The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945
Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 451 pp. Illus. Bib. Index. $50.
This printed companion to the recent PBS television series of the same name by Ken Burns focuses on more than 40 men and women from Minnesota, California, Connecticut, and Alabama. Gathered largely from their memories, the conflict is tracked from start to finish, reflecting the views of those who fought the battles and lent support at home.
After Burns' epic series on the Civil War, he decided against further coverage of warfare and its attendant horrors. Later, however, after learning that 1,000 American veterans of World War II were dying every day, he decided that if we "neglected to hear them out before they passed away, we would be guilty of a historical amnesia too irresponsible to countenance."
All major wartime events are related from the perspectives of ordinary Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. In addition, there are narratives about prisoners of war, Japanese-American internees, defense workers, and families who struggled to stay together while their men were off to war.
Army Corporal Glenn Frazier, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, recalls Japanese captors who beat prisoners at will. "Some of us had rings so they just cut the fingers off. And took the rings." At Guadalcanal, Marine Private Sid Phillips remembers that the typical Marine "ran a fever, wore stinking dungarees, loathed twilight, and wondered whether the U.S. Navy still existed." Seventeen-year-old Emma Petcher worked at an aircraft factory for $90 a month. "I was to inspect the torque in the screws in the wings and crawl up in there with flashlights."
The War is a masterful compilation of personal experiences from a war that cost us more than 405,000 lives. The photos alone—some quite shocking—are worth the price of the book.
150 Best Jobs Through Military Training
The Editors at JIST and Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D. Indianapolis, IN: JIST Publishing, Inc., 2008. 402 pp. Appen. Index. $19.95.
As announced by the publisher, this "Big Book" will help military personnel translate their skills into jobs that civilian employers are anxious to fill. At the same time, it offers tips on how to navigate the recruiting process and improve chances of getting the desired position.
Part I presents overviews of military training: answers about the G.I. Bill, college credit for military service, and how military training can carry over to civilian work. Not least, it has a short section on what to do in the military to achieve the greatest benefit in a civilian career.
Part II identifies officer and enlisted billets that prepare service members for the 150 "best" civilian jobs. The categories comprise such areas as administrative support specialists, aircraft pilots, computer systems specialists, fire fighters, medical lab technicians, and ship electricians.
Part III displays 150 civilian jobs available through military training in terms of annual earnings and other factors. It also boils the number down to 50 for some situations, breaks them down by gender, and points out civilian jobs for military personnel based on personality traits.
Finally, Part IV furnishes details on various civilian pursuits that military people should consider.
This book is a practical and informative guide for people who are entering, as well as those leaving, our armed forces.
The 2007 Annual Register: World Events
D. S. Lewis and Wendy Slater, Editors. Bethesda, MD: ProQuest (CSA) Journal Division, 2007. 661 pp. Illus. Index. $233.
The latest edition in the series founded by Edmund Burke in 1758 gathered 86 international affairs specialists from major research centers to analyze key 2006 events and developments from around the world. It features quick reference data on 209 countries with expanded coverage on Brazil, China, the Middle East, and the United States.
Among 2006 events recounted are the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, the Democratic Party's victory in the U.S. mid-term elections, the Iraq Study Group recommendations, Iran's successful enrichment of uranium, the military coup in Thailand, Muslim protests against Danish cartoons of Mohammed, concerns over impending climate change, and the execution of Saddam Hussein.
"Extracts from Past Volumes" will warm the hearts of general readers. In 1781, there was an account of Lord Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, "which may be considered as the closing scene of the whole continental war in America." In 1856, the question of slavery in the United States was discussed. "Between the Northern and the Southern States there is on this subject an irreconcilable difference of opinion." And in 1981, "The Rolling Stones, with a reformed, middle-aged Mick Jagger, presented themselves to a new generation of teenagers."
"Obituary" presents interesting notes on figures who died in 2006, from American film director Robert Altman, to British author Dame Muriel Spark (author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), to former U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
While this book has political undertones, nonetheless, it is an interesting source founded by the philosophical father of modern conservatism.
John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power
John Andreas Olsen. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, Inc., 2007. 349 pp. Illus. Appen. Notes. Index. $32.95.
Here, a perceptive Royal Norwegian Air Force officer assesses retired U.S. Air Force Colonel John A. Warden III's contributions to the concept of air power.
Colonel Warden became a key figure during planning and execution of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when he established himself as a brilliant and highly controversial air warfare theorist. At the same time, there is little doubt that his radical approach to Air Force policy stymied his career advancement.
After briefly relating Warden's family background and Air Force Academy years, the author moves quickly to his early service as an F-4 Phantom back seater in South Korea and 266 combat missions as an OV-10 Bronco pilot in the Vietnam War. Later, in Spain, Captain Warden surely signaled a wave of the future. He sent a memorandum to his superiors stating that NATO and the Warsaw Pact "were obsessed with close air support. . . at the expense of the more important objective—gaining and maintaining air superiority."
Subsequent chapters tell of Warden's work at the National War College on The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat, duty as an F-15 wing commander, and high-level assignments on the Air Staff and as aide to Vice President Dan Quayle. The two appendices summarize alternative air campaigns offered for Operation Desert Storm.
Marine aviators are advised to read this book. While apt to grind teeth over Warden's disregard of close air support, they can still admire his single-minded devotion to his cause—the same kind of intellectual fire that fostered development of amphibious warfare at Quantico during the 1930s.