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Personal Narratives of Veterans |
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You Are Worth It: Building a Life Worth Fighting For
by Kyle Carpenter
The youngest living recipient of the Medal of Honor presents an inspirational memoir that describes the selfless act that protected his brothers in arms in Afghanistan and his motivational battle to recover from catastrophic injuries.
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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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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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Modern Warriors: Real Stories from Real Heroes
by Pete Hegseth
The "Fox & Friends Weekend" cohost presents inspiring stories from fifteen highly decorated members of America's military, drawing on candid conversations to discuss what inspired them to serve, the realities of war, and the difficulty of transitioning back home.
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Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warrior's Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship
by Johnny Joey Jones
In over a decade of working with veterans, Johnny Joey Jones has discovered the power of battle-forged friendships. Suffering a life-changing injury while deployed in Afghanistan, he faced a daunting recovery. But coming home would have been much harder without the support of his brothers and sisters in arms. In Unbroken Bonds of Battle, Joey tells the stories of those very warriors, who for years have supported and inspired him on the battlefield and off. Through unfiltered and authentic conversations with American heroes in every branch of service, Joey tackles the big questions about life, loss, and, of course, hunting. Powerful life lessons are woven throughout these personal oral histories. Also included is a scrapbook of beautiful candid photographs from the lives of these modern warriors.
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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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Veterans: Faces of World War II
by Sasha Maslov
Since 2010, Ukrainian-born photographer Sasha Maslov has traveled to more than twenty countries, interviewing participants in World War II and taking richly detailed photographs of them in their homes. Soldiers, support staff, and resistance members candidly discuss wartime experiences and their lifelong effects. We meet Ichiro Sudai, who trained to be a kamikazi; Urszula Hoffmann, who taught young children as a member of the Polish resistance; Roscoe Brown, a commander in the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators; Charin Singh, a farmer from Delhi who spent seven years as a Japanese prisoner of war, returning home only in 1949; and Uli John, who lost an arm while serving in the German Army and ultimately befriended former enemy soldiers as part of a network of veterans--"people who fought in the war and know what war really means."
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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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The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France
by Seth Meyerowitz
Documents the story of a World War II American Air Force turret-gunner who was one of two escapees when his team's plane was shot down near Cognac in 1943, tracing his harrowing six-month flight to safety across the Pyrenees under constant pursuit by the Gestapo.
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Tough as They Come: A Memoir
by Travis Mills
A retired paratrooper and one of the only five soldiers to have survived quadruple-amputee injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, the author describes how his faith and his mantra of “never give up—never quit” has helped him rebuild his life since Afghanistan.
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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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