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(More customer reviews)The authors bring us first person remembrances from all the wars that America has participated in, from WWI through present day in Iraq. The stories come from all ranks, from privates through officers. The enlisted men tend to speak in a casual, informal style while the officers, especially the modern ones, report in the formal style of an after-action report.
I'm sure that it took some doing, but the authors found veterans of the US invasions of Grenada and Panama in the 1980s along with Somalia in 1993.
For students of US military history, some of the stories are pretty hair raising, funny and aggravating such as when Pvt Arthur Smith went to the military dentist in Korea. The dentist agreed that Smith had teeth that needed work, but refused to treat him because he was too busy reading a magazine. Or, the Lt who was so terrified of Smith that he transferred him to another unit to avoid being fragged.
To get a feeling for what our troops are up against today, its instructive to read the stories out of Iraq. In addition to stories of foot patrols in Iraqi cities, there is the story of an American adviser to an Iraqi unit who states that (conservatively) 50% of the Iraqis in his unit were ACTIVE insurgents and a quarter were passive insurgents. That left only a handful of men he could count on.
These stories will give you an additional appreciation for the men who serve in our military. They endure miserable weather, sometimes indifferent logistics and REMFs, and...oh yes...the enemy too.
This book is well worth reading for its historical value as well as a commentary on current engagements of our military personnel.
Click Here to see more reviews about: War Stories of the Infantry: Americans in Combat, 1918 to Today
"I love the infantry," famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle said, "because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without."
This book tells the stories of these soldiers. From the muddy trenches of France in World War I to the arid landscape of Iraq, War Stories of the Infantry immerses the reader in the immediate drama of combat as American infantrymen, Army and Marine Corps, have experienced it. In its pages, infantrymen tell of their struggles with the enemy, the terrain, and the weather, as well as their own fears and doubts in battle. In the humid heat of a faraway jungle, in the bone-chilling cold of a Korean mountaintop, we endure what they endure, see what they see--as they rout the enemy, open their eyes in a field hospital, or suffer the indignities of a POW camp. These are the stories of the largely unsung heroes who do the lion's share of fighting and dying for their country while protecting the freedoms and liberties that many of us take for granted.
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