Forward Movement’s Sunday Review Of Books
Reader Michael Croy writes:
Two books I’ve read recently that I’d urge readers of this site to check out are:
Heart of a Soldier by James B Stewart.
The story of Rick Rescorla, a Britisher who emigrated to the U.S., joined the American Army and was one of heroes of the Battle of Ia Drang valley in Vietnam. He won the Silver Star for his gallantry in action. Two others figure prominently in the story: American G.I. Dan Hill, whom he befriended in the service and fought alongside in combat, and the woman he would meet and marry late in life, Susan. Rick Rescorla was killed in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center after helping hundreds of employees out of the tower. As head of security for Morgan Stanley he made every effort to find every survivor in the building and spirit them to safety, and he remained inside too long to escape the building’s collapse. There is a statue of Resorla now in his home town of Cornwall. After reading this I was convinced another should be erected in Manhattan.*
Killing Rommel: A Novel by Steven Pressfield.
Departing from his usual subject matter of ancient history, this book deals with an actual British unit that fought in North Africa in WWII, the Long Range Desert Group. Those old enough to remember the TV series from the 1960s Rat Patrol may recognize the characteristic vehicles and weapons. Thoroughly researched as usual, Pressfield’s novel presents a riveting account of an unconventional fighting force seen through the eyes of one of its own. Fast paced and exciting, this is another highly recommended read for fans of historical fiction.
Reader Roque Nuevo, responding to A Modern War Reader, writes:
You have some very helpful recommendations in this post. One you left out, though, is …
The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam’s Holiest Shrine by Yaroslav Trofimov. It’s a fascinating reportage on an underreported incident with, as it turned out, important implications for the future. More than that, though, it’s an x-ray into jihadist/wahabbi culture and history
Nuevo also had some noteworthy suggestions and remarks this week at Noble Savage Death Cult.
The past week’s bestsellers, by the way, are:
Fit for Combat: When Fitness is a Matter of Life or Death by J.D. Johannes. Five of you are getting fit, or thinking about it.
Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin. Three Rogue readers.
A few other interesting picks:
The General Dynamics Case Study on the F-16 Fly-By-Wire Flight Control System Carl S. Droste
Behind the Housing Crash: Confessions from an Insider Aaron Clarey
This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly Carmen M. Reinhart
Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization Jeff Rubin
The New Jerusalem Bible Henry Wansbrough
Like I said, you FM readers are an erudite lot.
* Regular readers will recall that Larry Gwin, who served at the Ia Drang and in other actions with Rescorla as officers in 2/7 Cav, is a friend whose Combat Veteran’s Reading List was the genesis of the Boutique Warmongery project. Gwin, writing in Baptism: A Vietnam Memoir before Rescorla was killed, includes numerous accounts of this remarkable man who was his friend in combat and in quarters. The Rescorla reader is not complete without We Were Soldiers Once…and Young and We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. Another remarkable but largely unsung Ia Drang vet, as long we’re on the subject, is John Eade, whose Vietnam reminiscences are recorded in the following posts, Waterloo and “I Am Going To Die Well”. Eade was a squad leader in A Co. 2/7 Cav, of which Gwin was XO. Rescorla was a platoon leader in B Co.
Rescorla was also the subject of The Man Who Predicted 9/11, a documentary that aired on the History Channel, apparently not currently available.
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Topics: books
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:08 am on Sunday, October 4, 2009
One Response to “Forward Movement’s Sunday Review Of Books”
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October 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
You don’t have _With the Old Breed_ by Eugene V. Sledge, on your list of combat books. Maybe the topic here doesn’t cover the Pacific War,1924-45. Anyhow, this is a great book written by a Marine private who survived two battles in the Pacific: Peliau and Okinawa. People may be interested in this, if only to see what the so-called greatest generation thought of themselves. It’s not what publicists today think, as you may imagine. Aside from the incomparably well-done battle scenes and so forth, the book will allow readers to see how far we’ve advanced in fighting civilized warfare. Marines back then thought nothing of committing crimes for which they’d be emblems for US sanguinary barbarism today, before they caused many heads to roll after the Seymour Hersch articles and the congressional investigations.