping the Army, appear as expanded sidebar articles written by leading experts in each subject.

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Tomahawk (Dan Lenson Novels) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have read the other David Poyer novels featuring USN officer Dan Lenson. They are THE MED, THE GULF, THE CIRCLE and THE PASSAGE. I liked all of them because Poyer, a Naval Academy graduate writes well about men and the sea.
I had trouble with TOMAHAWK mainly because Poyer turns Lenson into (in my opinion) a very unbelieveable character. While I will grant the possibility of a career naval officer falling for a peace activist, I think the way Poyer writes about it is unrealistic and I think readers who buy the premise are simply naive romantics.
For those who have never served in the officer corps of any of the armed forces, let me say this. Dan Lenson's misgivings about the TOMAHAWK as a then new weapons system would have caused him a lot of trouble. Since the system gave him a moral dilemma, it follows that those doubts would reflect in his performance. The doubts did and his OER (Officer Efficiency Report) suffered.
To be sure, there is an incredible amount of waste in military procurement but, I really think that if LT Lenson had or developed moral qualms about the weapons systems the US Navy was seeking to develop and procure, he owed it to himself, his service and his nation to resign his commission and find another way to make a living. Most officers who leave the service do so for a variety of reasons. Some of them hate the OPSTEMPO, the deployments, separation from family, living conditions/low pay, etc. All of these are reasons retention of personnel in the military today is heading SOUTH!!!
I served on active duty and am now a member of the reserves and I found Dan Lenson unbelieveable in this book. If I served with a fellow officer like Dan Lenson, I would probably sit down with him and recommend that he find another career path because he was deliberately shooting himself in the foot. Well educated Annapolis grads like Dan Lenson don't do that. If they have a problem with the system, they make their recommendations for improvements; if they go unheeded, they either shut up and press on or they request a transfer. If the navy itself is what's getting to them, they generally put in their resignation papers and head off to greener pastures.
I just couldn't find any sympathy for Dan Lenson. If Poyer writes another Dan Lenson novel and I read that he has become an Admiral, I think I'll be sick. Dan Lenson is not Flag Officer material, not even with all the fictitious license in the world.The way it was written tells me that TOMAHAWK should probably be the last installment in the continuing saga of Dan Lenson, USN.

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The Circle (Dan Lenson Novels) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was stationed on two FRAM-II Destroyers. I am a "Blue Nose", a "Shellback", and earned a Combat Action Ribbon while a crewmember on the USS Ozbourn (DD-846) off the coast of Vietnam. I am tired of all these glorified ("gun-decked")stories and movies about submarines and aircraft carriers, usually written by retired admirals or authors who were never even in the military never mind the navy. This story tells it like it is. I've often times wondered how young Ensigns dealt with the crap and stayed sane never mind got advanced and survive to make successful Navy careers. I truly enjoyed this book. I'm reading "The Med" now and I have also got "Passage" standing by. Only a "Tin Can Sailor" could have written this book. The terminolgy and slang terms are right on. I can understand how a person who never served in the Navy would have a hard time with this book. Perhaps Poyer should have a glossary in the back of his books to help decipher Navy jargon. I highly recommend this book, especially to former Navy anchor clankers. To Mr Poyer, from one ol' Tin Can Sailor to another, I bid you fair winds and follwing seas.

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To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines Review

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(More customer reviews)I got the unabridged audio edition. I stayed with it tape after tape at work for 3 consecutive days. I was not disappointed. The events described in this narrative should never have gone forgotten, although it seems they have. Whipple has brought to remembrance some of our early great American heroes. I was surprised that so much primary source material was available on the Tripolitan wars. Whipple has really done his homework and the narrative, though non-fiction, reads like a top novel. I came here seeking the book version in order to purchase it for my library and have found, sadly, that the work is out-of-print. If you're an American History buff, you'll be happy to have this in your library, provided you can find a good copy. I rated this a 5, which it surely deserves. Unfortunately, worthy books never seem to stay in print for as long as trashy fair, and this may be difficult to secure. I hope you find it.

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