5 comments about Meditations from Iraq: A Chaplain's Ministry in the Middle East 2003-2004.

1. This book brings real life to the stories of faith and witness going on in Iraq. There were so many excellent touching stories about the people fighting for our country, it's hard to choose a favorite! The author does a great job depicting the realness of human feelings.



2. Meditations from Iraq is an opportunity for those of us at home to experience the country, the war, and our military men and women, all in the light of God's grace. Chaplain Lance Kittleson brings all this to his readers with a wonderful blending of the poignant and the humorous. You'll love his stories! You'll see the best of those who are serving us in this time of war, their fears and their triumphs. You will read about God at work in unexpected ways, and your faith will likely be strengthened in the process.



3. Due to the bully pulpit our press gives Hollywood movie "stars", such as Jake Gyllenhaal, every American should read this true account of life in Iraq from the perspective of the American soldier/chaplain. Making a movie on the Middle-East conflict such as Gyllenhaal did with the flick, "Jarhead" does not give any man proper insight into what these brave young men and women are doing on a daily basis. Kittleson, an Army Chaplain, paints a compelling picture of the hardships these heroes endure. Religious or not, political or not, please read this beautifully crafted book, particularly before speaking out as Gyllenhaal did.



4. Meditations From Iraq is a must for everyone. The author is humble and gives the reader an insight on situations a chaplin
   may experience in his line of duty, ministering to our military
   men and women far from home and family not in the comforts of a church. Chaplin Kittleson adds humor and gives us an understanding of faith at all times.Everyone should read this book before passing judgment on our brave men and women.
   This is a book you can't put down. Even those who do not read because they
   can't remember what they read will find this book worthwhile.



5. Kittleson brings a wealth of personal military experience to this work. Not only was he raised in the home of an American war hero, he has personally devoted himself to serving our country and its soldiers his entire adult life. He brings the perspective and experience of the unassuming soldier---a modest level 5 leader. It is a blend of a little cynicism about the Army its practices and procedures, personal glimpses of war that you will not see in any movie, and a deep sense of honor and devotion. Kittleson is a keen observer and gifted writer. His images combine stark and jarring reality with beautifully crafted language and simple but profound wisdom.
   This is not just a work for soldiers who have been there, or guys who wished they had been, though both will find this an engaging book. It is also for anyone who values real stories about real people, struggling and sometimes failing, sometimes triumphing over what they face.
   This is not a blood and guts saga, despite the fact that Chaplains probably have to deal with that horror more than the average soldier. This is the taste, the smell, the feel of war in a foreign and hot and hostile place. An example: "Here's a recipe that everyone can easily follow at home. Take a hair dryer outside on the hottest and driest day of the summer. Plug it in and be sure the setting is for `high heat.' Before pointing it at your face, add a large fan behind it and turn it on the highest setting. Next, add another ingredient: a winter heater turned on to the max. Now, bask your entire body in the stifling heat for a good twelve to fourteen hours, occasionally shifting from front to back and cheek to cheek to get an even roast. Just for added effect, turn on a bright light in your face as you bask. Before starting the broiling, take a six to eight-pound flower pot, turn it upside down and place it on your head fastened by a chinstrap. Be sure to leave enough room in the headband for sweat to trickle out and down your eyelids. Put on a heavy shirt and pants with boots geared to allow the minimum of air movement and then add a heavy winter coat or vest. Better yet, just for effect, put on a heavy corset and tighten. Throw in front of the large fan, turned on high, at periodic intervals, a good handful of powered sugar or flour so that it sticks to your body and clothes and on occasion throw a particularly large handful of powdery stuff so that it gets in your lungs and you can taste the grit between your teeth. If you aren't coughing up chunks of the stuff, you haven't thrown enough in front of the fan. After basking, broiling, roasting your body, and wearing holes in your gluteus maximus for the prescribed length of time, stop in an area covered in dirt with the churned up consistency of talcum power. Flop down on a cot under the full moon in the open and sleep the night away while trucks and Humvees hum around you all night long, throwing more and more talcum power in the air while some sort of bug bites your weary, roasted flesh."
   Kittleson puts you there. You are not a hero, you are a grunt. But just as you are at the breaking point he helps you see a greater or deeper reality. In the mundane grind of war he unveils truth, wisdom, and sometimes even beauty. The honeywagon becomes a strangely jarring image of the Holy Spirit carrying away your sin. And Jesus like a saper opens a way through spiritual razor wire. You sense the hand of God even in this horrid circumstance of war and come to realize the same hand of God extends into the horrid places in your own life. Kittleson's gift is the ability to show us the magic of grace in the midst of foreign war and so make it possible for us to see it in the midst of our stateside lives.

5 comments about Eisenhower: A Biography (Great Generals).

1. I just finished this book, and found it a very enjoyable read. I learned a number things about Eisenhower's earlier years that were new to me--for instance, I never knew he had served in Panama, or been offered more lucrative business opportunities, but had elected to stay in the army. or that because of his abilities as a staff officer he had been denied the chance to have his own command except for a very brief period.
   
   In terms of Eisenhower's WWII experiences, the focus is on getting into Eisenhower's thoughts and feelings and his relationships with other generals, particularly Patton and Montgomery, though the author also points out that Eisenhower tried to meet with all ranks of soldiers when time allowed. I was somewhat surprised that Eisenhower's alleged relationship with Kay Summersby is completely unmentioned, though the author does quote four times from her book.
   
   Also, this is not the book to go to if you want an operational description of the battles Eisenhower oversaw--even the situation on Omaha is covered in only a couple of sentences. Similarly for Market-Garden, but here the author states this operation should never have happened, one of his few (though here only implied) negative statements about Eisenhower.
   
   Eisenhower's life after the army and his presidency are briefly covered, with all the major events highlighted, but not discussed in detail.
   
   I strongly recommend this book for an introduction to Eisenhower.



2. This should especially be a must read for students. The book is concise and to the point without a lot of extraneous words. Having just recently rented a film about Eisenhower at a local store, I'm shocked that the student-age employee neither knew who Eisenhower was or how to spell his name. Do we call this a dumbed-down nation?
   A good combination with this book would be to first have the students read it and then show the film Ike: A Countdown to D-Day which was a made-for-TV film starring Tom Selleck.
   More books of this ilk would help EDUCATE!



3. Interesting book. But Wesley Clarke -- who wrote the forward --is an airhead and a sychophant par excellence.



4. Though a nice and mostly complete overview of Ike's life until assuming the Presidency, the author does not hesitate to inject his own personal bias in a work that should be a review of historical records. When discussing military preparedness, he adds a comment about the supposedly underarmored HUMVEEs in Iraq. When discussing the identity of the enemy, he says that Eisenhower's job was somewhat easier than today, for the enemy was clearly identified, as opposed to today's "insurgents fighting for their country" and "religious zealots fighting for their freedom." He even manages to take a swipe at todays military, commenting on Abu Ghraib. In fact, by the time of the description of the Normandy invasion, there are at least 5 references to Iraq and Afghanistan. This type of editorializing in what should be a historic work goes far to undermine the objectivity of the author. One feels that he has an agenda, and is using this book to promote it.
   
   Tell us the story of Ike, leave your opinions on US policy today outside the dustjacket. Commentaries such as the ones I mentioned reduce the credibility of the author and make one question the rest of his work.



5. Of the four titles in Palgrave's Great Generals Series that I've now read (Patton, Bradley, MacArthur, and now Eisenhower), this is the worst. Wukovits, whose World War II writing has for the most part covered the Pacific, doesn't seem to have a strong background in the European theater, and it shows. The details are very basic; there's little, if anything, new here for anyone who has read a book or two on the ETO. Sure, an author can cover only so much in a book of less than 200 pages, but for the possibilities of a short biography, take a look at historian Richard B. Frank's insightful volume on MacArthur in this same series.

5 comments about Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone.

1. When the Belgians decided to grant the Congo independence the huge country was immediately plunged into chaos. Katanga province secedes and other parts of the country are wavering, the Soviets are arriving in droves, the Congolese army has mutinied and the newly-elected government has no clue. CIA officer Larry Devlin is tossed into this mess and his first-hand account makes some of the strangest works of fiction seem pale in comparison.
   
   Mr. Devlin discusses the politics of the Congo and makes sense of Lumumba, Tshombe and other players who seemingly changed roles from protagonist to villain and back again. The policies of the UN and where they were coming from also come to mind.
   
   Forgotten now, the Congo saw a significant intervention by the United Nations and USAF aircraft airlifted material in support. Fear that the Soviets would gain control of the vast mineral wealth of the Congo was one of the motivating factors of western nations in dealing with the crisis.
   
   A great book!



2. Well documented account of life in Central Africa during the 1960's. Having lived in other parts of West Africa (as a child) and traveled to sub-Sahara countries, Mr. Devlin's narrative brought back many memories of a very influential part of my life.



3. This book arrived quicker than I thought. We are planning to move and I thought this book would not make it in time for our move. It came as almost a brand new book and after I read it will ad it to all my books on Africa. Thank you seller for this good looking book!



4. I was a teacher in the mid 1960s at a Tanzanian school of social science and for adult Tanzanians who were moving into mainly mid level leadership roles in the country. I was sent there by an undergraduate volunteer group from Harvard that looked for funding from various sources, one or two of which were probably conduits for CIA or closely related money, though our understanding of where the money came from was vague then, and still is now as far as I know (and of course we didn't see that where some of the money came from necessarily affected what we did as volunteers). For me, Devlin's book is an interesting fleshing-out of what must have been going on generally in Africa while I was there, to which I and most other volunteers I knew were largely oblivious.
   
   The book certainly bears out that the left in the 60s was correct in being paranoid about the CIA. It's nice to hear now that the CIA didn't actually assassinate Lumumba, but of course the book implies that President Eisenhower and others in high places were most likely also commissioning other assassinations of democratic leaders as well, as they did in Lumumba's case even if the orders were resisted by people at Devlin's level.
   
   Devlin's positive portrait of Mobutu surprised me and makes me want to think again about how we so easily label people like him as monsters because they ultimately end up as dictators, partly thanks to us.
   
   After finishing the book I'm inclined to suspect that the world would not have turned out worse if the socialist countries had gained as much power in the sub-Saharan Africa as the capitalist ones held there throughout the last half of the 20th century. Who knows, but maybe more infrastructure would have survived. And of course, what a much greater headache Africa (like Afghanistan) would have turned out to be for the USSR.



5. It's worth a read, however, I still felt like he left a lot of the inner workings of a CIA station unremarked. His personal dangers and bravery in the face of them are honorable and America should be grateful we had him to care for things in the Congo during that crucial time. However, I still feel unsatisfied with the book somehow, and it did drag in some places.

5 comments about Chained Eagle: The Heroic Story of the First American Shot Down over North Vietnam.

1. On August 5th, 1964, Lieutenant j.g. Everett Alvarez Jr. was shot down over North Vietnam and became the first U.S. aviator to be taken captive in the Vietnam conflict. Held in confinement for eight and a half years, he would be recorded as the longest held POW second only to Army Captain Jim Thompson.

   Spending the entire Vietnam war as a POW, Alvarez was held at different times in the Hanoi Hilton, Briarpatch, and Zoo prison compounds. It would be a year until he finally had contact with other American POW's and much of that first year was in solitary confinement.

   Approaching 2 years of captivity, Alvarez and his fellow servicemen were subjected to brutal and sadistic tortures amidst inhumane living conditions for the duration of their stay. Forced to eat vermin infested food and given negligible medical care, he suffered frequently from Dysentery, Beri-Beri, Hepatitis, and other afflictions.

   Far along into captivity, Alvarez finally received mail from his family concerning events at home. Sadly, he was to learn that one of his sisters had become an anti-war activist and in what must have seemed like one of the worst examples of betrayal and cruelty, his wife divorced him and then remarried.

   During the worst of times, Alvarez never wavered in his beliefs of pride, patriotism, and self-determination to survive and continually assisted his fellow POW's as they assisted him. Upon a joyous and welcome return home, he diligently and proudly re-entered society with his honor and integrity intact culminating with his second marriage to a wonderful woman that made his life complete.

   Chained Eagle is an exceptionally good book of one man's heroic struggle and endurance in the face of complete despair and hopelessness. Vividly poignant, inspirational, and heartfelt, this book is deserving of much more than five stars and is very highly recommended to everyone.




2. "Chained Eagle" is the story of Lieutenant (j.g.) Everett Alvarez. He was a pilot from the U.S.S. "Constellation", shot down over Hon Gai, North Vietnam on August 5, 1964. In fact, Alvarez was downed during the very first bombing sortie of the Indochina War. He remained imprisoned until the general release of all POWs in the Spring of 1973. This reviewer remembers President Johnson announcing the missions at the still bizarre time of 11 p.m. Eastern Time, interrupting a Mets game. (It was never completely clear if LBJ's broadcast came before the actual raids. Doing so would have given the North a free advance warning). The very strongest aspect of CE is how strongly it is written. The portrayals of prison life are more vivid than any other POW accounts this reviewer has read. There is a sharp focus on the food. It was painful to read of how POWs competed with the rats and ants for the slop left outside their cells. By the time permission to actually eat was given, "others" had sampled the stuff! One can only imagine how hungry these guys must have been and desperate for any semblance of decent chow! Alvarez' conditions were tolerable initially but quickly deteriorated as more pilots were downed and subsequently captured. Conditions improved later in the War as America -belatedly! -began to demand better treatment of the prisoners. The Son Tay raid of 1970 also was directly responsible for better conditions because it led North Vietnam to consolidate most Americans into the larger Hanoi area prisons. There was definite safety in numbers, along with a supportive command structure. Another strong aspect of CE is the interspersed reports of how the Alvarez family was faring at home! One deduces a strong effort from co-author Pitch here, since Alvarez was imprisoned 15, 000 miles away. It was not all sweetness and light back in California. CE reminds the reader sharply that the families on the home front suffered too. It is true that Alvarez' wife deserted him while he was imprisoned and that his sister was a serious demonstrator against the War. However the author very quickly pulled his life together again once repatriated, rising above those sharp adversities. This reviewer was surprised to read of two collaborators, both officers, one a Marine LTC! Also, by the end of 1972, many of the newly shot down pilots had turned lukewarm regarding the War. Some rooted for Senator George McGovern (D-SD) in the '72 Presidential Election! The bottom line for CE is that it is one more entry in that solid lineup of POW/MIA accounts. America should always remember the struggles these men endured. We should also acknowledge the 1800+ still unaccounted for in the 4 Indochina countries, plus 6 men in China. Those of us Vets who came back to the World intact should count our blessings daily.



3. Alvarez was shot down on the FIRST day of the Gulf of Tonkin airstrikes! Hero, no. Lucky, yes. Strong will to survive, yes. So are the hundreds of other POWs. What makes Alvarez unique? The first one to get shot down? Hardly a hero.



4. The story is a story that should be mandatory reading for all high school and college students. The lessons, actions, values and principles in the life of Alvarez are what heroes are made of and an inspiration and example to all.
   
   The book is well written. One feels as though he is living through the ordeal of the POW story.



5. Everett Alvarez Jr. has given us his inspirational experience as America's first military Vietnam POW. He details his early life, then gets right to his mission over North Vietnam, his plane being downed, his subsequent capture and captivity and, finally, his release and "Return With Honor". There are a number of books written by Vietnam POWs, but this one is noteworthy because he was the first (1964) and the longest held. He speaks hauntingly of his depravation and torture, but he doesn't dwell on it. This is a positive book where Alvarez shows us how he endured for so long. Of interest is his faith; how it helped him cope. Meanwhile the book often shifts back to his family here, first awaiting news of his fate and then later, when they find he is alive, his release. Well-written and inspiring... a great take.

5 comments about The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich: The SS 'Butcher of Prague'.

1. Reinhard Heydrich was a horrible Nazi. Tall. Blonde. Amoral.A killer whose convening of the Wannssee Conference in early 1942 began the implementation of the plan to destroy European Jewry;
   the Butcher Boy of Czechoslovakia who ruled from a castle in
   Prague. This repulsive human being was assassinated in May,
   1942 by daring Czech patriots who attacked his car with a bomb
   and a sten gun!
   Reprisals following Heydrich's death were horrific leading
   to mass arrests and the wiping off the map of the village of
   Lidice.
   The brave men who plotted the murder of Heydrich were martyrs to Czech freedom whose names as sons of liberty should never be forgotten.
   The late author Macdonald examines how the assassination was planned among Czech exiles in London; the politcal and strategic repercussions of the assassination and the fate of the families of those responsible for the assassination are reported.
   The book would make a marvelous thriller espionage motion picture with its picture of parachutists landing in occupied
   Czech,; daring escapes; the final showdown to the death in a large Prague church and the daring daytime attack on Hedyrich's
   car.
   In the unholy pantheon of Nazi monsters the name of Heydrich is today little known among the general public. This chief lt. to Himmler is however emblematic of the Nordic evil incarnate of fascism.
   This book will prove interesting to the World War II buff and
   the general reader interested in the period. Good!



2. If there was ever a face of evil, then it had to be Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Hitler. Hitler once said about Heydrich that he had a heart of iron. Reinhard was sadistic and was the architect of the Final Solution. This was no man with a humane touch, he was in short a monster. The Czech government in exile and the British sent this man to where he belonged at a terrible cost.
   The book details the plot to kill Heydrich. Surprisely, the murder and details took up perhaps three to four chapters, with the rest of the book dealing with internal Czech politics and how the government balanced between the English and Soviets. There was some good information on the wartime policies of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic) and the government in exile under Benes in England.
   The world was a better place without Heydrich. A short biography is included in the writing, and it shows Heydrich in all his bloody lust. His own killing was because he had so much contempt for the Czechs. He and his driver were the only ones on the road, and the killers had a big target, especially when Heydrich told the driver to stop when he saw the guerillas. This was truly an evil man.
   The book is a nice read. It details the bio of Reinhard, plus the detail of plot and murder, and finally the end of those who killed Heydrich. A good book.



3. Very detailed and thorough with a good overview of the events leading to the assassination. Too repetitious of the political motivations of Benes, et al in London. Terminology is confusing for the reader new to this material, but helpful index in the back to all the abbreviations. Overall very interesting read. To those traveling to Prague the church crypt is open to the public for a small fee with small museum and self-guided tour, complete with machine gun bullet holes on outside of church.



4. The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich by Callum MacDonald is the best account in English of the assassination of Heydrich that I'm aware of. It presents background on Heydrich's life before he became the "Reichsprotector" of Bohemia and Moravia in late 1941. It continues with fine chapters on the development of the Czech plans to assassinate Heydrich, the assassination, and the German reprisals. For me, it communicates very well the harsh drama of these events.
   
   One matter I would like to understand better is the apparent lack of an escape plan on the part of the two parachutists who carried out the assassination. A chapter in Prague in Danger by Peter Demetz, to be published in early 2008, may provide new information on this matter.
   
   The comment of a Czech friend may be a suitable ending to this brief review: "The question as to whether the assassination was justified, given the brutal German reprisals, may never be settled. What remains is the courage of the parachutists and those who helped them, and the murderous folly of men."



5. Callum Macdonald is a historian at the University of Warwick in England. This 248 page biography of Reinhard Heydrich tells of his early life and the actions that determined his career first as a Naval officer then as one of the high-ranking Nazi officials. Imperial Germany was an aristocracy where class prejudice prevented recognition of those who acquired material prerequisites (p.6). There was bias against the Heydrich family for the wrong reasons. A charge of "breach of promise" caused Reinhard's discharge from the Navy (p.15). He found a new career in Himmler's SS (p.16). The SS investigated people in the Nazi party and their enemies (p.17). Reinhard was picked to organize the Security Division (p.18). His skills, talent, and ambition made his career (p.20). Reinhard hated the old imperial Germany: officer corps, bureaucracy, and churches (p.21).
   
   After Hitler was given power the SS sought to control the police, especially the political police. Each province (or state) controlled its police force (p.23). When the Enabling Act gave total power to Hitler the takeover of state governments began (p.24). The unrestrained administrative terror began, leaders of political parties and trade unions, and Jews, were put into the new detention camp at Dachau (p.25). The next victim was the SA; the German officer corps wanted them eliminated. Himmler's SS purged their rivals (p.27). The mission of the SS was the internal defense of Germany, a never-ending task (p.28). Reinhard considered Catholics as a danger (p.30). He planned to destroy the Church from within (p.31). Reinhard had a "bad reputation" among prostitutes (p.44).
   
   Chapter 3 provides an important history of Czecho-Slovakia during the late 1930s. After Munich the Czech military intelligence bureau fled to England with their secrets (Chapter 4). Their information was important to Britain and the Soviet Union. The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union meant the repudiation of the Munich pact and hope for an independent Czecho-Slovakia (Chapter 5). But there would have to be resistance and sabotage by the Czechs to aid the war effort. Political intrigue put Reinhard in charge of Bohemia-Moravia (Chapter 6). Repression followed against the resistance (p.113). Rations were increased (p.114). But Reinhard had one weakness: he avoided the usual security escort (p.117). This made him an accessible target (p.118).
   
   Heydrich organized the economy to improve war production (pp.132-133). Propaganda aimed to control thinking (p.135). Chapter 7 tells of the return of the parachutists to Czechoslovakia. The preparations and the discussions on the politics are in Chapter 8. It was almost like luck that the team was given an opportunity on May 27, 1942. The wounds of Heydrich proved fatal (Chapter 9). Reprisals were taken, the village of Lidice was razed and its population destroyed (p.187). Then an amnesty and a reward resulted in a letter that named the two men (p.189). No parachutist was taken alive (p.195). More reprisals followed, over 5,000 victims (p.199). Heydrich's death was the only good news in Europe for the Allies. Britain repudiated the Munich agreement and recognized the Benes government (p.200). Sudeten Germans would be later expelled (p.201). The Nazi leaders would face future retribution (p.203). The murder of over 50,000 Czechs halted resistance until 1944 (p.205). Their relative isolation was different from France and the countries nearer England.

5 comments about Shot At and Missed: Recollections of a World War II Bombardier.

1. Just a great book. You really felt like you were there. You feel like he could get killed at any moment. Anyone could get killed at any moment. What a great read.



2. A great book ! My father was a toggelier on a B-17 and I found
   the book to be accurate, factual, informative and exciting. The
   bombardier on a B-17 sat in the very nose of the aircraft and was
   only 24 inches from being the most forward part of the plane. Not
   even the pilot or copilot had a more frightening view of the flak
   than the bombardier. First hand accounts of these historic events are
   beoming fewer and fewer, this is a great one.



3. This book provides an excellent recollection of certain events, some in graphic detail. He provides a mature insight into his young maturity going into the war.



4. Jack Myers a bombadier/navigator with the 15th Air Force in Italy provides the reader with a unique take on the trials of an airman in WWII. His emphasis is on characterization of the many men he flew with in combat. Very different and very engrossing, including long passages on his copilot a man nicknamed the "War Lover."



5. A reasonable storeyline to this book but little 'wow' factor. Not great but not bad!

5 comments about Angel's Wing: A Year in the Skies of Vietnam.

1. Do you have any heroes? These days, it seems no one has any heroes any more. We are always so quick to judge, so at ease with tearing apart every action and every moment of another's life that we just refuse to admire anyone any more. I honestly think this is true of most people, but not me. I have plenty of heroes. My 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Donald Duncan, a retired Vietnam veteran by the name of John Power from my hometown and Joe Finch, the author of this book, are just three of them.
   I have said before and I truly do believe that the helicopter pilots of the Vietnam War either had nerves of steel or no nerves at all! How they could fly for hours at a time, when in any peace time situation they would have been grounded, I will never be able to fathom. Sure, they were a bit dare-devilish but I think it was a survival skill. In order to do unordinary things, you have to believe you can! Honestly, I think the reason most of those men climbed right back in that pilot seat time and time again sometimes flying on pure adrenalin was not their own ego at all, but for the countless lives they tried to save. I would imagine many soldiers have referred to these pilots and their ships as angels, hence the name of this book, but considering what these pilots did, I would think the angels were the ones flying next to the helicopter.
   This small book can easily be read in a long afternoon and is worth the read. It is lighthearted at times, speaking to the antics of a young pilot trying to make his way in the world and trying to survive a place and time few of us can even imagine, even with his help. His candor and plain English makes it possible for any reader to understand the tools and techniques he describes. The book is in no way graphic and yet as with other fine authors I have reviewed, it is graphic all the same. Not in its nature, but in the nature of the beast he describes. I would imagine he struggled with words to describe certain passages in the book that would explain but not horrify the reader. I don't really think that is possible. His words are far from graphic, but the time in his life that he describes is......
   This is a fine book and Joe Finch is a fine human being. He says in his book that he served his country and came home undamaged. He married, raised a family and went on to a very productive life. I guess he says this to underscore that not all soldiers develop Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Not every man or woman that came home from war became addicted to drugs or alcohol or became homeless. Many soldiers came home to function as if nothing ever happened to them at all.In his case, it sounds as if that is true. However, I will say this, something did happen to Joe Finch and two million or so other soldiers who served. I know a little something about our Joe Finch and to the contrary of his ascertion, he has been deeply affected by his service in Vietnam. Of course he has. He has a kind heart not a hardened heart of one who does not feel. He is part of a group of men and women who visit wounded soldiers at their bedside, he writes letters and sends care packages to those deployed overseas and I would venture to say that he knows the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial like the back of his heart. Of course he was affected by his service to our country, and so was I, and in no small way it is because of men like him that I am so honored to write reviews of books like this. Read this book and when you have finished, take a moment and write the author. Will you tell him that you admire him as much as I do? Will you tell him that you appreciate his sacrifices? You should.



2. I received a copy of Joes book from my daughter. My tour in Vietnam basicly overlaped Finch's. I was tthe Company Commander of a 25th Infantry Div Infanrty Company and was a frequent passanger and satisfied customers of the "Little Bears" services. Finch accuratly portrays the chopper pilot's role in Vietnam. From my prespective God bless the pilots they not only hauled us into trouble they always came back and got us out of it.



3. It was a pleasure reading Joe Finch's memoir. It was a great anthem by one who spent those years in the trenches. I was one who was fortunate to have avoided Southeast Asia in the 60's, but was a guy probably not much different than this boy who emerged an accomplished soldier and man.
   
   Angel's Wing... is a good read. You will zoom through it feeling as though you shared a substantive experience with Joe Finch.



4. I do not believe that anyone who buys this book will feel cheated. It's an interesting perspective of a helicopter pilot's life and duties in Vietnam. To Finch's credit he didn't write this as a query letter hoping to attract a Hollywood producer. Frankly, I do not know why this book was mached up with my book on my page, this is a really good book.



5. I bought this book because I served in 1967 with a 1st Aviation Brigade unit that flew in basically the same AO, but usually in support of the 1st Infantry Division. I wanted to see what he said about areas I knew.
   
   Unlike many accounts that are chronological in nature, this one covers different aspects of a helicopter pilot and A/Cs responsibilities and experiences, without an attempt to lay them out in strict chronological order. I think you'll find this book highly readable and informative by a writer who is quite self-effacing about a very action-packed tour accompanied by some significant decorations (DFC and Silver Star) mentioned only at the very close of the book. Along the way you'll learn a lot about how a helicopter is flown and why.
   
   This book will sneak up on you due to the author's quiet style.

5 comments about Miracle on 34th Street: [Facsimile Edition].

1. Doris Walker works at Macy's. She's in charge of choosing people to be in the parade, but when her Santa Claus shows up drunk she fires him and hires Kris Kringle on the spot. Kris believes he's Santa Claus, and Doris not believing in anything ignores his insistent opinion.

   Of course, Doris has her 6 year old daughter Susan thinking there's no Santa Claus either, and Kris makes sure he changes the little girls mind. But trouble begins when he is admitted to Bellevue, a mental institution, and now with the help of his friend Fred, he must try to get out or Christmas will be ruined for everyone. Especially little Susan.

   This book is truly wonderful, and it shows that if you just believe anything is possible.




2. I read the book Miracle on 34th Street by, Valentine Davies'. It was a fabulous Christmas fiction book. The main message or theme that I got from the book was anything's possible-you just have to believe.
   Doris Walker is in charge of running the Macy's Day Parade, which takes place on Thanksgiving Day. When her Santa Clause slacks off last minute she finds Kris Kringle and hires him to do the job. Kris does an amazing job. The only bothersome thing is he really and truly believes that he is Kris Kringle-Santa Clause. Doris doesn't believe him, and thinks he might be insane. Along with Doris not believing in Santa Clause, nor does her 6 year old daughter Susan. Kris however wants to change that, he wants to make them believe..he believes Christmas is all about believing. Doris and her boss think Mr. Kringle is insane so they send him to a mental institution. Mr. Kringle then worries-what is going to happen with Christmas? How could he disappoint millions of kids all over the world? He some how has to find a way to save Christmas!
   I loved the book. I read it around Christmas which seemed to make the book even better. It was a memorable book that I will remember constantly throughout the holiday season. It was so good I might read it every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It would be nice to have a tradition like that.
   This book didn't really relate to my Christmas Holiday Season. As a child I always believed in Santa unlike Susan did. My parents encouraged the belief of Christmas and Santa Clause until my brother and I started questioning and figuring things out. Still till this day I believe Christmas was always better when I was young and believed. It made the Holiday Season seem so magical.
   Read Miracle on 34th Street to see if Susan's Christmas was magical!



3. I read the book Miracle on 34th Street by, Valentine Daviesý. It was a fabulous Christmas fiction book. The main message or theme that I got from the book was anythingýs possible-you just have to believe.
   Doris Walker is in charge of running the Macyýs Day Parade, which takes place on Thanksgiving Day. When her Santa Clause slacks off last minute she finds Kris Kringle and hires him to do the job. Kris does an amazing job. The only bothersome thing is he really and truly believes that he is Kris Kringle-Santa Clause. Doris doesnýt believe him, and thinks he might be insane. Along with Doris not believing in Santa Clause, nor does her 6 year old daughter Susan. Kris however wants to change that, he wants to make them believe..he believes Christmas is all about believing. Doris and her boss think Mr. Kringle is insane so they send him to a mental institution. Mr. Kringle then worries-what is going to happen with Christmas? How could he disappoint millions of kids all over the world? He some how has to find a way to save Christmas!
   I loved the book. I read it around Christmas which seemed to make the book even better. It was a memorable book that I will remember constantly throughout the holiday season. It was so good I might read it every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It would be nice to have a tradition like that.
   This book didnýt really relate to my Christmas Holiday Season. As a child I always believed in Santa unlike Susan did. My parents encouraged the belief of Christmas and Santa Clause until my brother and I started questioning and figuring things out. Still till this day I believe Christmas was always better when I was young and believed. It made the Holiday Season seem so magical.
   Read Miracle on 34th Street to see if Susanýs Christmas was magical!



4. Wow! I love this book... and even now as 18 I still read this book to get me into that "Christmas spirit" I so desperately want to be in... I read this book every year it's one of my regulars on my holiday reading list.
   
   Valentine Davies weaves such an impressive story that it will make the most skeptical child believe and it will make us that no longer can- wish we could. This is simply the perfect holiday story- one a parent could read to a child before they go to sleep or a story that a moderate second grade reader could read on their own without any difficulty...
   
   I love reading this more than I do watching the classic version of the movie for Valentine Davies makes this book more magical than the movie could ever hope to be. All in all if you want to buy a book for the holidays- for someone on your shopping list this is definately one to buy! Or even own for yourself!



5. I bought this book because someone here reviewed it as "Better then the movie" Well it is exactly the same except for an extra line once every 20 pages or so.But is is a great book.

5 comments about Kill Me If You Can, You SOB.

1. This pilot supported the Currahees with the best he had to give and has put the same into ths book. Agree with him or not, he tells it like it was and I'd be proud to ride with him anytime anywhere. I was there, too and he didn't skimp a bit on Blackhawk. My only disappointment was when it ended so fast.



2. The more I read of Miller's work, the more I like it. Like HST, Miller is a born curmudgeon, cynic, and rebel. I cracked up when his commander described him as "he'll never make general but he'll get you there and back." No grunt ever had a truer, more unconditional friend.
   
   This memoir hit particularly close to home for me as it detailed the author's experiences as a warrant officer chopper pilot in Phan Thiet, Vietnam from May '68 to May '69. I graduated flight school in Jan '69 but ended up in Korea. This account showed me a lot of what I missed. Miller shared several photos of the Vietnam chopper pilot experience in his book. You can see more if you Google "192nd Assault Helicopter Company". I also recommend Googling "View the Wall" and searching for Arann and Thoman, Miller's comrades in the 192nd--a very moving experience.
   
   Our country owes the Vietnam vet more than it can ever repay. In my estimate, the greatest of them are the ones who rejected the party line but showed up for duty anyway. A tip of the hat to Bob Miller.
   
   --Ejner Fulsang, author of "A Knavish Piece of Work" Aarhus Publishing 2006



3. Kill Me If You Can, You SOB
   The book was OK, But as a former Helicopter pilot in Vietnam (twice), I salute his service and dedication to duty, but he saw the war from a very narrow perspective and his criticisms seemed to me to reflect his youth and, therefore, showed a bit of tunnel vision.



4. Wow! A book written by a battlefield-harden GI about war without a trainload of vulgar language. The bonus in this book was that the author found real life characters worth remembering. This is a lucid and compelling work about three very special Americans. I would describe this as an accidentally funny book. Not once did I feel this author was trying to be funny; but without trying, he's a cross between Will Rogers and Mark Twain. For example: "Deplaned and were loaded onto a bus with heavy-gauge wire mesh covering the windows. The driver had a pistol, an M-16, and an M79 grenade launcher. It was kind of like getting on a city bus in LA."



5. The book I received was only 79 pages long. The amount of reading material was further diminished by numerous photos and the generous use of margins and spaces. It may have been more appropriate for Reader's Digest. The short diary format was awkward for reading.

4 comments about Wellington: The Iron Duke.

1. The book aims to be realistic - the fog of
   war is foggy indeed, and Wellington sometimes makes mistakes. The
   casualties at Waterloo are appalling, and the battle almost lost.
   Lt.-Col. Trant of "Sharpe's Rangers" fame actually appears, an excellent soldier but "the most drunken dog there ever was" in Wellington's words.

   Unusual is the emphasis on Wellington's Indian campaign and on the
   Peninsular War - the period of Sharpe's Rangers is the most important in
   the book. The Battle of Waterloo is treated as somewhat of an
   afterthought, as I suppose it was (if Nap had won it would have been a
   very different matter, of course). There are a number of good plates,
   including a daguerrotype of the Iron Duke himself in his mid-70s, looking
   buth shrewd and oddly sympathetic.




2. This is one of those books that once you take it up, you can't put it down!

   Its balanced treatment of Wellington the man, the military man and the politican, has meant that this is not just a book about Waterloo.

   One is left with the impression that Wellington was a great man, with equal weight given to his 'greatness' and his 'humanness'.

   Very readable and highly recommended.




3. Richard Holmes's "Wellington - The Iron Duke" is a well-written survey of the active life of the First Duke of Wellington. In just 300 pages, Holmes presents a balanced, even nuanced view of a man who was both the quintessential military professional and a complex human being. Through Holmes' efficient prose, we see Wellington as an extradinarily dedicated soldier who mastered his profession in ways few of his contemporaries did, yet who sometimes paid a price on campaign for his insistence on micromanaging his armies. Wellington comes across as a remarkably honest and duty-bound public servant; as a young man, he was also relentlessly ambitious, and as an older man, sensitive about his military reputation.
   
   Holmes provides some useful insights. He suggests that exhaustion and strain were responsible for Wellington's uncharacteristically poor performance at the Siege of Burgos in 1812. Holmes examines the academic dispute over Wellington's relationship with the Prussians during the Waterloo Campaign; he tellingly notes Wellington's responsibilities to his alliance partners and to the British Government and finds that he served both. Holmes acknowledges Wellington's extramaritial activities but resists the urge to obsess over them or to indulge in psycological speculation.
   
   Serious students of the Duke and of the Napoleonic Wars will find no new scholarship here; indeed, Holmes readily acknowledges his debt to earlier works such as Elizabeth Longford's exceptional biography and Jac Weller's battlefield narrative trilogy. Holmes has provided an accessible biography for the general reader, supported by well-chosen quotes from the Duke' contemporaries and by a nice selection of illustrations.
   
   This book is highly recommended to the general reader with an interest in the man and the era.



4. Richard Holmes is an eminent historian and a splendid TV presenter but, though I found his study of the great Duke of Wellington an enjoyable biography that I couldn't put down until it was finished, I also found myself being irritated on too many of the 303 pages (hardback edition) by mis-spellings and stylistic and punctuation inconsistencies. An example of the latter was the mixed and varying use of inverted commas (quote marks). My own preference is for the end of a phrase or a sentence to appear thus: '................... end,' or '..................... end.' Too often the style was thus '........................ end', or '........................... end'. Mr Holmes ought to have made up his mind which way his work was to appear or his editor ought to have been sacked!
   
   Another niggle was that the Duke's Hampshire home was named only once as 'Strathfieldsaye,' with '[sic]' to follow. Mr Holmes should have been aware that that was the original spelling and that 'Stratfield Saye' is the more modern name of the house and estate.
   
   I mustn't criticise too much, however, because I learned a lot from a very good book and I recommend it to other lovers of our British history and other admirers of one of the greatest and most courageous Britons ever to have been born.