Book Reviews

Title: Elite Warriors: 300 Years of America's Best Fighting Troops
Author: Lance Q. Cedric & Michael F. Dilley
Genre: History
Reviewer: Robert Schaeffer

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0934793603

Chronicling America’s elite units from the late 17th century to the present day, this gives an informative and interesting examination of the men who comprised the U.S. military elite.

Title: The First Casualty - A Vietnam Memoir
Author: Karl Orndorff
Genre: History
Reviewer: Joe Epley

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1479157600

Beyond the media hype and far removed from the gung ho warriors searching for fame written in enemy blood, lie the realities of life for the average military individual during the Vietnam War. Just beyond that dwell the stories of a few persons whose bizarre war experiences reached far outside the norms of average military personnel. The life of any soldier during war time comprises the extremes of boredom punctuated by split second decisions that could make the difference between life and death. Heaven and Hell, love and hate, murder, illicit drugs, hunger, rescue, association with the enemy, falsification of official records and cultural gaps that dwarfed the depth and breadth of the Grand Canyon comprised the experiences documented herein. The unimaginable determination of a Communist enemy waging an ambiguous war without a front was the foundation of an interesting series of events that are accurately portrayed here, just as they played out during the war. By luck, fate, destiny or blessing, one incredibly unlikely end result was the author’s survival. With brutal honesty (but a lack of the colorful language that was a normal part of military vocabulary,) this book tells the story of a United States Marine assigned to 7th Separate Bulk Fuel Company in Vietnam, from 1967-1969. Danang, Hoi An, An Hoa, Hill Ten, Liberty Bridge and remote villages, rice paddies and bamboo thickets in between, were the settings. The cast was huge. Vietcong, NVA, The Tiger Division of the Korean Marine Corps, a few Australians, various unnamed F4 Phantom pilots, PFC Darryl Jensen and the author are the primary characters. Forty years would pass before a pen was grasped to write these accounts that at one time were desperately wished forgotten. The events in this work are documented as the author experienced them. Each event is recalled as clearly as if the four decades were four days. Every unconventional account is verifiable.

Title: Pretty Much True
Author: Kristen Tsetsi
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982782268

"I smell yoru shirt sometimes, but not foten," Mia writes, those slurred keyboard strokes the only connection to her deployed boyfriend, whom she sees everywhere and nowhere in their small military town. A former English professor, Mia passes the time working as a cab driver, mulling over the intricacies of her encounters with others who are affected by the war: her dramatic future mother in-law, who eats bad news for breakfast; a charismatic alcoholic who may have been a medic in Vietnam; a pragmatic but secretive longtime Army wife; and a soldier who found a way to stay home. Pretty Much True... is the war story that's seldom told-the loss and love in every hour of deployment, and a painfully intimate portrait of lives spent waiting in the spaces between.

Title: The Rule of Ranging 1: Eclipse of the Midnight Sun (Volume 1)
Author: Timothy M. Kestrel
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Dick Geschke

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0615730086

Even those waging the fiercest battles just hew to hard fast rules that separate the soldier from the savage. And when a man’s home is destroyed beyond restoration, it’s up to him alone to forge a code and carve a new place to live in peace. The Rule of Ranging 1: Eclipse of the Midnight Sun is the epic action-adventure drama by Timothy M. Kestrel that follows the fearless Finn on a journey paved with bloodthirsty aggressors, mysterious women, and the rough terrain of a fledgling America. Both grave and uplifting, it’s an absorbing flight of fancy and derring-do. Set in the eighteen century, Kestrel’s story is a work of historic fiction that relives the most perilous days of the French & Indian War. The story begins in Finland, just as a young boy named Finn witnesses the complete annihilation of his home village, as well as the brutal killing of his family by marauding Russians. He barely manages to escape, chased by a merciless Hessian mercenary, Johan Kopf, nicknamed Totenkopf. Following his dying mother's wish to find a mysterious woman named Columbia, Finn's course takes him across the Atlantic. He befriends a slave, Gus, and buys his freedom. On their travels in this brave new world called America, the two make their way through the majestic Hudson Valley in New York, and soon encounter Marcus Fronto, a curious vagrant and philosophical mentor; Daniel Nimham, a fierce Wappinger chief and warrior; and beautiful Catherina Brett. They join forces with Robert Rogers Rangers, and fight against the French at Fort Edward, New York, during the Hudson River campaign in the 1750s. Action-packed and rigorously researched, the story offers a rare vantage of a crucial time in this country’s coming of age that is at once funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, and thrilling. Mining the depths of love, freedom, greed, and loyalty, it’s a page-turning, heart-pounding read that is at once scholarly and scintillating – steeped in history with a death-defying hero for the ages.

Title: Pass The Salt Doc
Authors: Mike Mullins and Jim Greenwald
Genre: Poetry
Reviewer: Joyce M. Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1630005959

This collection of poetry is about after. After the war, its focus is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), a serious issue among returning Veterans from all wars. Not easily recognized or readily identified. It does not have a set pattern that can be written down and checked off for all, as PTSD has many faces. This book is dedicated to all Veterans, past, present and future. For it is the Veteran we owe everything to, and taking care of each one is a national responsibility. The arts can and do work wonders for those suffering from PTSD and we would suggest that writing poetry is the strongest drug available to each of you and requires no prescription. Writing provides the externalization necessary to overcome traumatic events/experiences. No poetry you write is wrong or right it is simply necessary on the path of recovery. We are not therapists or professionals in this field and do not pretend to have magic cures. We will state that no professional can "cure" you without your coming to grips from within yourself with the issue and using that ability which we all possess to help ourselves. Writing allows the individual to place on paper emotions they find difficult to vocalize. It is this written expression that can bring about the change needed if "cure" is the desired destination.