5 comments about A Shepherd in Combat Boots: Chaplain Emil Kapaun of the 1st Cavalry Division.

1. William Maher has given us a well-written biography of Fr. Emil Kapaun. Chaplain Kapaun was born in Kansas, grew up on a farm, and became a diocesan priest. He served as a chaplain in WWII and in Korea. In Korea he was taken as a prisoner of war and died from lack of medical treatment. Parts of this book are difficult to read because of the inhumane way the communist treated POW's, but for all the good men who endured this treatment, we need to read the story.
   
   His heroic service to all the men he served with, not just catholics, will never be forgotten. He did everything he could to help his men spiritually, physically and mentally. The title of this book appropriately calls him a shepherd. Just as we think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, so Fr. Kapaun was a good shepherd to his men. He was a true hero although he never would have considered himself a hero.
   
   The vatican has named him "Servant of God", and I hope to see him canonized in my lifetime. Pray for us Fr. Kapaun.



2. My Dad went to the High School that was named after this Priest. He loves it so far.



3. As a new fire chaplain, I have been reading as wide as I can about what a chaplain does. Chaplain Kapaun is a real model for all of us who follow Christ and serve others as a chaplain.



4. This is an excellent story and so breathtaking, I had to stop reading in several parts, just to get through the chapter! What an amazing man Father Kapaun was and he showed how great the power of the human spirit is that once you start reading, you can't put it down. Then, when you're finished reading it, you want everyone to know about this wonderful human being! I, for one, will never feel needy for anything else in my life. Mr. Maher did an excellent job of interviewing friends and family of the Chaplain to make you feel that you knew him as well. Such a sad, sad story but one that makes you proud to be a Christian and proud to be an American. This has to be made in to a movie!



5. This book is a story of a man who becomes a priest and dies serving his fellow man. He is praised by the men of diffrent faiths (Christian, Jew and Muslim)who were POWs with him in North Korea.
   
   This is an excellent book to read especially during this era where the Me Generation is thriving. This book shows one the importance of sacrifice for our fellow man.

4 comments about My Son Is a Marine.

1. From a Marine Mom's point of view....a wonderful book. I cried and laughed at times through the whole book. There wasn't a page that I didn't like. I thank Jo Anne Allen for writting her story to share with us. She is a brilliant writer and a wonderful Mom. God Bless you Jo Anne and AJ. -Lori
   
   Ooorah!



2. Jo Anne Allen's MY SON IS A MARINE captures in riveting detail the author's personal struggle through every mother's nightmare; a child deployed to combat. Despite the sheer gravity of the situation, Jo Anne manages to fill her story with humor and an unshakeable faith while describing how she kept both her spirits and that of her deployed Marine high throughout his combat tour in Iraq. Through Allen's extraordinary writing talent, her children come alive to the reader, as well as her "other children" (AJ's friends, whom she practically adopts), and even the family dog is described in such simple yet warm detail that you expect her to come bounding into your room at any moment!
   
   Allen draws her audience in early with a graphic account of a childhood near-death experience for her son AJ, and then another from his teenage years. Both of these events convince the reader that AJ must survive, because he has some higher purpose from God. Eventually it becomes clear that the purpose is going to Iraq, where AJ not only does his duty, but impacts the lives of so many of his fellow Marines as well.
   
   My favorite part was all the little anecdotes relayed through the story, usually concerning AJ's childhood. They add such depth to the narrative flow of the book. And the stories of the Three Trees and the Cup Full of Sins are ones that I will carry around with me for a long time. This book is easy to read, easy to develop, hard to put down, and impossible to forget. It is a must read for parents of young deployed servicemembers, and also for anyone who has ever asked the Almighty "Why?"



3. Moving, inspiring, compelling, mystical, spiritual and entertaining! Personally, it was one of the best reading experiences of the year for me. Author, and mother of an Iraq veteran, Jo Anne Allen writes from her heart and it shows in her memoir "My Son Is A Marine". It is a joy and a real pleasure to read something uplifting dealing with the Iraq War experience. Even though her book is filled with enough "Kleenex Moments" to make a great soap opera, she never loses her faith in life.
   
   Her moving words about her son and his friends are touching and healing. This book would be good spiritual medicine for those with children in a war zone; or whose own lives have been challenged by having to carry some of life's burdens. Jo Ann is not some simple minded "Pollyanna" but a faithful and very much human being, who is trying to cope and deal with her life under some extraordinary circumstances.
   
   I found myself rooting for her and her family throughout the pages of this book. It is one of those stories that you are glued to as soon as you begin and must continue reading through to the end. I read it the first morning I got the book--I could not put it down until I was done with it.
   
   This is not your normal "I got a son in the war story" by any measurement. It is something very special. I believe it will help bring people back to their own spiritual roots. It will change lives and make people different in a very positive way.
   
   This is the MWSA's winner of "The Reader's Choice Award" for 2006! I give this book our top rating of FIVE STARS! A must read book!!!!



4. I just got through reading "My Son is a Marine" and found it to be a very touching and inspirational book. My son is also in the Marines and is presently doing border patrol in Iraq. Reading this book has helped me to find strength to lay down a lot of my worries about his safety and well being during his deployment. This book is more than a Marine Mother's story, it is a story of how faith can change lives. AJ is a phenominal young man and his love of God is such an inspiration. Thank you Jo Anne for telling your story and may God bless you and your family.

3 comments about The Secret Camera: A Marine's Story: Four Years as a POW.

1. As someone with a deep interest in photography, cameras and World War II, I must say I was most disappointed.
   
   With a title like "The Secret Camera" I expected more about his photographic adventures.
   
   Yet, in a book with close to 250 pages, the camera does not make an appearance until 2/3 of the book had elapsed.
   
   Even then, the photography 'story' seemed incidental.
   
   Of course I sympathize with the author for his ordeal. And, it has strengthened my anti-Japanese resolve. (Until the Japs say sorry for the atrocities of WW2, I refuse to visit that country. Learn their language or eat their food.)
   
   What let me down was the title - The Secret Camera. For me, it cheapened the whole book. I mean, if it had been titled "My exploits as a Japanese prisoner", the book would have been much better, I feel.
   
   For me, I bought the book because I thought it would be largely about his attempts to build the camera, process the film etc. To find out that something promised in the title fills less than 10% of the book is very disappointing.
   
   That said, I think it was brave of the writer to fly in the face of what he had signed and publish the book/pictures.



2. Just a brief update: According to an Associated Press story dated May 12, 2006, the author died on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at the age of 89, apparently after a heart attack. In light of the present controversy surrounding the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere by the U.S., understanding some of the history of how wartime prisoners have been treated in the past is of particular relevance today. From Fukuoko to Abu Graib...



3. Most of us remember December 7th, 1941 as Pearl Harbor Day. To Terence Kirk, it is more memorable as the day that he (and 202 other China Marines) were captured by the Japanese. They were to remain prisoners for 1,355 days, the entire length of time the U.S. was at war with Japan.
   
   American Marines in Japanese prisoner of war camps were 17.5 times more likely to die from the treatment in those camps than they were to die in combat. Mr. Kirk survived. and as of the time of writing this book there were 31 survivors of the 202 China Marines.
   
   Unique to Mr. Kirk, so far as is known he was the only one to have built a camera while in the POW camp and taken pictures. This is his story and some of the pictures.
   
   Mr. Kirk ends this book: 'If not for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , we would have met certain death.' I think he's right.

5 comments about Cutthroats: The Adventures of a Sherman Tank Driver in the Pacific.

1. This is an interesting book of the Pacific War from a tank drivers point of view. Its not very dramatic; some times comical; and it reads as if the author is talking to you in a bar over some beers. Its a cheap paperback good for long plane flights.



2. Cutthroats is a fast, easy, and very enjoyable read. For those who haven't read it the title refers to the name painted on the author's tank, all tanks in C Company having to have a name starting with the letter C. The author's account of the days immediately following Pearl Harbor are both entertaining and really illuminating on the hysteria of the times. The author spent time guarding bridges and railroad tunnels with a .30 CAL machine gun crew at various locations in California. His accounts of combat as tank crewman in the Pacific theater make up the bulk of the book. His firsthand accounts of combat, the hardship of day-to-day life, and the camaraderie of his fellow tankers will make you laugh and at times get a lump in your throat. This is a great book with something for the serious and casual history buff alike.



3. Excellent memoir, written by a guy who started out as a foot soldier before Pearl Harbor, and went on to drive Shermans on Leyte and Okinawa. The book reads fast and easy, is full of great detail, and told in a wry, reflective tone. Armor freaks especially will dig it. We need as many of these memoirs as we can get before these guys are all gone.



4. This book was fun to read and the author is a great story teller.



5. got book FAST , READ it FAST ... great story of a " NON " Eddie Murphy type , a Regular G.I.doing the job assigned to him .. not EVERY soldier did Heroic stuff on the battlefield everyday ......But he still suffered thru the cruelty of War .......

1 comments about One Perfect Op: Navy SEAL Special Warfare Teams.

1. I've really enjoyed reading this book. Contrary to the impression given by the title, it is not an in depth recounting of a single mission. It is really a biography of sorts of the life of a SEAL from his childhood through retirement, touching on the highlights of his career. As with any non-fiction military literature, there are details of missions that must be left out, but it has been done well enough that the impact of the stories has not been sacrificed. This is my third Navy SEAL non-fiction, a genre I will be reading from more and more!

4 comments about The Adventures of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cowboy, Prisoner of War.

1. Eddie Fung's curiosity, sense of adventure, and generous spirit in helping others is inspiring!
   
   He never let his small stature get in the way of anything he was determined to do, whether it was to enlist in the army, help the men on the ranches where he worked at during his teens, or (secretly) help get food and medicine for his fellow POW's during WWII.
   
   I admire his way of sharing his adventurous life, which was often humorous: he didn't hesitate to recount the times he got in trouble or made himself look not-so-smart when he could have asked for help. I like his forthright manner! As he put it to his second wife: "What you see is what you get."
   
   Fung's spirit shines throughout the book; it serves as reminder to me of the sacrifices made by servicemen such as himself, as well as my father, and members of their generation during WWII. Moreover, he describes how he helped his fellow POW's to survive in the most unimaginable circumstances by using his past experiences, however minor they may have seemed. Being frugal, helping his mom with household chores like making preparations for dinner, and working on the ranch provided useful skills he could share with the other prisoners.
   
   His many adventures are nicely complemented with loving family background/memories of parents and siblings, and life, post-POW. A really enjoyable read!
   
   Don't miss out!



2. "Another Little Big Man" might have been the immodest title of this too modest gentleman's autobiography. That memorable movie from 1970 told the life story of a diminutive guy who lived many different lives within the span of one and that could also describe Eddie Fung. Short on stature, big on life, that's Eddie. Born in San Francisco's Chinatown, he dropped out of high school and went to Texas at age 16 to become a cowboy just because he wanted to. There he discovered a now nearly vanished breed of everyday honest men and a challenging way of life that for him epitomized the American dream of freedom of spirit paid for by hard work. By 1940 as war raged in China and simmered in Europe he too joined the Texas National Guard just as many of the other ranch hands were doing. That one simple act put Eddie onto a path that took him through three and a half very tough years as the only Chinese American prisoner of war after his unit's capture by the Japanese Army early in 1942. You won't want to put it down once you begin Eddie's book but the beauty of it is that you can pick it up and open it nearly at random and be rewarded with simple truths as experienced by a complex man. For this we have Eddie's wife Dr. Judith Yung to thank for an excellent job of editing a number of multi-hour interview sessions. Judy is one of this nation's most well known and respected scholar/authors of the modern Chinese American experience. Be sure to read the Preface to learn how they met and married when Judy needed a WW II vet interview for a project she had begun. This memorable book has one little shortcoming, so to speak, that must be mentioned .... it comes to an end. This reader wanted Eddie's adventures to continue indefinitely. We do learn of his post war life including family and career, his eventual involvement with the Lost Battalion Association and its annual reunions, etc. so it is a well rounded effort. My wish came true recently when I discovered that YouTube offers a six part look at one of this special couple's book talks. Thank you sharing your life Eddie.



3. I met Eddie Fung in person last week and heard him discuss the book and his life. What a journey! He is a 10 an so is his book. There are many greatest generation stories that will never be told (my Dad's for example) so take advantage of reading this amazing story of survival from a good story teller.
   
   Also, it is a reminder that many American minorities were in WWII who were staunch patriots, sacrificed much, and should not be overlooked.



4. this is a very touching story- somewhat like angela's ashes re experiences of a poor background. school dropout, becoming a cowboy then a searing 4 years as a pow -finally graduating from stanford university and moving on

5 comments about Hard to Forget : An American with the Mobile Guerrilla Force in Vietnam.

1. Good news first; family, friends, and non-military should really like this book. Others like myself who are retired military, served in Vietnam (Pilot 192nd AHC 68-69), and have written a book about this war might question this author's intent. After "Kill Me If You Can, You SOB" came out, I started reading every book about the Vietnam War I could get my hands on. So far about half of them have screamed out, "I want to be in the movies." This is one of those books.



2. Leave it up to the Special Forces to make a mountain out of a molehill. The Blackjack Operations were daily insertions of team into and out of the field. The entire time, only 8 teams managed to stay over night in the bush. The team that went to find the Blackbox, simply walked through War Zone D (Not the VC Secret Zone) and found the box, went to an lZ and were extracted. No POWs, no fighting into a enemy base camp, like this author writes. All the "war tales" arounds these operations are just that - Tales. This book is FICTION. Read the U.S. National Archives on what these men failed to do and they could not RON (Remain Over Night) because they were scared of the dark. Always back in before sundown with a lot of shadow shooting. The 54 enemy engagments the author claims is as bogus as Mexican water. Don't drink it and don't believe this book.

   For a more honest book on what and who dominated this AO (area of operation) in Vietnam, read Don C. Hall's book, 'I SERVED.' These 220 Lurps kicked some serious butt and these SF have been jealous of this unit since 1967 along with a string of other "marginal units that could perform well."
   Check out i-served.com




3. This a book that is a must read for anyone wanting to know what it was like in Nam. Being an Ex-Ranger this book put me right back in there. I just couldn't put it down. It made me laught,and cry. yes us Rangers do cry, for the lost of a friend.

   Roadrunner 6 out




4. I have read ,HARD TO FORGET, The book captures the smell of damp vegetation rotten in the jungle, the sweat burning your eyes, the rucksack straps digging into your shoulders and that ever-lasting ache, on your hips, from the the burden of the pistol belt. The apprehension and fear, of a too quiet jungle, resurface in your mind. Your heart beating so loud, you think, everyone hears it. The hunter waiting to become the hunted. To the men who fought in Vietnam, "HARD TO FORGET". will bring the memories, flooding back. The good memories along with the bad.The book also deals with the effects of the war on the men who fought it. The book shows the beauty of America along with her warts. One point the author makes is, Soldiers do not fight wars by mistake. Soldiers fight wars because of mistake by politicians. In the end only soldiers and their families pay the piper. "HARD TO FORGET"



5. When I picked up this book for the first time I did not put the book down until I had finished the book. Steve and I met for the 1st time in 1966, I was an O&I spec4 working in S-2 in Bien Hoa and had known Col Bo Gritz he was Steve,s CO at the time and it was my job to provide MAPS and AO,s to A-301 and A-302 when they were at Bien Hoa. Years later at my 2nd reunion I met up with Steve at our Ft Bragg reunion and was proud to have known and served in SF with him. The book put me back 34 years and I remember the Black box incident and the unit being recognized for a job well done by Gen Westmoreland. Thanks for letting me know you Steve and May God Bless and watch over you and yours. Sincerely yours your brother John J Coppinger

5 comments about Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life.

1. This book offers a tremendous amount of detail and information and that makes it an ok work. However, the problem with it is author's bias and an outright, unconcealed animosity toward Napoleon. In general I am against historians making moral value judgments in their books, however, if the do it than the bare minimum which we as readers should get is balance. In this work Schom essentially highlights all the bad traits which marked Napoleon and by skipping over the faults of other historical figures he makes Napoleon look like a 19th. century Hitler, as someone already said. While he goes into gruesome detail to explain the problems of 19th. century battlefield medicine in the French army he never mentions the fact that other armies were not all that great either, and when English loose thousands soldiers to disease as they did when they tried to take Antwerp, he does not describe the details of those 4,000 gruesome deaths and does not blame the surgeons, the lack of medical staff and equipment etc. in the British army.



2. THis is a truly bad biography of a seemingly masochistic writer who strongly dislikes his subject. The author suggests to be more diligent with sources, thus justifying his particularly negative view of Napoleon. However, even from the citations he inserts into the text, it may be gleaned that these sources are far from giving an objective view. Occasionally it is quite unclear when the statements were given - in particular in the case of Bourrienne, this is interesting: Bourrienne tried very hard to obtain the approval of the new masters after Napoleon's downfall, and he had a clear personal interest in speaking badly of Napoleon. This is clearly different from an immediate, unbiased first-hand accord of circumstances from within a given situation. Schom nonetheless tries to convince his readers that these statements are without guile and given without a particular aim - while they were often given much later out of memory, with the clear aim in mind to debase the fallen emperor, and to cleanse himself, Bourrienne, from any negative role he may have played. This use of sources can by no means qualify as diligent, in spite of all the allegedly well-researched details.



3. This is a sweeping, almost lush, detailed and comprehensive story of one of the greatest Military and political leaders and thinkers of world history, told with great skill, sensitivity but without sentimentality and without pulling any punches: We get to see Napoleon in the raw, warts and all. One gets the impression that Mr. Schom has lost his taste for the heroic image of Napoleon and has replaced it with a more realistic one based on "deeply honed" research into his life.
   
   Nowhere have I ever seen such an ambitious project pulled off so well. It covers Napoleon's life from cradle to grave. It covers his thinking during all of his various military campaigns, the military triumphs and the strategic and tactical failures. It covers Napoleon's brooding reaction to his mistakes and his elation to his foreordained victories. It covers the conflicts and romps with all of his wives and his many female consorts. It covers the feuds with his family and with his general staff, his personality flaws and his lack of sensitivity to his soldiers and to the great harm his campaigns did to the peoples of the lands he conquered. We get a front row seat into the mind and the actions of one of the foremost heroes of Western History.
   
   Altogether this is a thoroughly engrossing although not the most balanced book; yet it will endure. There may be better books "out there" on Napoleon, but I doubt if there are any as complete as this one. We must be grateful to Alan Schom for the prodigious effort exerted to produce this masterpiece of a tome. It is the one book on Napoleon that is a must read. Five Stars and Amen.



4. Do I think that books critical of Napoleon are of absolutely no value? Not at all, but any author who writes such a book should at least present all of the facts, and not just give the half of the story that supports his thesis. Alan Schom definitely distorts the facts and stacks the deck in favor of his biases.
   The most glaring example is his treatment of the battle of Austerlitz, where Napoleon demolished the combined armies of Austria and Russia. Schom gleefully tells us how Napoleon instructed his troops to take no Russian prisoners-to kill every Russian in their path. "Seldom had Napoleon shown himself to be so vicious," says Schom.
   As anyone who has read anything about Austerlitz knows, in the earlier battles of the Austerlitz campaign, the advancing French had been fired upon from behind by wounded Russians; it was actually a quite common occurrence. Napoleon's order was thus not motivelessly malignant; he simply was sick and tired of seeing his troops shot in the back. Schom not only fails to give us this background information;he also fails to mention the thousands of Austrian prisoners taken in the battle. Napoleon had no reason to order the execution of wounded and captured Austrians since they didn't shoot his men in the back!
   Schom also posits, without offering any evidence, that Napoleon murdered Admiral Villeneuve(who actually committed suicide after being defeated at Trafalgar) and Marshal Berthier(accidental fall from a window). He takes the very complex individual who was Napoleon and turns him into a one dimensional cartoon character. Napoleon was much closer to being an early nineteenth century enlightened despot than the twentieth century genocidal dictator Schom portrays him as.
   The only thing that saves this book from being a one star waste of ink and paper is Schom's ability as a writer. If you've never read anything about Napoleon, then I suggest you balance this book with the more favorable biography by Vincent Cronin.



5. Alan Schom is very vocal in praising Napoleon as military tactician. He finds him audacious and personally brave, though often quite lucky. There is absolutely nothing else positive to say about him and he says alot. There frankly isn't too much positive one can say about Napoleon but what makes Schom's book unique is the vitriolic attack on his personality, detailing several obscure episodes that expose him as an awkward seducer of his friends' wives, a cheater of parlour games with a boorish social sense. He includes a medical appendix where he amateurishly argues that Napoleon was psychotic. Brutal megalomaniac? OK, but incapable of feeling genuine love or remorse with no friendships? Schom's accounts of his tolerance of duplicitous subordinates, his wife's lover, love for Josephine and Duroc and many others-belies his own assertions of psychosis. His coverage of military matters is decent, but better realized in the work of specialized accounts like Chandlers' and Eltings'.

No comments about Not Without Honor: The Nazi POW Journal of Steve Carano, With Accounts by John C. Bitzer and Bill Blackmon.

1 comments about An Army in Skirts: The World War II Letters of Frances Debra.

1. An Army in Skirts: The World War II Letters of Frances Debra collects the letters Frances DeBra Brown sent to her family, while she served in the Women's Army Corps in World War II as a draftsman at American headquarters in London and Paris. Chronicling her WW II service from her training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia to her assignment at an army air field in Florida to surviving buzz bomb and V-2 rocket attacks in London and witnessing the devastation of Paris a scant two weeks after the city's liberation, An Army in Skirts is the candid testimony of a woman's perspective - thoughtfully discussing the connections Brown made with individual people and the simple day-to-day matters of survival as well as larger issues of war and peace. Highly recommended.