Best Biographies of the Marines

Even after intense training, he was shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic. Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific —the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary—into terms we mortals can grasp. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific - the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary - into terms we mortals can grasp.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"At times the book was slow while sledge and his men had to wait for weeks sometimes months then they got orders."
"Many of my descendants fought in the Pacific theater of WWII, so every story I read provides me a different glimpse into what my forefathers went through."
"The horrors endured by Sledge, Leckie, and their comrades are hard to comprehend over a half-century later, even with horribly-maimed countrymen and women returning from combat zones since 9-11."
"Written with an honesty and attention to detail that pulls the reader immediately into the narrative, Sledge manages both a colloquial familiarity and, at times, an unlabored prose poetry that elevates this book's writing style and "voice" above even works of combat fiction. This is one reason why I recommend it as required reading in U.S. high schools (though the book is largely apolitical, I suspect the language and unsparing descriptions of the aforementioned atrocities would have many school boards and parents, ironically, up in arms)."
"War changes people and Mr. Sledge doesn't hide from that fact, but he also doesn't throw it in your face."

There are accounts from a Luftwaffe pilot who was one of the first to witness the Allied armada from the air, and stories from foot soldiers, military police and panzer crews who fought desperately to hold back the beach landings and airborne assaults. 'D Day Through German Eyes' presents the transcripts of interviews which my grandfather carried out with German veterans in 1954, on the tenth anniversary of D Day.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The book rightfully humanizes the average soldier in the German army but of course not the central Nazi cause and certainly not the treatment of Jewish people."
"Being a child of the 50s and seeing all of the World War II newsreels, I have always been intrigued with stories of World War II."
"Many revealign facts from the German side that paint a different attitude towards France, the UK, the US and the USSR - and relationships therein."
"Always they speak of the suffering and struggle, but always in the light of liberating France and stopping Germany."
"The first book was unique and enlightening - D-Day as related by German soldiers who lived through it."
"Mr. Eckhertz gives the reader an honest look at German men who served in the military during World War II in interviews that he conducted in 1954, only nine years after it ended."
"This is a follow-up from Book 1, and it more deeply covers the views of German soldiers that faced the D-Day attack by the Allies."
"This book and book one of the same title were written based on interviews made in the early 1950s by a correspondent for German military magazines."

The uplifting and unforgettable true story of a US Marine, the stray dog he met on an Afghan battlefield, and how they saved each other and now travel America together, "spreading the message of stubborn positivity." A poignant and inspiring tale of hope, resilience, and optimism, with a timeless message at its heart—"it is not what happens to us that matters, but how we respond to it"— Craig & Fred is a shining example of the power of love to transform our hearts and our lives. While on patrol, he spotted a young dog who didn’t seem vicious or run in a pack like most strays they’d encountered. Fred not only stole Craig’s heart; he won over the RECON fighters, who helped Craig smuggle the dog into heavily fort-ified Camp Leatherneck.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Another great read, this marine had a lot to worry about yet he made time for the dog."
"I had looked at it at a big named bookstore but, I ordered it from Amazon and saved $12."
"What a great book."
"loved the book and the story I know several ex military that have PTSD and for them it is hard to let anyone know happy to see how Craig was able to cope because of the love he had for Fred."
"Highly, highly recommend."
"Bought this as a gift for my father, he's not a huge dog liver but i figured the story was one he'd enjoy."
"A lovely story about a man and a dog in a very scary place."
"A well written book giving insight into the life of a Marine, on the battlefield and off, and the sustenance the Marine (Craig) found in an Afghan street dog (Fred)."
Best Biographies of the Army

When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award “Extraordinarily moving . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.” — People “A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.” —The Washington Post “Ambitious and powerful . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.” —The New York Times Book Review “Magnificent . [Hillenbrand] has crafted another masterful blend of sports, history and overcoming terrific odds; this is biography taken to the nth degree, a chronicle of a remarkable life lived through extraordinary times.” —The Dallas Morning News “An astonishing testament to the superhuman power of tenacity.” — Entertainment Weekly “A tale of triumph and redemption . nothing less than a marvel.” — Washingtonian “[Hillenbrand tells this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.” —Time “Hillenbrand [is] one of our best writers of narrative history. Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010 : From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling author of Seabiscuit , comes Unbroken , the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. As I researched the Depression-era racehorse, I kept coming across stories about Louie, a 1930s track star who endured an amazing odyssey in World War II. Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. I found it in diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra. From the 1936 Olympics to WWII Japan's most brutal POW camps, Hillenbrand's heart-wrenching new book is thousands of miles and a world away from the racing circuit of her bestselling Seabiscuit. But it's just as much a page-turner, and its hero, Louie Zamperini, is just as loveable: a disciplined champion racer who ran in the Berlin Olympics, he's a wit, a prankster, and a reformed juvenile delinquent who put his thieving skills to good use in the POW camps, In other words, Louie is a total charmer, a lover of life--whose will to live is cruelly tested when he becomes an Army Air Corps bombardier in 1941. Even as, returning stateside, he impulsively married the beautiful Cynthia Applewhite and tried to build a life, Louie remained in the Bird's clutches, haunted in his dreams, drinking to forget, and obsessed with vengeance. It is impossible to condense the rich, granular detail of Hillenbrand's narrative of the atrocities committed (one man was exhibited naked in a Tokyo zoo for the Japanese to "gawk at his filthy, sore-encrusted body") against American POWs in Japan, and the courage of Louie and his fellow POWs, who made attempts on Watanabe's life, committed sabotage, and risked their own lives to save others.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The depth of depravity that Louie and his fellow prisoners had to endure is unimaginable, and the fact that he survived to live a productive life is a testament to his incredibly resilient and unbreakable will and spirit. The account of Zamperini's reluctant encounter with evangelist Billy Graham,is touching and instructive, for it proved to be the event that allowed Louie to finally come to peace with his hatred of the worst of the Japanese guards, Mutsuhiro Watanabe, "The Bird," Louie was finally free of the haunting nightmares and his need to seek revenge."
"The resilience of how man can go through such horrific life events and struggle to the top!"
"Hillenbrand recounts the statistics of men who lost their lives, not only in combat, but also due to all kinds of accidents, technical failures, and training errors — they are a sobering number. Out of the eleven men on board, only 3 survived the crash — they spent 47 days adrift at sea, living off rain water, fish, and birds… mostly starving, dehydrating, fighting off sharks, and talking to each other to keep themselves from going insane. Louie and his friend, Phil, were mistreated, to say the least: they were separated, beaten, practically starved, denied proper medical attention, psychologically tormented, and worked half to death at prisoner-of-war camps. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty.”. Surviving on the life rafts while out in the open ocean was quite a challenge — yet when Phil and Louie lacked water, they waited for rain; when they were hungry, they ate whatever they could get their hands on: fish, bird, or shark; when they were too weak to do anything else, they would talk to anchor their minds to their bodies so that they could live to see another day as lucidly as possible. But once they were prisoners of war, the Japanese soldiers sought to degrade them, deprive them of every basic human right imaginable, and to crush their spirit. Louie wrote to his greatest tormentor, Watanabe in letter (after the war): “It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance."
Best Biographies of the Air Force

When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award “Extraordinarily moving . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.” — People “A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.” —The Washington Post “Ambitious and powerful . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.” —The New York Times Book Review “Magnificent . [Hillenbrand] has crafted another masterful blend of sports, history and overcoming terrific odds; this is biography taken to the nth degree, a chronicle of a remarkable life lived through extraordinary times.” —The Dallas Morning News “An astonishing testament to the superhuman power of tenacity.” — Entertainment Weekly “A tale of triumph and redemption . nothing less than a marvel.” — Washingtonian “[Hillenbrand tells this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.” —Time “Hillenbrand [is] one of our best writers of narrative history. Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010 : From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling author of Seabiscuit , comes Unbroken , the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. As I researched the Depression-era racehorse, I kept coming across stories about Louie, a 1930s track star who endured an amazing odyssey in World War II. Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. I found it in diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra. From the 1936 Olympics to WWII Japan's most brutal POW camps, Hillenbrand's heart-wrenching new book is thousands of miles and a world away from the racing circuit of her bestselling Seabiscuit. But it's just as much a page-turner, and its hero, Louie Zamperini, is just as loveable: a disciplined champion racer who ran in the Berlin Olympics, he's a wit, a prankster, and a reformed juvenile delinquent who put his thieving skills to good use in the POW camps, In other words, Louie is a total charmer, a lover of life--whose will to live is cruelly tested when he becomes an Army Air Corps bombardier in 1941. Even as, returning stateside, he impulsively married the beautiful Cynthia Applewhite and tried to build a life, Louie remained in the Bird's clutches, haunted in his dreams, drinking to forget, and obsessed with vengeance. It is impossible to condense the rich, granular detail of Hillenbrand's narrative of the atrocities committed (one man was exhibited naked in a Tokyo zoo for the Japanese to "gawk at his filthy, sore-encrusted body") against American POWs in Japan, and the courage of Louie and his fellow POWs, who made attempts on Watanabe's life, committed sabotage, and risked their own lives to save others.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The depth of depravity that Louie and his fellow prisoners had to endure is unimaginable, and the fact that he survived to live a productive life is a testament to his incredibly resilient and unbreakable will and spirit. The account of Zamperini's reluctant encounter with evangelist Billy Graham,is touching and instructive, for it proved to be the event that allowed Louie to finally come to peace with his hatred of the worst of the Japanese guards, Mutsuhiro Watanabe, "The Bird," Louie was finally free of the haunting nightmares and his need to seek revenge."
"The resilience of how man can go through such horrific life events and struggle to the top!"
"Hillenbrand recounts the statistics of men who lost their lives, not only in combat, but also due to all kinds of accidents, technical failures, and training errors — they are a sobering number. Out of the eleven men on board, only 3 survived the crash — they spent 47 days adrift at sea, living off rain water, fish, and birds… mostly starving, dehydrating, fighting off sharks, and talking to each other to keep themselves from going insane. Louie and his friend, Phil, were mistreated, to say the least: they were separated, beaten, practically starved, denied proper medical attention, psychologically tormented, and worked half to death at prisoner-of-war camps. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty.”. Surviving on the life rafts while out in the open ocean was quite a challenge — yet when Phil and Louie lacked water, they waited for rain; when they were hungry, they ate whatever they could get their hands on: fish, bird, or shark; when they were too weak to do anything else, they would talk to anchor their minds to their bodies so that they could live to see another day as lucidly as possible. But once they were prisoners of war, the Japanese soldiers sought to degrade them, deprive them of every basic human right imaginable, and to crush their spirit. Louie wrote to his greatest tormentor, Watanabe in letter (after the war): “It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance."
Best Biographies of the Military Navy

His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. American Sniper is a compelling read.” (CLINT EASTWOOD). “An amazingly detailed account of fighting in Iraq--a humanizing, brave story that’s extremely readable.” (PATRICIA CORNWELL, New York Times Book Review ). A brave warrior and patriot, Chris Kyle writes frankly about the missions, personal challenges, and hard choices that are part of daily life of an elite SEAL Sniper. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Most of the low rated reviews were from folks posting negative comments that had not even read the book. I made a point to bring this to the attention of potential buyers of Chris's book so they wouldn't let the low ratings affect their decision to read, what I think is a very good story. I think Chris, with help of course, did a pretty darn good job describing his experiences. This book is written in what I would call a sort of "conversational style". I liked his sense of humor (I caught myself laughing out loud at times). It's interesting to read about what sort of equipment someone needs to survive in that kind of environment. It's easy to sit in a nice comfortable home, and second guess him but the bottom line is that I am quite sure the men that served next to him were glad he was there."
"I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read a first hand perspective from one of the most prolific soldiers in the US Military."
"The author was a great asset to this country, but I think he was a much better sniper than he was a writer, and probably his next books would have changed for the better, but he suffered a lethal attack from a troubled, ungrateful individual he was trying to be nice to, and his life was cut short for his efforts."
"Good story, Im very impressed with Chris Kyle and although I was not a Navy Seal, I did 22 and half years in the Navy and I can understand a lot of his thought process and I totally understand the greater side of this story and that's the emotional side dealing with being away from the job and having a loving family."
"This is an excellent book, but certainly not for the style, which is elementary at best and could probably have used more editing."