No comments about Six Faces of Courage.

1 comments about The Gift of Valor (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. I couldn't put this book down! Michael Phillips tells the story so well, and makes you almost feel like you are there.
   
   Great Book!

No comments about Jeb Stuart Speaks: An Interview With Lee's Cavalryman.

1 comments about The American German.

1. When he was ten years old Juergen Frank became a member of the "Hitler Jungen," the Hitler Youth Organization. However, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, after Germany declared war on the United States, Frank was kicked out of the group when it became known that he was born in Wisconsin. Young Juergen was sad because this meant he had to go to church with his family instead of attending the Hitler Youth meetings with his friends on Friday. He also had to miss the big dirt cloud throwing fights on the hill called "Cokacolaberg" (Coca Cola Mountain), in which the kids were practicing for battle. Another kid, Udo Schmidt, who was the group's "Faehnleinfuerer" (standard bearer), a an avid Nazi, tried to turn the rest of the kids against Juergen since he was neither a true German nor a loyal Nazi, but the other kids ignored Udo's rantings and accepted Juergen as one of them.
   
   "The American German" is the story of a young boy who is born in Wisconsin but raised in Nazi Germany. The idea that a kid would be kicked out of the Hitler Youth because he was born in Wisconsin is certainly going to catch your interest, but what makes this book interesting is that most of Juergen Frank's life was not so different compared to the rest of the people where he lived. Author Arthur C. Rathburn tells the story of what life was like for Frank in Germany during the war years, as well as his experience of being repatriated back to the land of his birth where his problems become more mundane (a pastor decides that Juergen is too hard for people to use so he "Americanizes" it into George even though the two names are not related). The book is illustrated with black & white photographs from Frank's personal collection, from a small boy in lederhosen to a proud American farmer. One of the obvious lessons of this book is that not even a World War could stop people from living the American dream.
   
   I read this little book after I read Rathburn's "Meeting the Enemy," a novel that is based on the a true story of an elite German paratrooper captured by British troops in North Africa and sent to P.O.W. camps in the United States. One of the people that Rathburn talked to about their life experiences during World War II was Juergen Frank. Like "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Rathburn's "Meeting the Enemy" was a powerful story giving us a memorable look at what it is like for those on the other side, the real people behind the propaganda posters, the ethnic slurs, and war films. Rathburn has also authored a corresponding book, "The American Japanese," about Akira Richard Toki. Like Juergen Frank, Toki was born in the United States but had to endure overt racism during the war. For students who are interested in World War II and in having a different perspective these books are well worth reading. "The American German" is a quick read, which means it should hold the attention span of even younger readers, who I think will be captivated by learning what it was like for someone from Wisconsin to end up in Nazi Germany.

5 comments about Unsung Valor: A GI's Story of World War II.

1. Upon reading Unsung valor I discovered that Cleveland Harrison and I had been inducted into the army the same day at Little Rock, Arkansas,we went through the same sweltering day of probings,punchings,bendings,spreadings, and at last were sworn into the Army of the United States.our serial numbers were just a few numbers apart,yet I never met Professor Harrison. Upon reading Unsung valor this fall I was immediately taken back in time to 1943, and to the years following throughout WWII of which our president Franklin Roosevelt said" This is the generation which has a rendezvous with destiny"I relived that traumatic,hectic day of gathering together the eighteen year olds of our state predominately ,recent high school graduates ,to perform the miracle of making us into soldiers and sailors to free a world in chains. That group of newly inducted soldiers went to all parts of the globe.Prof. Harrison went as a rifleman;I went into the Army Air Corp as an aerial gunner with the Eighth Air force and was shot down over Germany and spent the last months of the war as a P.O.W..Our generation kept that rendezvous and fully met the responsibility placed upon our young shoulders to the satisfaction of a grateful nation and world. Professor Harrison's book tells about all this through the eyes and heart of a young Arkansas lad who as we said in those day "took up arms as a boy,became a man overnight,and a hero in a twinkling of an eye,some to come home,some to remain. Since reading Unsung Valor I have met Cleveland Harrison via E-mail and have discovered that we have much in common. it took took 63 years and one most touching,moving literary epic to do this.For Professor Harrison's time,effort,and no doubt many shed tears,I am truly thankful to him. Hand Salute <><



2. After posting a message on the 94th Infantry Division's website looking for information on the attack on Orsholz, Germany January 20-21, 1945 I was contacted by Cleveland Harrison. Mr. Harrison put me in contact with other members of the 301st Regiment of the 94th Division who were with a family friend when he was captured outside of Orsholz. Mr. Harrison mentioned his book and suggested it might provide more detail about the battle. After reading his book I was amazed at the clarity and detail of his recollections. I have corresponded several times with Mr. Harrison, and he was gracious enough to sign my copy of his book with a dedication to my friend. His story is wonderfully expressed as the memories and journey of one man in a time of fear and uncertainty. It is written in a way that will touch the average person, and make them understand, if only for a moment, what it was like to see the world through his eyes.
   To all the 94th Division veterans, and to you Cleveland, thank you for your service.
   Welcome Home.



3. "Unsung Valor" by A. Cleveland Harrison. Subtitled: "A GI's Story Of World War II". University Press of Mississippi, Jackson. 2000.
   
   This is a very complete and detailed book, tracing the experiences of a skinny Southern boy, (in 1943), drafted into the United States Army, deciding on the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), trained at the University of Mississippi, transferred into a regular Army unit (the 94th Division) and then sent to the European Theater of Operations, ETO, just when things were becoming really hot. General George Marshall had shut down the Army Specialized Training Program so as to supply warm bodies as replacements for all the causalities in the ETO. The author, A. Cleveland Harrison, recounts being wounded (88 artillery fire,) as his Division advanced on the town of Orscholz, his treatment, infection, his stint in hospital and, finally, his recovery. Then, he remained in England until his reassignment, April 1945, to the hostilities in Europe. Happily, the war in Europe ended in May 1945, and the author became a "Clerk-Typist" in Versailles, France and later, a "Mail Clerk-Draftsman" in Frankfurt am Main.
   
   If you have had the opportunity to study the history of World War II, you probably have been exposed to the grand strategies of different battles, the movement of this numbered unit on one side against another number on the other side. You might even have become impatient with the stories of how one American general (or two) could not get along with a certain British field marshal, and begin to wonder how many people were killed by the egoistical personalities of such high ranking individuals. So, this present work, by A. Cleveland Harrison, is a refreshing relief in its detailed examination of the feelings and daily experiences of an ordinary Americana solider in the ETO
   
   I became the fiftieth reviewer of this book because of the correspondence form Dr. Harrison prodding me to add his book to my Amazon Listmania list on the Army Specialized Training Program, ASTP. The first two chapters of Dr. Harrison's book deal extensively with the Army Specialized Training Program. certainly merit a place on any list on the ASTP. Thos chapters speak about an ASTP experience at a Southern university, which, from what I read, quite different than the ASTP experience at Manhattan College, my alma mater. I do not believe that an ASTPer at Manhattan College had to be concerned with how to wear a saber without getting the weapon caught between his legs. On the other hand, the Manhattan College ASTPer had to be concerned with living in an apartment on 7th Avenue.
   
   I am happy to join some 45 other Amazon reviewers in assigning five stars to this book.



4. Unsung Valor is truly an extraordinary book. I am 44 years old and have studied World War II rather extensively in the past. However, this book has revealed this war (and all wars) to me in a way that is completely surprising and unique. I now have a different frame of reference for studying all wars, especially World War II. For someone like me who has never served in the military, this book provides an invaluable insight to truly understanding the realities of war. The common, mundane, everyday details, which are made so interesting, provide a setting which only heightens the intensity of the actual battle scenes in an unusually enriching and exciting way. This book reads so easily you literally feel as if you are going through the experiences with Dr. Harrison. Unsung Valor brings the reality of war to the reader in a unique way and succeeds where most other narrowly focused books fail. Dr. Harrison should be commended for educating a younger public on the extraordinary sacrifices made by ordinary men who answered when their nation called. It is well worth the read and the time invested.



5. This is the book I've always wanted to read! I had just turned 6 when Pearl Harbor was bombed and my uncle and most of the other men in our family and neighborhood disappeared to that thing called "WAR"! I prayed for all of them and wondered, "Where did they go, what happened to them, what was it like?" My uncle was captured in the Battle of the Bulge, spent time in a German prison camp and came home very different - now I know and understand better why! Reading Prof. Harrison's book I finally know what happened to the young men who were suddenly jerked from their families, schools, futures, through no fault or desire of their own, and were trained and sent to see and do things they could not have previously imagined. They were pushed to and beyond limits they did not know they had, degraded, treated like cattle at times by our own army, and thus molded into a great and loyal fighting unit.
   
   How any of our men experienced this and stayed sane, that they were able to return home to slip back into the lives they had expected, is incredible. I have read every book I find on World War II and studied military history in college trying to understand and know what happened, what war is REALLY like for our men. I've always known it wasn't what we saw on the movie screen. Now I know. Thanks to Prof. Harrison's detail and honesty, it is possible to get a sense of what it was like for the draftee. UNSUNG VALOR is very properly named - to go when called, to perform with the best of your abilities, to respond to the unknown and unbelievable with fear and courage, that is valor at its best - and it was unsung.
   
   To survive, to return home, to teach hundreds of teenagers to speak properly in public, to act and produce plays, to put up with all the campus nonsense that young people in their late teens and early twenties produce, and to never lose your cool, never tell them what he saw and experienced at their age - that was also UNSUNG VALOR! A. Cleveland Harrison is an unusual man and has written a book that should be required reading of all Americans!

1 comments about Where the Ashes Are: The Odyssey of a Vietnamese Family.

1. The author, having grown up in an uppler-class family with aristocratic scholarly roots in the central region, thus gives another perspecitve to the Vietnam experience. His father, Nguyen Vän -Dãi (pen name Hoàng Liên), was a high-ranking civil servant who oversaw the central region from his office in Danang. During the Tet Offensive of 1968 in Hue, where the family had come to visit the author's grandparents, the father was taken away by the communists. Transferred from one prison camp to another for twelve years, he was finally released and reunited with his wife who had stayed behind in Vietnam to care for their mentally-ill daughter, who eventually died. The author, who had left VN in 75 at seventeen, was reunited with his parents in 1984. In 1989, the author returned to Vietnam on a radio assignment, and only in the last chapter before the epilogue does he tell of his visit. The book is more about the story of his family from 1968 onward than a personal memoir. The writing is direct, not sentimental, rough at times, but always expressive of compassion for Vietnam and its people. His love for the land of his birth allows him to be objective against the opposing political viewpoints that are expressed ironically all in the name of "loving the country." Though he is grateful to be live in the land of opportunity, he maintains a wariness of the excessiveness, cold routine, and "green-lawn" conformity of American society. In the epilogue he writes: "I know that my notions of my homeland are romanticized. But I am also aware of the difficulties I would face if I were to return to live and work in Vietnam. And yet, how could I not yearn for the open and gracious ways of the Vietnamese, from city folks to villagers, who smile and share with me everything from food to time and wisdom? How could I not be drawn to a people whose foremost quality is their ability to sustain unceasing hardship and loss, all the while retaining hope and faith and dignity? How could I not be drawn to a people whose dark-humored cynicism can also easily blossom into radiant innocent? How could I not be drawn to a people who can easily laugh in the midst of their own misery? I miss it all so deeply, and I want it all back, yet I know that going home and staying there is nearly impossible." He closes with, "Perhaps I will come to accept life in America. In the end, it is imperfect, and it will always remain so, for to me it is not home. But it will be the place where my parents have found a home, and the place where my parents were given back to me. As for Vietnam--perhaps I should be content that it may one day be the home of my children. It may be they who, in the future, will welcome me back there. And they will know, they will know, to bring my ashes home." This last wish of his is probably futile, but I can share in his feelings about his predicament: always longing for Vietnam yet knowing one can never live there but always feeling that the US is not one's true home. One exists in a floating exile-like state, not self-imposed or politically-imposed, but imposed by the circumstance.

No comments about Sailors' Journey into War.

2 comments about Hero of Beecher Island: The Life and Military Career of George A. Forsyth.

1. The "hero" in the title of David Dixon's Hero of Beecher Island is George A. Forsyth, an Army officer and Renaissance man who, Zelig-like, seemed to be involved with every matter of import in turn of the century America. Friend of Custer and Bill Cody, enabler of railroad expansion, renowned Indian fighter, shaper of US Army Policy, explorer of Yellowstone, world traveler, enforcer of Reconstruction, and popular author, Dixon paints a picture of a Da Vinci with a Sharps rifle.
   There is much information contained within the book about the changing face of the US Army in which Forsyth served and later commanded. Dixon carefully details Forsyth's military experience. We begin to get a sense of what changes were going on in the Army during Forsyth's life. The evolution of the calvary under Forsyth's mentor Phil Sheridan is documented in chapter three "You Have Got A Bully Fight on Hand" (52). Dixon continues delving into this military biographia in chapter four, "I'll Shoot Down Any Man" (61). Although this chapter is mostly about the tense struggle of Beecher Island, the centerpiece of the book, it's what leads Forsyth to Beecher Island that stands as most interesting. Dixon brings out the idea that the railroad and the military were hand in glove in the old West, providing a late twentieth century reader to reflect on similarities between this paradigm of the Old West and the military-industrial complex of the Cold War era. Dixon infers a similar parallel at the beginning of chapter six, "The Armies of Asia and Europe" with the quote that the U.S. Army was, ". . . comparatively unknown, least appreciated, persistently misunderstood, and, for political effect, frequently misrepresented and occasionally even recklessly maligned in our national legislative hall" (122). The parallels to today's military are unmistakable.
   In "I'll Shoot Down Any Man," Dixon relates the battle of Beecher Island well, describing Forstyth as an incredibly brave, capable, and stoic commander; the glue that kept his Army irregulars together under withering Indian attack. It's a story as old as the Greeks, but Dixon handles its retelling with a light touch, drawing the reader into the tension filled atmosphere.
   Related in chapter eight,"To the Scandal of the Service" (168), Forsyth's fall from grace, brought about by shady business deals, is jarring. Forsyth's character needed to be more fully rounded out before the introduction of his court martial. Up to this chapter, there had been no mention of possible improperties. Indeed, Forsyth had seemed squeaky clean, a devoted father, husband and officer. Worse, there's no discussion of how prevalent economic speculation was in the time period. Questions arise. Was it primarily a military crime? Was it a civilian problem as well? How was it seen in the "elite social classes"(169) that Army officers traveled in as second-class citizens? Dixon attempts to make the claim that Forsyth's head wound, sustained in the Beecher Island battle, had caused an insanity that made him mismanage his money. It seems odd, however, that the only way that this "madness" manifested itself was through bad business sense. Although Dixon writes, ". . . there is little doubt that Forsyth was. . . seriously afflicted with some mental disorder. . ." (186), from the evidence presented, the only mental disorder applicable seems to be greed and poor business sense.
   Readers of Beecher Island are expected to have a good knowledge of turn of the century world history before picking up the book. Educated readers will be rewarded. Dixon tells a lucid story that is gripping at points and presented in a traditionally tragic style. Forsyth is portrayed as a great hero whose hubris eventually brings him low. However, a non-historian audience is bound to have problems. The book lacks contextualization of what was going on elsewhere in the world while Forsyth was shaping American culture. There's no sense of connectedness outside the biography, no asides that explain how Forsyth's opinion of the calvary compare to that of the calvary's place in the First World War. There's no sense of contradiction that a man helping to work for racial equality for Blacks in Reconstruction-era Louisiana could also help devise the Army's genocidal Indian policy. Dixon tosses around phrases like "The Burnt-Over District" (99) without defining them for the casual reader. He also has a tendency to not completely explain issues. In the chapter entitled, "The Armies of Asia and Europe," he mentions that Forsyth said that the Japanese army was 20 years ahead of anything in America but fails to explain why Forsyth thought so. (128) And finally, there's not enough convincing evidence to allow madness to explain the shoddy business speculation that brings Forsyth to end his life in shame. True, the book is a biography not a sociological study, but a man who was such a turn stone in such a far-reaching, influential part of American culture like the Old West, needs to be explored further for the non-professional historian.
   Dixon accomplishes what he sets out to do in the title: explicating the life and military career of an important man. Perhaps with a different title, signifying a different focus, the book would have appealed to a wider audience. All of Forsyth's exploits are summed up in the words of an unidentified member of Forsyth's Yellowstone expedition. After Forsyth foolhardily attempted to ford a raging river and had to be pulled from it, someone said, "The colonel must have had a charmed life" (140). It is this charmed life, mated with Dixon's attention to detail and capable writing that could produce a Forsyth book that would appeal to both historian and casual reader alike.



2. 
   Although George A. Forsyth participated in 88 engagements as a soldier in the Civil War and later was in many fights with the Indians on the Plains, it was for one encounter with the Cheyenne and Sioux that he is remembered: the Battle of Beecher Island, where he and a small force held off 750 besieging Indians on a small island in the Arickaree Fork of the Republican River in present-day Colorado for six days before help arrived. David Dixon relates this famous battle in full detail, but he also tells us the rest of Forsyth's life, which is pretty full and interesting.
   
   Forsyth was born in 1837 in Pennsylvania and entered the army in the spring of 1861. He rose in rank from private to brigadier general in various cavalry units in the Civil War before being made chief of staff for Gen. Philip Sheridan.
   
   After the war Forsyth was put in charge of an operation against the Cheyenne. It was in September 1868 that he had his famous fight on Beecher Island (named after Lt. Frederick Beecher who was killed there by the Indians). Forsyth was wounded three times. One strategic outcome of the action on Beecher Island was that Sheridan from this time on would utilize only large-scale campaigns against the Indians (Forsyth had been in charge of a small ranger-like force).
   
   Once again on Sheridan's staff, Forsyth was on the 1874 Custer expedition to the Black Hills, during which he kept a diary that was later published. In 1875-76 he was sent by Washington on an inspection tour of various armies in Europe and Asia. In the 1880s he was in the southwest campaigning against the Apaches and commanded Ft. Huachuca, AZ. It was here that Forsyth was court-martialed on money mismanagement charges, found guilty, and formally reprimanded. In 1890 he retired from the army. He authored two books which were published in 1900 and died in Rockport, MA, in 1915.
   
   Dixon is an excellent writer, scholarly but not dry and overly academic. He is obviously impressed with Forsyth's accomplishments, but not to the point of hero-worship. He relates his subject's story in detail, but keeps it interesting. The chapter on the Beecher Island fight unfolds dramatically in Dixon's hands. Those who are interested in army life in the Old West will find much to like about his biography of the "hero of Beecher Island."

4 comments about Escape With Honor: My Last Hours in Vietnam (Memories of War).

1. In a time of uncertainty, danger and demoralization, this is a story that shows that even in the midst of the end of the Vietnam war our few remaining Americans cared deeply about the people that they had supported. A story of heroism generally not recognized and long overdue in the telling.



2. During every great event there occurs little-known tales of heroism and sacrifice; Ambasador McNamara's book tells the story on one of them. The evacuation of the handful of American civilians and Marines of the U.S. Consulate General in Can Tho, along with their South Vietnamese employees and families,reads like a movie, and is all the more exciting for being true. Their story of sacrifice, heroism, betrayal, and tragedy was lost in the greater story of the simultaneous evacuation of Saigon, but one with a historical bent will see in McNamara's tale a reflection of Xenephon's Persian expedition. Don't start reading this one before bedtime, or you'll be up all night to finish it!



3. This is a detailed account of the U.S. consul's last months in Can Tho, South Vietnam and his risky escape by boat on the Mekong River in April 1975. As the collapse of Saigon was nearing and as the airlift of Americans and third country nationals from Can Tho never materialized, McNamara himself took charge of guiding more than 300 people to safety on military barges along the Mekong River. He was recognized for his bravery and given a medal in 1977.

   The book was also a tribute to General Nguyen Khoa Nam, the IV Corps South Vietnamese commander who refused to be evacuated and remained at his post until the last minute. McNamara had known him for over a year as a brave and dedicated officer and a man of honor. General Nam and his deputy General Hung killed themselves instead of surrendering to the enemy a few days later.

   This is an interesting perspective of an American's last weeks in South Vietnam, his dealings with the Americans, the Vietnamese, and the CIA.




4. This book peaked my curiosity because my brother was one of the marines stationed at this particular embassy in Vietnam. he's only mentioned in it twice by name but it was great learning about what the had to do to get out. Now my brother had never talked about it but recently mentioned it (briefly) at a family dinner and I did my own research. He did end up with a 22 year career and retired as a sgt major. some of the ook is really technical because its told by the ambassador but its a decent read.

2 comments about The Lost Civil War Diaries, The Diaries of Corporal Timothy J. Regan.

1. I am forwarding my comments on the above title Lost Civil War Diaries.What a Find!I agree wholeheartely that they are Civil War artifacts since they go into such depth of feelings,facts during the Civil War and for a period thereafter.

   I must admit I am not one that cares for poetry as it slows one down,but,once I realized how it too portrayed what was going on during that period,I began to appreciate it.

   Corporal Timothy J. Regan seemed like a man of great moral character.He is someone you would want on your side in a battle or as a friend.Through the poetry I see a strong trend of references to death,love and sadness.His love of this Country and the Union cause is apparent.

   I believe Menta loved him,regardless of the differences.It is sad how he lost her in the end.It is very apparent as one reads the diaries that he had a strong sense of right is right and that is it.

   I found the account of John Wilkes Booth very interesting Considering what has occurred in other assassinations in our Country this revelation is quite possible

   IT IS A RARE FIND AND A TRUE TREASURE!! I enjoyed reading the diaeies immensely

   Sincerely yours
   Wallace Daggett




2. From: "Dennis J Francis"
   Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 00:19:34 -0400
   
   The Lost Civil War Diaries: The Diaries of Corporal Timothy J. Regan, edited by David C. Newton & Kenneth J. Pluskat, Trafford Pub., Victoria BC, 2003, 341pp.
   
   I recently stumbled on this book quite by accident. Was doing some research on the 9th MA during the early 1900s, and came across mention of it while doing a Google search. It's a volume that was well worth getting.
   
   Irish-born Timothy Regan was about 28 when he began his diary on 15 April, 1861, just after hostilities opened and just before enlisting in Co. E, 13th MA Infantry, which was soon redesignated as the 9th MA. He served with the 9th throughout its time of service, mustering out with the regiment in June
   1864. Along the way, in 1862 he spent some time as a POW before being exchanged, in late 1863 he goes to sick call and winds up a virtual prisoner of hospital bureaucracy , and even got involved in a war time romance. Things were much different then -it took over two years before he's allowed to call his girlfriend by her first name, a privilege he makes a big deal of in his diary (he underlined the entry).
   
   Regan was very faithful about keeping his wartime diary up. Even while he was a POW he managed to keep a record for later inclusion. Interspersed throughout the diary are poems, songs, proverbs, stories and news items (including the usual "rumors and propaganda" common to military life).
   
   After he musters out and the war ends, there's progressively less mention of personal experiences; eventually the diaries are entirely a report of the day's news from the local scene to the international. Some entries are merely headlines, while at other times he goes into some detail. Quite a number of entries concern Fenian activities, but I didn't see any mention that he was ever personally involved with them. He called it quits with the diary at the close of 1874, but he later made an additional entry on 10 Mar, 1876.
   
   After he died in 1897, the diaries lay unknown in a trunk until the 1950s. Even after they were discovered, Regan wasn't ID'd as the author until 1998 and not much use was made of them in the meantime. Kudos to the editors for making them available.
   
   Unfortunately, very little biographical info is given beyond a few basic stats. Don't know for sure but maybe there's just not much of a paper trail to reconstruct his life - he evidently left no survivors, I didn't see him in the pension index at Ancestry, and I'm not sure if any census entries are him.
   
   The editors have a website which includes some excerpts along with the artwork contained in the original diaries but not reproduced for the publication. Hey, check it out.
   
   Dennis