No comments about From Blue to Gray: The Life of Confederate General Cadmus M. Wilcox.

4 comments about Tours of Duty: World War II Veterans' Personal Stories.

1. Whatever your station in life, Tours of Duty will touch you. In its pages Eleanor gives us a warm understanding of those who gave their hearts to us in defense of our nation. It is personal, touching, and accurate.
   This is a keeper, one you will want to share with family and friends.
   Bill Broach
   Retired Navy flyer, P3 F/E
   Retired airline pilot, L188, DC8, Boeing 727



2. Tours of Duty just 'gets it.' My father was a POW in Oflag 64 and endured the hardships of loss of liberty and freedom. Eleanor Bertrand captures all the inside feelings of this life as well as tells of Abe Baum's gallant efforts to carry out his orders.
   
   I believe she has brought to life the best of "If not me, then who: If not now the when?" The military persons picked represent America and how better to learn than to read about their lives in Tours of Duty.
   
   George Patton Waters



3. Ms. Bertrand has captured the soul of the Greatest Generation with her frequently heart-wrenching book of World War II veterans' stories. During her years of travel as a nurse with Military Historical Tours, the tour agency which specializes in taking veterans back to their battle sites, Ms. Bertrand collected wartime memories and lasting friendships. Now, as these World War II veterans pass into the winter of their years, Ms. Bertrand has gone one step further and put into print the kind of warmth and caring that these veterans had come to appreciate in person. As a real heir to the best tenets of the Greatest Generation she does them further service by revealing to future generations how our veterans can and should be befriended and honored. While her book is a definite "keeper", I plan to place a copy of Ms. Bertrand's book instead of a flower at the World War II Memorial on my next visit to our nation's capital.
   Rebecca M. Jackson



4. Nurse Ellie Bertrand's "Tours of Duty" is an exceptional accounting in first person voices of what it must have been like to serve in WW II. There is immediacy and truth in the many stories of the men she includes in the book. If you want to know how it was on Iwo Jima, Saipan, Tinian, the Battle of the Bulge, etc. how it really was to think your next breath might be your last, yet continue to do your job for yourself, your buddies, your country, you'll find it here. A great read!
   Dr. Jerry Brooker

1 comments about A Tiger by the Tail.

1. A year in the life of TSgt Wayne Babb at Ramasun Station, Thailand circa 1973-74 in the 6924th Security Squadron USAF.
   Ramasun Station. It sounds kind of romantic doesn't it? It was. Exotic location, tropical weather, friendly natives and the best base in southeast asia even if it was run by the Army. I was there in 1974-75 and I knew sergeant Babb. He was one of my instructors at Goodfellow AFB and then I met him again at Ramasun. I was surprised to find that he has become a prolific author upon retiring from the Air Force as a Chief Master Sergeant. I did not know him as well as I should have because I was on Able flight and he was in charge of Baker flight and also I was a little afraid of him. Don't get me wrong, he was a good guy and an excellent instructor. Thinking back to tech school days, he was interesting, funny, demanding and you DID NOT want to tick him off. At Ramasun he was even more so. When you read the book you'll know what I mean. Reading this book brought back lots of great memories since I knew most of the characters in it, including most of his Baker Flight boys. Baker flight was the best and everybody knew it but we were not jealous because they were a great bunch of guys with great leadership. Tim Bergauer and Kenner Horton, two of the smartest and funniest guys I ever met. Add EZ Don Eade, Bear Hunt and Sergeant Babb and this flight just had to be good. And fun. So is this book. I can't swear that everything in it is true but as they say in Hollywood, it is based on actual events. Wayne Babb has written the only books that I know of that detail what the USAF Security Service did during the cold war and my hat is off to him.
   Here's to Ramasun Station and the 6924th, Baker flight and my old Able flight buddies wherever you are. Those were the days.

1 comments about A Thoroughly Canadian General: A Biography of General H.D.G. Crerar.

1. General H.D.G. Crerar is one of Canada's greatest military heroes of the twentieth century, and sadly too often overlooked as a choice for military autobiography reading lists. "A Thoroughly Canadian General: A Biography of H.D.G. Crerar" is the story of this underrated figure in twentieth century military history. The controversial general is examined in and out through this history, including his views on using the Canadian military as a symbol of the Canadian identity and its civic responsibility, and the role of the Canadian military on the world stage. Highly recommended for Canadian military historians, and community library military history shelves in general.

2 comments about In the Footsteps of Robert E. Lee (In the Footsteps Series).

1. Armchair historians and civil war enthusiasts, it's again time to arise from your La-Z-Boy recliners and hit the Civil War trail. This time you will follow in the footsteps of Marse Roberts from his birth through his early days in the army to visiting the White House in 1869 when he payed a brief visit to President Grant.

   With 11 states, Washington D.C. and the brief inclusion of sites in Mexico you will need to spend several weeks going from site to site. However, the author breaks down the trips by state and gives excellent directions that will keep even the novice historian from loosing his way. You will be taken to several larger, well-known sites in West Virginia and Virginia as well as many smaller sites within these states and distant states such as Texas, Missouri and Florida.

   Many have been to Sharpsburg, Manassas or perhaps South Mountain but it's doubtful that few have made it Stratford Hall where Lee was born. Therefore, it's fitting that the book starts out at Stratford Hall and gives brief insight into the life and lack of homeownership by Lee. From his birth in 1807 to his death in 1870, he never owned a single place of residence. He slept at his parents' home, army barracks, his wife's inherited house, and several homes borrowed from individuals during and after the war. He never paid out of pocket for any property on which he resided.
   
   The research within these pages is top notch and gives the reader some excellent side bar material to whet his or her appetite for more on Robert E. Lee. The descriptions are concise and to the point and give just enough detail to allow the reader to understand how the specific location played a key role in shaping young Lee or perhaps how it effected his overall battle strategy in his later years. The accounts are well done and not overly detailed giving the average reader a nice foundation for a beginning study on Lee. The chapters are well laid out, state by state, but in order to keep this data from filling several volumes it does not include every little site associated with Lee. Not to worry, the author chose wisely and the selected material flows quite nice.
   
   In going through this work the reader will enjoy his or her journey into Lee's past with stops along the way at several key historic areas. This is not a paperback for the hard-nosed historian, but well-done research for those interested in following in "The Footsteps of Robert E. Lee". Mr. Johnson has done it again and I highly recommend this book!




2. In The Footsteps Of Robert E. Lee by Civil War history buff Clint Johnson is both a comprehensive travel guide to many historical sites connected to the Civil War Southern general Robert E. Lee, as well as a collection of stories that reveal the importance each site had with regard to Lee's character. From Harpers Ferry in West Virginia to the famous court house at Appomattox, In The Footsteps Of Robert E. Lee is a comprehensive, "user friendly" guidebook filled with the most fascinating bits of historical trivia. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the career of this amazingly skilled Civil War general and memorable historical figure.

1 comments about Beyond the Medal: A Journey from Their Hearts to Yours.

1. This book was truely inspirational. It made you laugh and cry. It amazed me how humble these living heroes are! I realize now how trivial some of my problems are. As a country we are blessed by there presence and should follow the lessons they teach. God Bless Them All!

No comments about Adventures of a Motorcycle Despatch Rider During the First World War.

5 comments about Guevara, Also Known as Che.

1. In the US, Paco Taibo II is better known within the mystery readers' crowd for his accomplished police stories with a touch of irony and a shrewd writing style. For this reason with certain apprehension I started reading this biography. In fact it was the first complete and serious Che's bio I have ever read. Later I grabbed Jon Lee Anderson's one... Of all Che's bios Paco's is the most enchanting one. It may lack the huge documention of Anderson's book, but it compensates it with an amazing style. Paco cannot divorce his own admiration of Che from his subject, but, hey, that is exactly why this book becomes so much enjoyable. I still recall grabbing the book (700 hundred pages!) one morning and going that same night to bed with the book in my hands! I couldn't stop reading it! Che's story is reflected under the light of an amazing storyteller. The episodes of Che's story are exquisitely threaded together in a masterful way. His life becomes flesh and blood in Paco's hands. The icon, the symbol of rebellion and struggle for social justice turns a man, an incredible, passionate and admirable human being throughout the book. The end cannot be better: it is ghostly but hopeful with a lot of energy and sadness and beauty: a song to Latin American history of struggle.



2. I read this more because I am a fan of Taibo than because of Che, but I have read other biographies of Che and this is clearly the best I've seen - one of the best biographies I have read, in fact. He makes you feel as though you knew him yourself.

   This edition, at least, misses getting a five-star rating from me, however, due to the perfectly atrocious editing! There are literally hundreds of typos, misspellings, poorly phrased sentences, etc. It is very distracting.




3. I would recomend this book to anyone,however, I thought Anderson went into much greater detail regarding Che's travels throughout Latin america and especially, his discriptions of the once dominating United Fruit Company. I really enjoyed this authors discriptions of the autrocites commited by Batista and his sectet police, he was a brutal american, puppet dictator. How can any american actually belive that america has allways stook for freadom around the world.



4. This book is a recount or recollection of data based on events related to the life of Ernesto Guevara known as "El Che". In some sense, the book contains a lack of analysis and interpretation of the information, an aspect Jorge Castaneda (another Che's biographer) does better. In my opinion, the best chapters are the last ones where the author, using a more sensitive (and closer) approach towards his subject, narrates the events sorrounding his death at the jungles of Bolivia. I have to confess that I felt very moved.
   
   Guevara is actually the last in a long list of tragic figures of the Latin-American tradition: Atahualpa, Tupac Amaru, Sandino, Jose Marti...If you may find him anachronistic, just think about General Patton crossing the harsh European winter with the Third Army.
   
   This book should be read at a counterpoint with Castaneda's and Anderson's ones and a close observation of the chapters which serve as a kind of epilogue that converts the book in a kind of John Le Carre novel should be noticed. Because maybe the information that is not there becomes more important; the question that remains unanswered is who to blame for the terrible death Che suffered in Bolivia? He, himself as it have been said because he was a romantic? Fidel Castro alone as the easy legend turned into gossip says? or a whole chain of political intrigue related to the last years of the Cold War? So researchers, historians, writers and scholars are invited: the story of Che's life (and death) is not a closed chapter.
   
   A book I strongly recommend as a last advice and new beginning is Jorge Ricardo Masetti's "El furor y el delirio", Barcelona, Tusquets (an English version is available) by the son of Argentine journalist of the same name and a friend of Che.



5. As other reviewers have said, this is the best of the Che biographies. Paco Taibo does the research and tells the story in a way that brings life to a myth as few other biographers in any era have been able to do. This is Ernesto Guevara as he lived and died, and you can understand how he became "El Che" the icon of the "Unredeemed America", and what drove him inexorably towards the bullet that ended his life in the dilapidated schoolhouse at La Higuera. For anyone who has seen "The Motorcycle Diaries", this book is necessary reading. I bought it five years ago and read pretty much the whole thing in a couple days. Since then, I will often grab this book and start reading at some random point, and not put it down for an hour or so. As mentioned by someone before, once you start turning the pages it is difficult to stop. The reason for this is twofold. First, the life portrayed here was an epic journey and second, Taibo is a not only a storyteller par excellence, but has a keen sense of the history of the times and is able to inject his own commentary to illuminate many of the seminal events during the course of Che's life. He is also relating to Che from a Latin American perspective, distinctly different from what North American readers may be used to. For instance, his Mexican roots are in evidence by his comparison of the legendary Mexican comedic actor Cantinflas to Che's own occasional sense of the absurdity of life. It is these touches that also help set this biography apart from the others on Che. We see another side of the legend.
   
   The biography starts with Che's family in Argentina, and their somewhat bohemian background. We learn how the young Ernesto suffered greatly from asthma, an affliction that would shape his stoic character all his life. We also learn that at an early age he followed the Spanish Civil War and the battles of the Second World War, and not only how the motorcycle trip with Alberto Granado helped form his outlook, but how he was forced to flee for his life from Guatemala as the elected government of Arbenz was violently toppled by Uncle Sam. This was the event that caused Che to pick up a rifle and give up on democracy as a means to effect change in Latin America, as well as made him willing to be incinerated in an atomic holocaust rather than surrender to a U.S. invasion of Cuba.
   
   The history of the Cuban Revolution and Che's work for Fidel's government is fascinating reading, but perhaps the most impressive parts of the book were the last few chapters detailing the ill-fated Congo and Bolivian expeditions. The Bolivian campaign reads like a funeral dirge, but even here we see the determination and self-effacing humor of the protaganist shining through til the end. The last chapter is an inspiring summation of a life lived in the most uncompromising manner, and is probably the best eulogy written for that life. One senses the author's personal attachment to the subject, which by this time has firmly become the reader's as well.
   
   The comment by another reviewer about the poor editing was true, as there are many typos and grammatical errors in the English edition I have. I am hoping this was or could be cleaned up in later printings so as not to detract from what is a classic text. Anyone interested in the life of Guevara will find this not only required reading, but a truly superlative biography by any standard.

1 comments about We Refused To Die: My time as a prisoner of war in Bataan and Japan, 1942-1945.

1. This book was beautiful! American history was recorded so well by the author it made you feel his hunger! I gave this book to my grandfather, who is a WWII vet, and I plan on having my children read it. Amazing!

No comments about Calculated Risk.