Non-Fiction

Title: Women in the United States Armed Forces: A Guide to the Issues (Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues)
Author: Darlene Iskra
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
Reviewer: Paul Decker

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0313374953

Women in the United States Armed Forces: A Guide to the Issues covers over a century of accomplishments of military women, from the Civil War to the current wars in the Middle East. Readers will learn, for example, that during World War II, 565 women in the Women’s Army Corps stationed in the Pacific theater received combat decorations, proving that women had the courage, strength, and stamina to perform in a combat environment. They will also learn that, perhaps surprisingly, it wasn’t until the mid- to late 1970s that women had their first opportunities to serve at sea and as aviators (crew as well as pilots), albeit on noncombatant ships and aircraft. The book’s final four chapters discuss the issues that continue to plague women in the military, including sexual harassment, noting that women’s performance in America’s two-front wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made a positive difference in attitudes. The handbook closes with an epilogue that is at once a summary of the issues and a call for action.

Title: Grey Eminence: Fox Conner and the Art of Mentorship
Author: Edward Cox
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
Reviewer: Joyce Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1581072031

To those who have heard of him, Fox Conner's name is synonymous with mentorship. He is the "grey eminence" within the Army whose influence helped to shape the careers of George Patton, George Marshall, and, most notably, President Eisenhower. What little is known about Conner comes primarily through stories about his relationship with Eisenhower, but little is known about Fox Conner himself. After a career that spanned four decades, this master strategist ordered all of his papers and journals burned. Because of this, most of what is known about Conner is oblique, as a passing reference in the memoirs of other great men. This book combines existing scholarship with long-forgotten references and unpublished original sources to achieve a more comprehensive picture of this dedicated public servant. The portrait that emerges provides a four-step model for developing strategic leaders that still holds true today. First and foremost, Conner was a master of his craft. Secondly, he recognized and recruited talented subordinates. Then he encouraged and challenged these protégés to develop their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. Finally he wasn't afraid to break the rules of the organization to do it. Here, for the first time ever, is the story of Major General Fox Conner.

Title: Beyond All Price
Author: Carolyn Poling Schriber
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
Reviewer: John R. R. Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982774508

Beyond All Price is a historical novel, based on the life story of Nellie M. Chase, a Union nurse during America's Civil War. She was strong enough to escape from an abusive relationship and resourceful enough to find a job as wardrobe mistress for a theater. The actress with whom she shared a room in a squalid tenement took an overdose of opium in an effort to escape a life of prostitution. Nellie joined the Union Army, because life in the midst of a war seemed safer than the one she had been living. She found a home with the 100th Pennsylvania Regiment, known as "The Roundheads" because of their religious beliefs. Her skill and compassion led one of her patients to write, "Even here, amid the roar and carnage, was found a woman with the soul to dare danger; the heart to sympathize with the battle-stricken; sense, skill, and experience to make her a treasure beyond all price." * She was equally at home managing a southern plantation full of abandoned slaves, a battlefield operating station, or a 600-bed military hospital. After the war, her deep-seated need to dedicate her life to a worthy cause continued to drive her efforts until she faced an enemy more lethal than war.

Title: True Blue: A Tale of the Enemy Within
Author: Joe Sanchez and Mo Dhania
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1601790120

Joe has been trying to tell this story for a some time. It's his story, but not his alone. It's also the story of those who lived and died alongside him, in Viet Nam and in that other battle, for justice and safety under the shield of the law, that is fought daily in the streets of every big city by every honest cop. In his case, the city was the Naked City and the cop was a Latino. And the battle was neither for the civilians alone, not just against the bad guys in the street. Sometimes the bad guys were in the Department. And sometimes the people who needed protection were the honest cops.

Title: Aerial Aces of the Universal Newsreel
Author: Philip W. Stewart
Genre: Non-Fiction, Reference
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 097932436X

Aerial Aces of the Universal Newsreel is summed up best by its sub-title, "A Reference Guide to the Aviation Related Stories Released Nationally by Universal Pictures, 1929-1931." It’s a useful and practical resource guide to the aviation people, places and events of August 1929 through December 1931, as seen through the camera lens of the Universal Newspaper Newsreel, as the reel was known back then.

Aerial Aces contains descriptions of 219 aviation-related stories released by Universal during that time period. Stories are listed in release order and each is identified with the title, reel number, event date, location, and length. Each story has a storyline based on the newsreel synopsis sheets, a description the moving images, a word-for-word copy of the original narration script, and production and historical information, as appropriate.

The stories contained within Aerial Aces of the Universal Newsreel, provide a timeless reference to moving images of the aviation related activities covered during the first three years of the Universal Newspaper Newsreel. To see history as it actually happened is enlightening, instructive, and often rather dramatic. Too read about it is pretty cool too.