Army

Title: Twenty-One Steps of Courage
Author: Sarah Bates
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Margaret Brown

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1614349576

In 2006, with wars in the Middle East raging, Rod Strong enlists in the Army to seek the goal his father did not achieve when he tragically died in the Gulf War. His objective: The Old Guard regiment, the elite Soldiers who stand as Sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown in Arlington Cemetery. He overcomes the setbacks that litter his path until an unexpected firefight in Afghanistan changes his life forever.

Title: DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle
Author: Doug Bradley
Genre: Short Story Collection
Reviewer: Jim Greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0985338814

DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle presents a unique, fictional montage of the war, and postwar, experiences of Vietnam support troops. Structurally based on Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, DEROS Vietnam (the acronym stands for Date Eligible for Return from Over Seas) is a riveting collection of 16 short stories and 16 interlinears about the GIs who battled boredom, racial tensions, the military brass, drugs, alcohol—and occasionally the enemy. From cooks and correspondents to clerks and comptrollers, DEROS Vietnam distills the essence of life for soldiers in the rear during the war and, later, back home in a divided America. Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley, a former Army journalist who served in the air-conditioned jungle at U. S. Army Headquarters near Saigon in 1970-71, tells these compelling stories with wit, intensity, and empathy. In doing so, he provides a gateway to a Vietnam experience that has been largely ignored and whose reverberations still echo across America.

Title: Proof of Our Resolve
Author: Chris Hernandez
Genre: Fiction/Thriller
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B0099XMR1E

"Proof of Our Resolve" is a novel about a Texas Army National Guard infantry platoon deployed to Afghanistan. This books attempts to convey some of the experiences of soldiers serving in Afghanistan through a fictional platform. The characters are representative of and much like the Soldiers and Marines one would find in a combat unit. The story's environment and tactical operations are as close to real as possible.

Title: My True Course: Dutch Van Kirk Northumberland to Hiroshima
Author: Suzanne Simon Dietz
Genre: Biography
Reviewer: Charlene Rubush

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0692016767

He looked like the boy next door, a Depression-era kid. The now ninety-year-old gentleman with a remarkable memory and a sharp wit became in 2011 the only living crewman from the Silverplate Boeing B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945.

A debate continued for more than half a century with his former commanding officer, Paul Tibbets, until his death about how Dutch Van Kirk came to navigate the Enola Gay from Tinian to Hiroshima. The answer is part of Dutch's biographical chronicle.

The navigator of the Enola Gay's biography is an authentic "greatest generation" story told through his unedited letters to and from home, Van Kirk's vignettes from his Army Air Corps training through Europe, Africa, and the Pacific to the first atomic strike in history.

Title: A Thousand Letters Home
Author: Teresa K. Irish
Genre: History
Reviewer: Bob Doerr

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 098395531X

After the death of her father, Aarol W. Bud Irish, in 2006, Teresa Irish opened the Army trunk that had resided in the family home her entire life. There, nestled in row after row, were her Dads nearly 1,000 handwritten letters from WWII. Visited only by him over the course of six decades, the letters were postmarked from November 1942 to December 1945. The fragile and yellowed pages were written to Buds parents and to the sweetheart who would become his wife, Elaine Corbat. From lonesome, moonlit nights listening to the Hit Parade, to the foxholes and front lines in Germany where Bud would receive the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and two Bronze Stars, to correspondence with the heartbroken mothers whose sons died by his side, this is a moving and historic story of life and loss, hope and perseverance, unwavering faith, and true love. This firsthand account through the eyes, heart, and words of one soldier mirrors the journeys of many who served in WWII - millions of young Americans abruptly pulled from civilian life and thrust into the unfamiliar world of a military at war. At every opportunity, Bud poured out his thoughts and feelings in these letters, all amidst reassuring words to loved ones a world away. The transition from boy to man is apparent in the passing of the weeks, months and years. A selection of these poignant letters and accompanying photographs are contained in the newly published, A Thousand Letters Home. This book is for the children, grandchildren and future descendants of all veterans. This book is for all Americans lest we forget.