5 comments about Fate is the Hunter.

1. One will see why this was and remains one of the best works of fiction in any genre, but especially aviation. A great book that every pilot has in the bookcase. I also highly recommend, Flying North South East and West,
   a non-fiction book that I think is destined to become an aviation classic.
   Flying North South East and West: Arctic to the Sahara,



2. This is one of those books that has a sneak ending - best appreciated by reading through at a steady rate (which only makes sense once the climax of the book is revealed). The stories, anecdotes and tales seem almost trite and mundane - but build to the showdown, for me a life lesson. Flying is revealed for the joy it is, for its wonder, the thrill of a good landing when one has fought the good fight aloft in peril of ending badly. Gann wrote the thing with a purpose - and it wasn't to entertain you. He is like a grandfather with good advice, and he hits you with a zinger to make the point. You will be grateful, either gender, any station, rich or poor.



3. This is the memoir of one of the first 300 airline pilots in America. It tells the story of the development of the airline industry and the Air Transport Command during World War II. It is well-written with wit and pathos. I enjoyed the read.



4. Flight possesses a seductive mystique and "Fate is the Hunter" is one of the few books that has ever really truly captured flight's essence.
   
   It is not only pilots that look skyward at the sound of an aircraft or slow down a little as they drive past an airfield. Similarly, Gann captures what is almost intangible and presents it to the reader with an immaculate style that will engross all who read it.
   
   Gann carefully blends the worlds of the philosophical and aeronautical. In this mix, the reader looks out from the cockpit to at times see better within themselves.
   
   A true classic.
   
   Owen Zupp. Author: "Down to Earth"
   
   www.owenzupp.com
   DOWN TO EARTH: A Fighter Pilot's Experiences of Surviving Dunkirk, The Battle of Britain, Dieppe and D-Day



5. This book reads about as exiting as the monotone drone of a window box fan on a hot sweaty summer night. Gann's style seems didactic to say the least. Muddling through the first chapter I fell asleep and woke up just in time to learn of a near miss in the plane Gann was flying. However in all fairness, most books are written like this, full of details and tangents before coming to the point. Who can get through Moby Dick or Les Miserables without wondering where the authors are going? One should only read books like these if he has a bad case of insomia.
   
   If one is looking for the plot to the movie: Fate Is The Hunter, forget it. This book has almost nothing in common with the excellent screenplay written by Harold Maud except for the title and some flashbacks. Of course it is always a disappointment when the movies don't follow the books, which are usually better than the movies; this case being one of the exceptions.
   
   The paperback book is not an abridged version of the hardcover. So don't try searching for a used copy as I did. It's just a waste of time and money. Quite frankly, I'm sorry I bought the book.

5 comments about God Willing: My Wild Ride with the New Iraqi Army.

1. I've had an opportunity to read an excerpt (Chapter 15) and I am looking forward to reading the whole book. I've already pre-ordered two and thinking of ordering more to give as gifts. Captain Navarro is a newcomer to the writing world with a maturity beyond his years. His writing "voice" is a unique one - a mixture of a dry sense of humor and colorful, first-hand accounts of his experiences. While in the Islamic world, the phrase 'God willing' invokes a particular meaning, clearly, in the Christian mindset, God has a purpose and a plan for Captain Navarro. God, of course, was able to bring him back safely and turn the Captain's horrific experiences into something good. May God continue to bless him and enlarge his territory in his new endeavors.



2. The "New" Iraqi Army - quite a concept as told from the fiercely intelligent and jaw dropping perspective of Marine Captain Eric Navarro. As you read Navarro's superbly drawn account of his mission - attempting to transform a rag-tag battalion of hapless and hopeless Iraqis into a cohesive fighting force - you can't help but wonder whether the NIA are really the "New" Marxists (as in Groucho, not Karl.)
   
   Far from the Pentagon and superdelegates, Navarro lays down a brutally honest assessment of how questionable logistics and barriers of culture and language intrude on our neat and convenient notions of democratization and nation-building - where even the basic civics of defecation becomes a test of wills. It would be brilliant satire if not for the deadly serious circumstances. Told by a true patriot, God Willing is an important testament to the real work of Iraq.
   
   Semper Fidelis and Insha Allah.



3. I just finished reading Capt. Navarro's novel about his first tour in Iraq. I couldn't put the book down. Eric's writing is clear, detailed and eloquent. The shame of it is that our military and political leaders never learned any lessons from my father's generations Iraq, "Vietnam" and our failures there. You can't grow a democracy and train a new army if the countries populace has no idea what freedom of choice is about. You need to read this book to have any understanding of what our soldiers are dealing with over there. We need more from Eric. We need our political leaders to listen to young people like Eric.



4. The idea was that we would send over some of our best and brightest military personnel to serve as advisors to train the New Iraqui Army. Now the politicians and generals in Washington who cooked up this operation would have us believe that in the not too distant future the New Iraqui Army would assume increasing responsibility for the security of their homeland. Capt. Eric Navarro, USMCR knows better. After spending eight long months in Iraq as one of those advisors he felt compelled to write a book about his experiences there. "God Willing: My Wild Ride with the New Iraqui Army" chronicles Navarro's sometimes harrowing and almost always frustrating time there. "God Willing" calls into question the wisdom of our mission in Iraq and documents the challenges our military personnel face each and every day to try to make it all work. As Capt. Navarro points out time and time again it is almost always a case of "two steps forward and one step back".
   In order to highlight the kinds of obstacles that Capt. Navarro and his compadres in the Advisor Support Team (a/k/a The Drifters) were forced to deal with during their tour of duty in Iraq I will quote liberally from a paragraph on page 212 of "God Willing" which seemed to neatly sum it all up: "Too many pieces were being thrown into the puzzle and none of them fit neatly together, no matter how much the President or the generals wanted them to. American contractors, Iraqui civilians, Iraqui solders--all were mixed together with marines, soldiers and sailors from a multitude of different units. No one person was in charge of it all. We were living with a complete breakdown of command and control in a combat environment." Get the picture? And when you discover that soldiers in the New Iraqui Army are allowed to take one weeks vacation each month to spend time with their families you will begin to empathize with the intense frustration of Capt. Navarro and the others who have had to put their own lives on hold and travel half way around the world in order to try to stabilize the situation in Iraq. In addition, Navarro points to a number of other serious logistical problems that impede real progress in Iraq.
   As someone who has never served in the military and therefore is not familiar with military nomenclature I found that some of the terminology in "God Willing" was foreign to me. For some readers this may prove to be a bit of an obstacle to fully comprehending the issues being discussed here. Those with military experience will probably glean more from "God Willing" than the rest of us. Having said that, it is extremely important that the rest of us get up to speed on these matters. The citizenry at large cannot question policies that they really do not understand. In "God Willing: My Wild Ride with the New Iraqui Army" Capt. Eric Navarro succeeds in arming his readers with badly needed information. "God Willing" has certainly changed the way I view events in Iraq. This is a timely and well-written book that deserves your attention. Highly recommended!



5. After hearing Capt. Navarro discuss his book at length, I feel the previous reviewers have missed the author's main thrust. Navarro is emphatic that on his first tour in Iraq the situation was dismal to beyond hope, partly because of the Iraqi soldiers' fatalistic attitude (i.e., "if God wills it") and their seeming refusal to take any responsibility for their own well being. However, he says that by the time he returned for a second tour, things had turned around more than he ever would have expected and that this improvement was largely a result of a change in U.S. policy. Where the U.S previously had been installing their own hand-picked leaders in Iraqi villages, they instead began working with the village chieftans, who already occupied positions of authority. This strategy produced much better results, and Navarro ended the book appearing optimistic about the future of the U.S. in Iraq. However, he was adamant that the U.S. must not leave Iraq, because to do so would create a power vacuum in the area that Iran would quickly exploit.

5 comments about Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital.

1. As a fellow military psychologist, I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Kraft's account of her deployment experiences. This is not a manual for the treatment of combat stress, and is not intended to be such. It lends humanity to those of us in a helping profession working in an environment that can create some superhuman expectations. I read it easily in an afternoon and recommend that anyone who wants some insight into military psychology do the same.



2. I am in a book club called WOBL (WOMEN OF BRYANT LAKE)We were lucky enough to have our host get a conference call with the author, Dr. Heidi Squier Kraft. After reading her book I was so moved by her experiences over in Iraq, it's a book that I feel every US citizen should read. She gives the reader a chance to understand first hand what the soldiers are experiencing and how she helps them work through their losses and fears. It is such a heart felt book from a mother/lieutenant commander who has to leave her two young children to help these men and women through life and death situations on the combat field. I can not say enough about this book, I highly recommend it!



3. A very good read for military and political leaders looking for a balanced perspective on how casualties affect Soldiers and Marines.



4. Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital
   I am a volunteer EMT. My dad had PTSD. I read Heidi's book and listened to her interview on National Public Radio. We have many returning vets in my town. Heidi's book and her work with the US Navy Combat Stress Control Program are in the highest tradition of the Navy and Marine Corps to leave no one behind. Great book! Great woman! We EMTs need more training in how to support our returning vets. We need Psychological First Aid training in addition to trauma and medical training. Heidi and folks like her are on the cutting edge of emergency medicine. Semper Fi



5. This book offers very powerful insight to the struggle of mental health specialists in the field of combat. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in psychology and combat medicine. Even if you're not, this book is certainly worth it.

5 comments about Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal.

1. Now this was a great memoir/biography of a Navy SEAL, one that showed what the SEAL went through for selection, training and operations. Pfarrer is an accomplished screenwriter and his account of his SEAL exploits in Warrior Soul definitely make him an accomplished and more rounded writer. Through his writing we are given vivid images that allow us to put ourselves in his shoes and see and experience what he went through. We, of course, will never know how it truly feels and the pain and endurance that they go through, but we at least can understand.
   
   Pfarrer does wonderfully in the beginning in describing what he went through as a SEAL in Team 4. He painted a picture of his childhood through his college years, letting us track his path in becoming such an elite soldier. We are treated to a brief operation in Latin America before spending the middle of the book on his exploits in Beirut. I for one was not aware of how bad Beirut was and Pfarrer did such a great job in describing his day to day life that I felt as though I could understand what was going on in that war torn city. Pfarrer spent a good deal of time on it, and rightly so, because of the profound affect it had on his life.
   
   The latter few chapters were devoted to Pfarrer's stint as an officer of SEAL Team 6, the Black Op Team that was even more tough and hard to get in to and performed much more specific and dangerous tasks than the normal SEAL. Through this we get to see some of his training and what he went through before and after, as well as a decent section on some of the history behind Marcinko, Gormly and the formation of Team 6. We don't get to see too much of the action of Team 6 because of the nature of the missions, but we did get to see a few of the more publicized missions they went on, such as the hostage situation on the cruise ship Achille Lauro.
   
   Despite not seeing too much of what went on in SEAL Team 6 we are treated to a great account of an officer in the SEALs. Where Marcinko's account had a lot of character from the way he wrote, Pfarrer's account is much more polished. I would definitely recommend Warrior Soul to anyone looking for a good military history.
   
   5 stars.



2. I would never have guessed that this book was written by a purely military man and not an actual writer.
   
   My son is a navy seal, and though I was in the Marines, I don't know too much about them, so I try to read everything I can when I get the chance to try and understand what they go through. Why a lot of them join, why they go through the training, why the training is they way it is. This book hit all those points spot on. Although I as well as everyone am aware there is nothing in the world like Navy seal training, this book does give us probably the most in depth view into the world that I've come across as of yet. It will leave you with a sense of awe at what a human is capable of physically, mentally and emotionally. These are men amongst men.



3. An excellent account of SEAL training and operations. Chuck Pfarrer is a veteran of the Beirut war and a witness to the car bombing called the first act of terrorism by our current enemies. He is a combat veteran and a former Naval officer. His Navy experience is important because he recalls the beginning of the war on terror , namely the situation in Beirut. This is an important book.



4. Seriously, this was an AWESOME BOOK. Reading the stories I was amazed at what kind of sh.. Mr. Pfarrer got himself into. From BUD/S to Beirut to Banana Republics to Cancer.. he's been at the front row of many key world events, as well as personal ones. (And I'm sure there's a few more that haven't been reported)
   
   The book was very compelling. And he did a great job writing. I really had a tough time putting it down. I always wanted to read "just one more story".
   
   I also enjoyed how it didn't glamorize, but also wasn't falsely modest. Chuck seems like a solid human being--and certainly went above and beyond in his service and in life. And he shares much of his experiences through the book.
   
   Anyhow, thank you Mr. Pfarrer!
   
   ps: and remember, it's "air-BORNE!!"



5. Although this book provides a glimpse inside the Navy Seals from an team leader's perspective, it was generally dry and drawn out ,spending a lot of time on Beruit and providing a lot of background information and editorials on the politics etc of that event that I am not interested in. This guy is a stud- no doubt, but I found myself skipping through the pages to find something interesting.

5 comments about Indestructible: The Unforgettable Story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima.

1. I am a retired Marine and I generally read several books on the Marine Corps each year; I had never heard of Jack Lucas before this book. But, I came to believe that his discplinary issues, has resulted in the Marines excluding him from the general USMC history, we teach our young Marines at recruit trainng or OCS.
   
   I am glad I bought the non-abridged audiobook edition (part of daily commute). Its audio quality was pretty good. It is a good recounting of history, but someone should have listed to it before it was finalized on CD. There were repeations of several sentences which made we wonder if my CD player was on the blink. In addition, references to "126" should have redone they should have been redone as "1st Bn, 26 Marine Regiment". Better for non-Marine listeners.



2. There can be little doubt that this book wouldn't have been written if this aging hero had not been singled out by President Clinton during his presidency in a nationally televised State-of-the-Union address. Mr. Lucas was the President's special guest for the occasion, and one can understand why. While Lucas is an unquestioned military hero, he was less of a hero to his children and his first wife. (Those who were on the receiving end of his quick and violent temper may not view him in the hero light either.) A self-described womanizer, Lucas was the perfect foil for the Clinton plot to bolster the President's image by profiling a man who is living proof that no matter how badly you conduct your private life, it doesn't have to interfere with your service to country. This book will read like a poem to Clintonites, but may blanch a bit to the few of who still believe personal morality matters to whatever task you set yourself to.
   
   Lucas is a hero, and his professions of faith in the Lord who protected him not only on Iwo Jima but in several other major life crisis redeems this book and makes it worthwhile. But if your looking for the ALL American hero, better look elsewhere for reading material.



3. Mr. Lucas has just spent 212 pages doing nothing more than patting himself on the back and telling the public how big a hero he is. He also spends a great amount of time in stating how he relishes the limelight he is in and will go to any length to exploit the Medal of Honor to his own use. From some of key phrases in the book, the reader would think he was the only Marine on Iwo Jima. While I highly respect him for the action for which the medal was awarded, I do not respect the idea of using it to ones advantage. The author also seems to think that what he cannot accomplish with the Medal of Honor around his neck, his two fist will get for him.



4. Despite what some other reviewers had to say, it should be noted at the outset that Jack Lucas didn't finish high school, and obviously didn't go to Columbia for a writing degree. He simply lied his way into enlisting in the Marine Corps at the age of 14, and ultimately conned his way into frontline units until he finally reached combat at Iwo Jima. Having wanted to be a Marine and fighting since he was 11, his dedicated pursuit of his goal seems impossible to believe, but it did happen, and this is his story.
   
   Having met Jack, he is exactly like what the story sounds like. He is proud, patriotic, and unabashed in his belief that his actions that day were less significant than those who never returned. I found the story of his life after the war to be interesting, especially what his own wife would attempt later.
   
   This is not going to tell the story of the whole war, and isn't a literary work that rivals Shakespeare, but it is one man's story, and well worth the time to read it.



5. This book is full of self praise and a large ego. Not a humble word in it. The author talks of his buddies, roommates, and other people with barely mentioning a name or how they influenced his life. He does mention his family and the influence of his mother and deceased father. What he did on Iwo Jima was heroic and highly commendable but, he just keeps on about himself and his Medal of Honor. His claims of coming from a valiant military heritage are unsubstantiated. He should have something to back that he is the descendent of veterans of the American Revolution (fighting the British), the Civil War, and two awardees of the British Victoria Cross. There are two Irishman named Lucas who were awarded it but, both lived from the 1850's to the early 1900's in Ireland.
   It does seem that he writes the book as if he is the only Marine on Iwo Jima. There is little mention of the names of the Marines that he served with and his interactions with them. Every Marine has a history. You will receive the impression that he wasn't very well liked by his peers and was insubordinate to superiors. I believe that commanding officer that let him stay on the ship after deserting his unit in Hawaii had no choice but to attach him to a battalion and send him into the fight. It would have been an even bigger hassle to send him back to Hawaii. That unit was going to war and they were not going to think twice about giving that kid a rifle and putting him on that beach.
   His time in the brig and driving a trash truck leaves the reader to question: "Was he up to high standards of being a Marine that he says he was?" The sentence he received from a court marshal (yes, I said court marshal) seemed too hefty for just roughing up a guy. The recount of his first sexual experience just after he tells the story of shoving a broom handle into the "offending orifice" of a mule, named after a girl he was afraid to talk to, should have been left out. This book should have been written by a non-bias author that is willing to do some research. His reason for joining the Army almost sounds like an excuse. He submits to the reader that it was his undying desire and primary mission in life to be a Marine and kill the Japanese.

5 comments about Saddam's Secrets.

1. Sada's book is filled with a totally different perspective from what we hear and read in the media. He is honest and believable in his story telling; however his American co-author's role as writter is average.
   What is so important to me is a perspective from a former and current resident of Iraq. His eyes give me the information that I desire. Too often we listen from our own cultural experience and ignore the prespective of someone like Sada.
   My only question is why has this book been ignored?



2. I enjoyed the information in the book. Poorly written but never the less informative



3. Finally, the inside scoop! Questions of WMD answered! Why isn't this information made more readily available to the American People? This is a story of one man's faith and honesty in the worst of situations! You want to know the truth? Read this book!!



4. This is an important book that every American should read. Gen Sada is an amazing man, an eye-witness in Saddam's regime who lived to tell about it and claims to have actually seen WMD with his own eyes. Fascinating!



5. It's a shame that the public has to dig for the truth rather than rely on the press to be honest, but that's the situation. If you really want to know what was going on rather than buy into the juvenile theory that this was somehow all about W's oil buddies, this is a great start.

5 comments about Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty.

1. I have always been interested in military history, especially WWII. This book is excellent! The pages are filled with accounts and photos of these heros. I have not completed reading all of the book. I like to savor each story after I read it. I wonder if I could do what they did. I am impressed with the deeds these men performed to secure our freedom.
   I recommend the book to anyone that enjoys history.



2. Should be must reading in all the schools. Lest we forget what the great sacrifice was all about.



3. I enjoyed the book but I thought there would be more current info. such as Iraq. Also, I had hoped to read about Audie Murphy.



4. My husband is hard to buy for, but, as a veteran and military retiree, I knew he'd love this book. I heard it reviewed on National Public Radio and ordered it on line. He loved it and read every biography.



5. We got this book for Father's Day. My dad is retired Air Force after 20 years. And we knew he would enjoy see all the people who have given to this country. Plus over the years some of the men in the book are friends of his.

5 comments about Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS.

1. This book is worth reading, but it's not a book that you cannot put down.
   Alot of politics discussed... If you want an exciting book to read, read "the forgotten soldier." There is controversy about the book.. whether it is a work of fiction.. maybe because it is so exciting. Not exciting , but very interesting. Exciting is the wrong word. But it is a book I highly recommend.



2. This is one of the best first hand accounts I have read by any soldier. A majority of the book is about his time in combat, but there are many pages written while he was in captivity where he is forced to come to grips with what he was a part of. He is unashamed of his participation in the SS, and seems a firm believer that the German cause was just in its battle against Bolshevism. I can not judge him as I did not grow up in 1920/1930s Germany, but as a former soldier who has been in combat, I feel his memories and descriptions of his wartime experiences are genuine. This is a page turner, well written with nothing that will hang up a reader, and a glimpse into the mind of just one man in those conditions in our history. If you like this, I also recommend "Sniper on the Eastern Front" for another great first person view of combat on the ground in the ETO.



3. Johan Voss's story is interesting in its sheer typicality. He grew up in an intellectual middle-class family which held varying opinions on Hitler, from fanatical enthusiasm to seditious contempt. As a teen, he became somewhat enrapt with the idea of the Waffen-SS, which was marketed not as a racial elite but as a brotherhood dedicated to protecting Europe from Soviet Communism. Seeing in the concept the seeds of a United Europe (divisions of Waffen-SS were recruited from everything from Danes to Frenchmen to Cossacks and Muslim Croatians), Voss joined up, and being from a mountainous area, was assigned to the 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord."
   
   "Nord" spent most of its service fighting on the forgotten sector of the Eastern front - the Russian-Finnish border. Voss served in the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle until late 1944, when the deteriorating military situation caused Finland to turn against Germany - indeed, the book's toughest emotional passages deal with the bitterness of the Germans as they are forced to march a thousand miles through the snow to Norway. After that, the division was sent to France to fight in the "Second Battle of the Bulge" - Himmler's assault into Alsace in the closing days of 1944. It was during this chaotic battle that Voss was captured by Americans and first had to hide his SS identity. In the prison camps he was confronted with evidence of Nazi atrocities and engaged in lengthly and painful self-examination about the Waffen-SS and his role in it, hence the "conscience" part of the title.
   
   EDELWEISS is not the best WW 2 memior I've read. It moves a bit slowly, and Voss is almost too thoughtful for his own good; his constant introspection is interesting in and of itself but drags down the narrative. But it is a refreshingly bold and important book. Because he falls short of complete repudiation of the organization, seeing himself as both the facilitator of crime and a victim of it, Voss' memior is somewhat controversial. Like many other W/SS vets, he is willing to accept his share of responsibility for the actions of Nazi Germany, but refuses to serve as the "alibi of a nation", merely because he wore SS runes and not Army litzen on his collar. By refusing to be lumped in with the black-clad Political SS and the Death's Head troopers who staffed the concentration camps, Voss puts himself at odds with everyone, inside and outside of Germany, who wants him to admit that he is criminal and keep any non-criminal exploits to himself. Luckily for history, he didn't take their advice.



4. I bought the book based on the other reviews.
   
   I really enjoyed the book and would recommend the read to anyone keen on the topic. Rather than rehash what others have already written, why not purchase a copy and enjoy a few evenings engrossed in an accurate account of what it really was like fighting a war in the far north.
   
   10/10



5. This book is quite a read. I found it eye-opening, interesting and even a bit entertaining. I thought it was great how the author tells his story, alternating between his time in the field and his time in captivity. It made for an almost movie-like experience. I also found the authors thoughts, upon learning of the Holocaust, and his reactions and feelings on the subject, were quite interesting. Foremost being, he felt the name and image of the elite Waffen SS was soiled by Nazi goons.
   
   I highly recommend this book. I've read several first-person memoir type accounts, and this is by far the best I've read so far.

3 comments about The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848.

1. Did you know that George Pickett would become "something of a cult figure for graduating fifty-ninth in a class of fifty-nine and then later led one of the most famous cavalry charges in the history of modern warfare"? On page six, this book imparts the astounding historical fact that Pickett's Charge was mounted. 145 years, millions of words, hundreds of book, thousands of prints and paintings but Martin Dugard found the truth. However, there is no footnote proving that Pickett's Division road to battle on July 3, 1863. Without that little detail, I will continue to think they were an infantry division and the men walked both ways.
   The dust jacket says Dugard is a "bestselling author of non-fiction", while that may be true, he is not a historian. The book has multiple direct quotes and no footnotes to support them. At the end of the book is a section entitled "Selected Notes and Biographies" that is designed to make the book appear to be a serious history.
   The book is readable but neither a history of the War with Mexico nor a history of the men involved. This is a series of stories, strung together about men who would be generals in another war. At best, it is a readable introduction. At worst, it is full of errors, misquotes and misstatements.



2. A history book that you cannot put down. Dugard impeccably details the landscape of war and the tremendous strength, loyalty, leadership and courage of young men faced with insurmountable circumstances. The writing is fluid, informative, and rich. One of the many strengths of The Training Ground is the manner in which the chaos and brutality of war is contrasted with individuals and how their lives are forever affected. I've heard the term "page anxiety" used with history books. There is none to be found here. I found this book bold, informative and told from a perspective lacking in its genre. An exellent, excellent read.



3. I was very disappointed with The Training Ground. It is a good read but you can't trust it. There are numerious factual errors. On page 160, Mr. Dugard states "He (Abraham Lincoln)was born in Kentucky and lived there until moving to Illinois at the age of 22." Maybe Mr. Dugard considers the 14 years that the Lincoln family spent in Indiana as just passing through? The Lincolns moved to Illinois when Abe was 21 and they had lived in Spencer County Indiana since he was 7.
   When I started the book, I hoped to learn more about men that I knew mostly from the Civil War. The farther I got into it, the more I felt a need to double check Dugard's statements

5 comments about The My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story.

1. For any Marine, military member or someone that loves a good story, this book is worth reading. This story is about a humble Marine, doing what he does best - being a Marine. Awesome story and great photos. Highly recommend.



2. As the full title of this book would indicate, it not a comprehensive narrative of the battle for Fallujah in November of 2004, but rather a biography of Brad Kasal throughout his life and into his time in the Marine Corps. I think it does a good job of creating a familiarity with the man who has gone on to personify contemporary Marine Corps leadership.



3. This is a book about a living hero and yet he is humble. this book should be read by all, only then will you truly understand the war.



4. First, this is one of the few books among many on leadership that truly defines what a leader should strive to be, and how he/she gets there. Kasal's snippets and caveats are concise, to the point, and hard-hitting. Paper leaders need not apply in Kasal's Marine Corps.
   
   Second, it's about time an honorable, unapologetic account of the Marines combat participation in Iraq came out. While in Baghdad I met and worked with superb Marines, from the lowest enlisted rank to 06 and a better bunch could not be found. Kasal's book does them proud.
   
   Wonderfully written, unabashed in its patriotism, a good reminder about those who serve and maintain the brotherhood of the combat veteran, Marine or otherwise.
   
   Thank you for your service and sacrifice, SGM, and for instilling the core of the Corps in so many courageous young men and women.
   
   A Marine's (X2) Dad



5. This is a great story about one of our marines. His dedication is so sorely needed in this country. A wonderful book on his courage to continue to live a normal life.