No comments about My Life in the Old Army: The Reminiscences of Abner Doubleday from the Collections of the New-York Historical Society.

No comments about Frittered Away and Soon Forgotten.

5 comments about My Life In The Sandbox: A compilation of letters home written during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

1. I would first like to say that I proudly to serve with the authors son. Ive had the privalege of having everyday conversations about the war and his mothers experiences before i even knew about the book. The main thing is to stress how thankful i am to have a dedicated soldier protecting our freedoms. Thirty years in the service that should be respected by everyone. Thank you B.G. Chambers
   About the book it speaks for itself [self explainatory]



2. This book transported me to the daily missions and life SFC Chambers and the 478th TC had to endure. I should had been there, but health issues kept me back. I had the honor to serve under the Leadership of this great NCO. She was, is and will continue to be a HERO. Her leadership and experience was a great asset to the 478 TC, U.S Army and this Great Nation of ours.



3. How dare you Chambers try to profit off Iraq. The worst soldier in the theater. A SFC who pretended to be sick or hurt almost everyday. A SFC who couldnt make decision and made every mission she was on take hours longer than without her. A SFC female who wouldnt take showers in the middle of summer and had to be ordered to. Last and certantly not least we have a Iraq veteran who claimed she was attacked in the motorpool on guard duty to get out of a P.T. test with a female SGM. I would have fought and died next to any member of that company, except SFC Chambers, who would have been sick that day im sure. Ill bet none of the truth ended up in that book. Want to know the truth ask any member of the 478, ANY OTHER MEMBER!



4. I CANT BELIEVE HOW EASY PEOPLE ARE MANIPULATED BY A PERSON WHO CLAIMS TO BE A SOLDIER. BY ALL MILITARY STANDARDS AND MORALS MAMA MAD HOG IS IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM A SOLDIER. IN FACT SHE PROBABLY WROTE THE BOOK DURING HER EXTENDED STAY IN IRAQ, WHILE THE REST OF HER UNIT WENT HOME. ASK HER WHY SHE HAD TO STAY. OH IM SORRY DID NO ONE GET THE DELETED SCENES. HERE LET ME FILL YOU IN IN CASE YOU MISSED OUT, THE E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY. THIS LADY WAS HATED BY ALL THE TROOPS IN HERE UNIT, SHE COULDNT PT, SHE COULDNT SHOOT, SHE MADE UP STORIES OF HOW OTHER SOLDIERS WERE TRYING TO RAPE HER (NOW IF YOU SAW HER YOU WOULD ASK YOURSELF WHO WOULD WANT TO RAPE THAT) SHE ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS ALMOST GOT TROOPS UNDER HER KILLED, WELL I CANT GIVE HER ALL THE CREDIT, SHE & ANOTHER GUY JUST AS INCOMPETENT. WHAT DO YOU DO TO GET OUT OF REAL SOLDIER TYPE WOK? WELL IF YOUR SFC(STUPID FIRST CLASS) CHAMBERS YOU TRIP MIRACULOSLY OVER A SINGLE SAND BAG IN AN OCEAN OF SAND. OR YOU COULD PRETEND TO PASS OUT IN THE PASSANGER SEAT OF A PLS. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR HUMMVEE SEAT BELT DOESNT FIT? YOU DONT WEAR IT BECAUSE YOUR SO OVER WEIGHT. I REALLY CANT BELIEVE THAT SUCH A MILITARY DISSAPOINT MENT SUCH AS HER IS TRYING TO MAKE A PROFIT OFF THE HARD WORK AND SACRAFICES OF OTHERS. THIS IS A NICE COMPILATION OF LIES ARRANGED IN CRONOLOGICAL ORDER. DONT BUY IT OR YOUR CONTRIBUTING TO THE SPREAD OF LIES. THIS COMPANY MINUS HER THE C.O. THE 1ST SGT AND A FEW MORE(YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) ENDURED SOME HARD TIMES AND COMPLETED MANY UNBELIEVEABLE MISSIONS, BUT IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH YOU WONT FIND IT HERE. IM RICK JAMES B___H!



5. Your driving a 68ft truck with 30 tons of cargo through a hostile fire zone. Youve been driving for hours and hours cause you cant shoot your weapon, heck you barely lift it. Theres oncoming traffic but your so tired you can barely control the truck. You swerve into trafic and your mirror explodes what do you do. If your SFC Chamber you make up a lie and you just keep driving. Like the time you drove through the army ten miler cause you wouldnt listen to anyone, or all the times you damaged vehicles, cause like shooting you couldnt drive either. Isnt that right drill seargent, oh werent you stripped of that to cause you LIE!

No comments about Ben Milam: Texas Freedom Fighter.

No comments about The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell: A Chaplain's Story.

1 comments about Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard (Library of Naval Biography).

1. Anyone interested in Coast Guard History... or it's new Department should take a day or so to read this book. It excellently reviews the career of the first Commandant from his childhood & midshipman days (that's right, he was in the Navy first), to his days as an arctic hero... the author does a great job telling a compelling story. I suspect some research was difficult, as the Commodore probably did not keep detailed notes, nor publish an autobiography (He died shortly after retiring as Commandant.)

   Bottom Line: Buy it. Read it. Enjoy it.

4 comments about Captain Sam Grant/1822-1861 (Classic Biography of Ulysses S. Grant, Vol. 1).

1. It's a great pity in Grant scholarship that the author of this book, Lloyd Lewis, died prematurely and was not able to continue his trilogy of Grant. Though the able Bruce Catton continued the project, he was never the writer or researcher that was Lloyd Lewis. This book is a remarkably accurate and clear portrayal of Ulysses Grant as a young man. The book ends on the eve of the Civil War, when Grant was stuck in his father's leather shop, bored and aching for something meaningful to do with his life. At 39, the civil war found Grant (or Grant found the war, take your pick) and history was never the same.

   Lewis was known for his punctilious and dilligent research and it is a pleasure to read a book devoid of errors and rich in interpretation. He illuminates Grant as he *really* was: a decent, engaging, modest and clear-headed young man, destined for greatness but not quite knowing what to do with his considerable talents. This is one of the most outstanding Grant biographies and a must-read for anyone interested in the life and times of our greatest general.




2. As a student of Spanish American History, I wonder why this book was not assigned reading when I was in college. The first part deals with family and youth of a precocious lad whose father saw in the Military Academy the Chance for a free education for his son. Grant was a most capable horseman whose ability was appreciated. His first military assignments in the northwest were less than appealing to a man in love, and far from home. His reputation as a drinker began at this time. He was a virtual failure at whatever he attempted to do except crossing the Isthmus of Panama. And he proved his mettle during the Mexican American War along with other familiar West Point cadets who would subsequently become famous leaders on both sides of the Civil War and, later, wars of Indian reduction in the west. In Volume One, the boy becomes a man and soldier. But its greatest greatest contribution is its telling of the Mexican American War and the attitute of those who fought it.



3. "Captain Sam Grant" must rank with William McFeely's "Grant" and Brooks Simpson's "Triumph Over Adversity" as the most overrated USG biographies ever written. This look at Grant's pre-Civil War years simply is not as accurate and reliable as some previous reviewers would have us believe. Lewis frequently makes assertions without providing adequate evidence for these statements, and he occasionally cites dubious or discredited sources. The book, in many places, reads more like an speculative historical novel than a serious academic study. Also, in my opinion, Lewis spends way too much time on the Mexican war.

   That said, it is not without virtues. It is engaging and, in its folksy way, well written. Lewis' portrait of Grant's quietly complicated character generally rings true. The book is an enjoyable read, as long as the reader does not expect too much.




4. Lloyd Lewis's "Captain Sam Grant" is a well-written study of the young Ulysses S. Grant, from his boyhood in Ohio through his years at West Point to his service in the Mexican War and his hard times in the interwar years.
   
   U.S. Grant continues to be something of a mystery to students of the Civil War. Lewis's biography reveals a person who seems very ordinary and even unpromising in many respects; there are only a few hints of the man who would be the victorious commander of the Union armies in the Civil War. As a boy, Grant seems diffident and naive; the West Point cadet is average and unremarkable in his class rank; as a young officer, Grant performs with determination and even bravery against Mexico but dislikes the basis of the conflict. Posted to Calfornia after the Mexican War, Grant struggles with alcoholism and resigns from the Army in near disgrace. After the Army, Sam Grant wanders from business failure to business failure; his only obvious success is his marriage to Julia Dent. At the end of this volume, Grant seizes a chance for redemption by returning to uniform as the Civil War breaks out. The stage is set for his appointment with destiny as a successful Union general.
   
   After Lewis's untimely death, the two succeeding volumes of this study of Grant were written by famed Civil War historian Bruce Cattan from Lewis's notes and research. Lewis never had the chance to fully summarize his research into the growth of Grant's character. One may infer from this first volume that Grant was a man whose hard life had stripped his thinking down to the essentials and who was less likely than most to be distracted from his purpose. By 1861, Grant was very likely a man who understand that the best way to deal with hard times was with determination and relentless forward movement.
   
   The scholarship behind "Captain Sam Grant" may be a little dated, but this book is still highly recommended to the student of the life of Ulysses Grant and of the Civil War.

No comments about Master of Airpower: General Carl A. Spaatz.

No comments about Tragedy To Triumph Lessons Of Recovery And Hope.

No comments about He, Too, Spoke for Democracy: Judge Hastie, World War II, and the Black Soldier (Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies).