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Personal Narratives of Veterans |
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It's My Country Too: Women's Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan
by Jerri Bell
Serving with the Union Army during the Civil War as a nurse, scout, spy, and soldier, Harriet Tubman tells what it was like to be the first American woman to lead a raid against an enemy, freeing some 750 slaves. Busting gender stereotypes, Josette Dermody Wingo enlisted as a gunner's mate in the navy in World War II to teach sailors to fire Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. Marine Barbara Dulinsky recalls serving under fire in Saigon during the Tet Offensive of 1968, and Brooke King describes the aftermath of her experiences outside the wire with the army in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In excerpts from their diaries, letters, oral histories, and pension depositions--as well as from published and unpublished memoirs--generations of women reveal why and how they chose to serve their country, often breaking with social norms, even at great personal peril.
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Thank You for My Service
by Mat Best
A memoir from an five-tour Army Ranger who became a YouTube phenomenon follows him from Columbus, Georgia, to Ramadi and offers front-line action as well as comfort and counsel in the form of humor while he advocates for veterans.
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The Fighters: Americans in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq
by C. J. Chivers
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Gun traces the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through its most at-risk participants, offering insights into such events as the hunt for bin Laden and counterguerilla warfare in the mountains of the Korengal Valley.
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Drawing Fire: A Pawnee, Artist, and Thunderbird in World War II
by Brummett Echohawk
In 1940, at the age of seventeen, Pawnee Indian artist Brummett Echohawk (1922-2006) enlisted in the 45th Infantry Division--the "Thunderbirds"--part of the Oklahoma Army National Guard in his home town of Pawnee, Oklahoma. General George Patton told the 45th that they were "one of the best if not the best division in the history of American arms." Drawing Fire, Echohawk's memoir of his military service, tells the epic true story of a young Pawnee artist serving in a unit composed largely of Native Americans during some of the most significant battles of the Second World War, including Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio. Woven into the tapestry of Drawing Fire are Pawnee legends, language, and American Indian humor, all which offer a rare glimpse of the Native American experience in Europe during World War II. The book is supplemented by more than 40 combat sketches Echohawk made during the war. The foreword is by WWII veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, and Muscogee (Creek) Indian Lt. Col. Ernest Childers.
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The Life of a Union Army Sharpshooter: The Diaries and Letters of John T. Farnham
by John T. Farnham
John T. Farnham, a sharpshooter in the Union Army, wrote a substantial diary entry nearly every day during his three-year enlistment, sent over 50 long articles to his hometown newspaper, and mailed some 600 letters home. He described training, battles, skirmishes, encampments, furloughs, marches, hospital life, and clerkships at the Iron Brigade headquarters and the War Department. He met Lincoln and acquired a blood-stained cuff taken from his assassinated body. He befriended freed slaves, teaching them to read and write and helped build a school. He campaigned for Lincoln’s re-election. He paints a detailed portrait of the lives of ordinary soldiers in the Union Army, their food, living conditions, relations among officers and men, ordeals, triumphs, and tragedies.
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Thank You for Your Service
by David Finkel
Journalist David Finkel spent several months in 2007 embedded with Army Infantry Battalion 2-16 during their deployment in Iraq; his 2009 book The Good Soldiers reports on how the troops of the 2-16 experienced the war. After their return to the U.S., Finkel reconnected with the men to learn about their post-war life. Thank You for Your Service offers compelling testimony about challenges the men face: severe mental illness, families and employers who can't understand (or don't want to), and a Veterans Administration health system that is inadequate to meet vets' needs. These powerful, moving accounts give ironic significance to the everyday expression, "Thank you."
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The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Ulysses S. Grant
Originally published in 1885 by Mark Twain, this newly annotated edition of General Grant's biography provides detailed historical and cultural contexts to create a more vivid picture of the Civil War era.
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D-Day Diary: Life on the Front Line in the Second World War
by Carol Harris
Eyewitness accounts of the experiences of those who participated in D-Day, including sailors, soldiers, airmen, and civilians from both sides. Historian Carol Harris collects together remarkable tales of bravery, survival, and sacrifice from what was one of the war's most dramatic and pivotal episodes, and presents them arranged as a chronological narrative.
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War
by Sebastian Junger
Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) turns his empathetic eye to the reality of combat--the fear, the honor, and the trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Through the experiences of these young men at war, he shows what it means to fight, to serve, and to face down mortal danger on a daily basis.
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American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History
by Chris Kyle
Retired Navy SEAL Chris Kyle served with distinction in Iraq as a specialist, employing his unusually keen skills as a sniper: he could infiltrate enemy territory without being detected before killing his targets with a single shot. American Sniper portrays the experiences of an ordinary human being who achieved extraordinary things, setting Kyle's Navy SEAL training and career against the background of his unassuming Texas childhood. This "first-rate military memoir" (Booklist) provides a vivid account of the Iraq War, enhanced with passages contributed by his wife that offer glimpses into his family's experiences and feelings during his deployment.
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The Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of WWII
by Leo Litwak
A World War II medic shares his story for the first time, detailing the intense combat and human drama he experienced as he patched up men on the frontlines during the final days of the war.
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What It is Like to Go to War
by Karl Marlantes
In this memoir the author of Matterhorn, an award-winning novel about the Vietnam war, presents his personal experiences in Vietnam as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Focusing on the terrible psychic toll that warfare, especially the act of killing other humans, exacts on soldiers, Karl Marlantes both plumbs the devastating circumstances that lead to PTSD and offers hope for those who must face them. He vividly describes his own emotional struggles to recover from the war, proposing a therapeutic model for recovery through ritual that was inspired by a story about Navajo soldiers returning home.
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Thirteen Soldiers: A Personal History of Americans at War
by John McCain
The coauthors of Faith of My Fathers present an evocative history of Americans at war through the personal accounts of 13 remarkable soldiers who fought in major military conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations
by William H. McRaven
The #1 New York Times best-selling author of Make Your Bed tells amazing stories of bravery and heroism from his career as a Navy SEAL and commander of America's Special Forces.
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Through the Valley: My Captivity in Vietnam
by William Reeder
Through the Valley is the captivating memoir of the last U.S. Army soldier taken prisoner during the Vietnam War. A narrative of courage, hope, and survival, Through the Valley portrays the thrill and horror of combat, the fear and anxiety of captivity, and the stories of friendships forged and friends lost.
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Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor
by Clinton Romesha
A comprehensive, firsthand account of the fourteen-hour firefight at the Battle of Keating by Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha. In 2009, Clinton Romesha of Red Platoon and the rest of the Black Knight Troop were preparing to shut down Command Outpost Keating, the most remote and inaccessible in a string of bases built by the U.S. military in Nuristan and Kunar in the hope of preventing Taliban insurgents from moving freely back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three years after its construction, the army was finally ready to concede what the men on the ground had known immediately: it was simply too isolated and too dangerous to defend. On October 3, 2009, after years of constant smaller attacks, the Taliban finally decided to throw everything they had at Keating.
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The Twins Platoon: An Epic Story of Young Marines at War in Vietnam
by Christy W. Sauro
In the evening of June 28, 1967, 150 young Americans were sworn into the Marine Corps as part of the pre-game ceremonies of a Minnesota Twins baseball game. Before the end of the fourth inning these volunteers were on their way to boot camp. It was a journey that would take them from a boyhood of baseball in the American heartland to manhood on the killing fields of Vietnam. Christy Sauro was one of the Twins Platoon, and in this book he tells what it was like—from the pomp and ceremony of induction to the all-too-real initiation by fire that would shortly follow: in mere months, he and most of the Twins Platoon were on the ground in Vietnam and promptly faced with some of the toughest fighting of the war, the Siege of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive, including the brutal Battle for Hue. From baseball to boot camp to brutal combat, his is a firsthand story of American life being lived at the limits—and changed forever.
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Phantom in the Sky: A Marine's Back Seat View of the Vietnam War
by Terry L. Thorsen
Phantom in the Sky is the story of a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the back seat of the supersonic Phantom jet during the Vietnam War--a unique, tactical perspective of the "guy in back," or GIB, absent from other published aviation accounts. During the time of Terry L. Thorsen's service from 1966 to 1970, the RIO played an integral part in enemy aircraft interception and ordnance delivery.
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Eat the Apple: A Memoir
by Matt Young
A combat veteran and writing instructor traces the darkly comic story of his youth and masculinity as they were shaped in an age of continuous war, describing how he joined the Marines as a way to temper his reckless nature before enduring three Iraq deployments shaped by Marine Corps culture and the misguided motivations that compel young men in wartime.
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Michigan City Public Library
100 E. 4th Street
Michigan City, Indiana 46360
219-873-3044mclib.org/ |
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