Inspirational

Title: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Vietnam War
Author: Larkin Spivey
Genre: Spiritual/Religious
Reviewer: Fran McGraw

IISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0899570194

In a new collection of true stories from the Vietnam War, Larkin Spivey reveals the violence and danger faced by a generation of young Americans that answered their Nation's call and rose to the challenge.

Many stories show the power of faith under the stress of combat and separation from loved ones, while others show the complex spiritual journey of men forced to confront the dark side of human nature for the first time.
Ultimately, the power of God to redeem every human life and event shines forth in this amazing collection.

Title: That Time, That Place, That War
Author: Margaret Brown
Genre: History
Reviewer: Marcia Sargent

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B0060LXHH6

THAT TIME, THAT PLACE, THAT WAR by Margaret Brown is a book for every American's bookshelf, a book that reveals the Vietnam War, not as a war book or a political book--though it addresses both evenhandedly--but as a human book: a book of human life during war shown by those who fought. The author shares the code of Vietnam using the grunts' words, photos and poetry. Her hope is that her book "unlocks the door that separates the soldiers who went to war from those who love them and from those who want to learn about history."

Title: Don Jose, An American Soldier's Courage and Faith in Japanese Captivity
Author: Ezequiel L. Ortiz and James A. McClure
Genre: Non-Fiction Biography
Reviewer: Barbara Peacock

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 086534857X

In 1941 the Japanese invaded the Philippines with overwhelming force and forced the surrender of American troops at Bataan and Corregidor. Prisoners of war were subjected to brutal captivity and thousands did not survive. This is the story of an American soldier who survived and became a hero. When American troops liberated the Niigata POW camp after the Japanese surrender, Corporal Joseph O. Quintero greeted them with a homemade American flag that had been sewn together in secrecy. The son of Mexican immigrants, Joseph Quintero grew up in a converted railroad caboose in Fort Worth, Texas, and joined the Army to get $21 a month and three meals a day. He manned a machine gun in the defense of Corregidor before his unit was captured by the Japanese. When prisoners of war were transported to Japan, Joseph survived a razor-blade appendectomy on the ''hell ship'' voyage. In the prison camp he cared for his fellow prisoners as a medic and came to be known as Don Jose. Joseph's narrative is an enlisted man's view of the war with first-hand descriptions of conditions in the POW camps and personal glimpses of what he and his buddies did, endured and talked about. The authors have drawn on other histories and official documents to put his story into perspective and focus on a little-known chapter of World War II.