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[Professor]

Dan and others...

I'm ignorant of military history.  But, I'm lucky to have a great resource of individuals on the list that are experts in the field and can help me.

I need an official list of MUST reads on military history....I'm not a historian and I need thing that can hold my attention....I'm not worried about memorizing dates...I do want to know about the people, politics and reasons...

Yep, these are what I need...other may need something else....Let's start a list....I have a frequent shopper card at the half price books store and they need my money.

Thanks in advance.

Jeff

 

[Trembula]

Jeff:

Must reads on military science and history:

Colonel David Hackworth's reading list is a good one: http://www.sftt.org/recommended.html

And there is the big daddy of all the military reading lists - although slightly revised, but here is the Marine Corps list: http://www.mcu.usmc.mil/mcu/reading_list/index_1.htm or in one complete list: http://www.usna.edu/Library/Marineread.html

And the current reading list for the Midshipmen - warning to the taxpayers: 98% of Mids will never attempt even a fraction of these...

The USNA Commandant’s Reading List

Reading List/The Beginning of a Personal Library
All Quiet on the Western Front
In Love and War
We Were Soldiers Once...and Young
Command of the Seas
The Art of War
The United States Navy: 200 Years

Fourth Class Midshipmen
Themes:  The meaning of Honor and an appreciation for the history of the naval services.

The Armed Forces Officer
Fix Bayonets!  John W. Thomason
All Quiet on the Western Front. Erich M. Remarque
Sea Power: A Naval History  E.B. Potter
Admiral Arleigh Burke: A Biography  E.B. Potter
The Right Stuff  Tom Wolfe
Miracle at Midway  Gordon W. Prange
Thunder Below  ADM E. B. Fluckey, USN Ret.
Tin Can Man E. J. Jernigan

Third Class Midshipmen
Themes:  The role and foundations of Courage and human factors in war.

Flags of Our Fathers. James Bradley
Profiles in Courage. John F. Kennedy
D-Day  Stephen Ambrose
We Were Soldiers Once...and Young  Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway
The Forgotten Soldier  Guy Sajer
Bull Halsey: A Biography. E.B. Potter
Anatomy of Courage  Lord Moran
Blackhawk Down  Mark Bowden
Landscape Turned Red  Stephen Sears

Second Class Midshipmen
Themes:  The role of Commitment as a serving officer.

A Country Such as This  James Webb
Faith of My Fathers  John McCain
Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War William Manchester
The Greatest Generation  Tom Brokaw
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyaqe of Apollo 13  James Lovell
In Love and War  James B. and Sybil Stockdale
Brave Ship, Brave Men  A. S. Lott
Douglas Southall Freeman on Leadership

First Class Midshipmen
Themes:  Warfighting, Officership, and the meaning of the Commission.

The Art of War  Sun Tzu
The Armed Forces Officer  DoD (1950 Ed. Preferred)
General Patton's Timeless Leadership Principles  Richard Stillman
Nimitz   E. B. Potter
Old Man's Trail  Tom Campbell
Gates of Fire  Stephen Pressfield
Starship Troopers  Robert Heinlein
Master of Seapower: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King  T. Buell
Once an Eagle  Anton Myrer
The Dynamics of Doctrine  Timothy J. Lupfer
 
Service Assignment
Themes:  Perspective on day-to-day life, the ethos, and the dominant thinking on warfare as a member of the given service, specialty, or community.

Surface Warfare
At War At Sea  Ronald H. Spector

Air Warfare
Black Aces High  Robert K. Wilcox.
Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering  Robert L. Shaw
Philosophical Thoughts of a Fighter Pilot  Admiral James B. Stockdale

Submarine Warfare
Run Silent Run Deep  Ned L. Beach
Blind Man’s Bluff  Sontag and Drew

Special Operations/Special Warfare
Warrior Elite  Dick Couch
Brave Men Dark Waters  Orr Kelly
Combat Swimmer  Robert Gormly

Marine Corps
Rifleman Dodd. C. S. Forester
Lejeune:  A Marine's Life, 1867-1942  Merrill L. Bartlett
Warfighting (MCDP-1)  United States Marine Corps


Dan

(...and please help the cause of us keeping this web page up and running. Please search for these books in the Amazon search box at the way lower left of this page. If you then do buy the book, we will get a whopping 10 or so cents! But anything helps!...thanks, Hock)

[Kentbob]

Professor,
     I know that "Medal of Honor:  The Autobiography of MSG Roy P. Benavidez" is on the Sergeant Major of the Army's reading list.  As is "Black Hawk Down".  If you are looking for the official must reads, I can't really help you.  However, I can reccommend some others that I have found very interesting.




Kent

[Splat!]

Excellent first-hand accounts from the Vietnam era:

WAR STORY - Jim Morris. ISBN 0312975929.  "The classic true story of the first generation of Green Berets in Vietnam." No hype.

FIVE YEARS TO FREEDOM: The True Story of a Vietnam POW - James N. Rowe. ISBN 0345314603
(See if you can get through this entire book with dry eyes.)


Splat!

[Trembula]

Here are two of my favorites:

"On Wings of Eagles" - by Ken Follet - not really a military history book, but it tells the true story of the paramilitary force that Ross Perot took over to Iran to free his imprisoned employees. After you read this book, you will wish we had a president with the cahones to do something like that, and understand why his employees are so loyal...

"Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art of War" - Robert Coram. There's another Boyd book which is really good, but it's name is escaping me.

"The Code of the Warrior" - Shannon French - explores the cultural morals and values behind why many warrior cultures around the world fight. Very thought provoking.

Dan

[Hock]

We need to add to this list!

Hock

[Milldog1776]

We need to add to this list!

Hock

I'll start:

The Close Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate by Applegate & Melson
The V-Five Hand to Hand Combat Manual by the U.S. Navy 1943 edition
Scientific Self-Defense by W.E. Fairbairn
Do or Die - A Supplementary Manual on Individual Combat by Lt. Col. A.J. Drexel Biddle
Charles Nelson's School of Self-Defense - The Red and Gray Manuals by Charles Nelson
Cold Steel - Technique of Close Combat by John Styers
Arwrology - All Out Hand to Hand Fighting by Gordon E. Perrigard
The Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko

[Hock]

Quick review of last...

> The Close Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate by Applegate & Melson
        Very good book. Fun background to read

> The V-Five Hand to Hand Combat Manual by the U.S. Navy 1943 edition
       Not to sure I've seen it

> Charles Nelson's School of Self-Defense - The Red and Gray Manuals by Charles Nelson
       Haven't seen them

>Scientific Self-Defense by W.E. Fairbairn
>Do or Die - A Supplementary Manual on Individual Combat by Lt. Col. A.J. Drexel Biddle
>Cold Steel - Technique of Close Combat by John Styers
        All over simplified, unfilling, short, thin  books. Me no likely. Done better in near modern and
        modern times, and hundreds of times better by hundreds of people.

>The Arwrology book?  Other than it being over simplified, unfilling, short, thin book? Me no likely. Done better in near modern and modern times, and hundreds of times better by hundreds of people? There are pictures of overweight men in the undershorts wearing Nazi helmets. Why? I guess to show where a knife would cut,  but also to remind you that the enemy was the Nazi?...and also reminds you how "village people" gay/weird this book is, making it very hard to not laugh and take seriously.

>The Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko
     Its a good read


Hock

[Kentbob]

Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose

Delta Force, by Col. Charlie Beckwith

Marine Sniper, by Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock


Kent

[Hock]

Delta Force, by Col. Charlie Beckwith

Kind of a forgotten book huh?
Shouldnt be.

Hock

[Kentbob]

Yeah, it is.  Oh, and Inside Delta Force, by Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney.  A grunt's eye view of the goings on in Delta.


Kent

[Hock]

ohhhh yes...Mister Haney

Scroll down on
http://hockscombatforum.com/index.php?topic=2210.0


Hock

[cgonzales]

to ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth                  jeff cooper
the art of the rifle                                                     jeff cooper
powderburns.  cocaine, contras @ the drug war            celerino castillo 3 and dave harmon
rifleman dodd                                                           c.s. forester
five years to freedom                                                major james n. rowe
the declaration of independence and the constitution
king james bible

[aa]

I've read nearly everybook on Hack's list but the one that is the most profound to me is "The forgotten soldier".  There is controversy surrounding it but that book was shocking.

[Hock]

What is the controversy about the Forgotten Soldier?

Hock