Soldiers in close-knit units, which develop under the shared hardship and challenge of combat, tend to become families unto themselves. I was team medic for a U.S. Army Special Forces A-team when we found ourselves away from home and on mission one Christmas. That generally meant we worked and lived clandestine in the boondocks.
It snowed during the night. I awoke to a splendid sunrise. All around me were mounds, where soldiers wrapped in mummy bags and ponchos were sleeping underneath the snow. A deer among nearby conifers lifted her head. She continued to watch in astonishment, unmoving, as one by one soldiers shook off the snow, sat up, blinked and grinned at each other. A chorus of "Merry Christmas!" rang out through the trees. In many respects, we WERE home for Christmas. [More...]
Drafted in 1942, Malarkey arrived at Camp Toccoa in Georgia and was one of the one in six soldiers who earned their Eagle wings. He went to England in 1943 to provide cover on the ground for the largest amphibious military attack in history: Operation Overlord. In the darkness of D-day morning, Malarkey parachuted into France and within days was awarded a Bronze Star for his heroism in battle. He fought for thirty-five days in Normandy, nearly eighty in Holland, thirty-nine in Bastogne, and nearly thirty more in and near Haugenau, France, and the Ruhr pocket in Germany.
This is his dramatic tale of those bloody days fighting his way from the shores of France to the heartland of Germany, and the epic story of how an adventurous kid from Oregon became an elite paratrooper and a leader of men. [More...]
When the Revolutionary War began, Nathanael Greene was a private in the militia, the lowest rank possible, yet he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer—celebrated as one of the war's three most important generals. Upon taking command of America's Southern Army in 1780, Nathanael Greene was handed troops that consisted of 1,500 starving, nearly naked men. Gerald Carbone explains how, within a year, the small worn-out army ran the British troops out of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and into the final trap at Yorktown. Despite his huge military successes and tactical genius Greene's story has a dark side. Gerald Carbone drew on 25 years of reporting and researching experience to create his chronicle of Greene's unlikely rise to success and his fall into debt and anonymity. [More...]
Surprise. It was not going to be a White Christmas in the Sandbox. Partly out of nostalgia, partly from an effort to capture a little bit of home and the Christmas spirit, the platoons on Malibu Road went all out for the holidays. Some of the guys put up Christmas trees fashioned from what ever they could find on hand. Empty cardboard boxes knifed into shape, then erected in three dimensions and covered with poncho liners, served as a fair approximation of the real thing, especially when decorated with garlands of 7.62mm machine gun ammo belts, colored-pencil cutouts of angels, Santa Claus, humvees pulled by camels, and Christmas cards from home. [More...]
General William Tecumseh Sherman famously said “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.” This statement has contributed to his mythic status as a grim-visaged Civil War character who embodied implacable war. Utilizing unique and highly successful maneuvering techniques, Sherman was an original, decisive, and efficient leader. [More...]
It had been a cheerless Christmas. The minds of all, Washington knew, were dwelling on the past, on what they had achieved but a year ago. As for dinner, one of his guard details had come in with an old sow, enlisted men and officers sharing alike. No amount of effort by Billy Lee and the company cook could render it more than barely chewable. The last of Mrs. Hewes's stockpile of potatoes were added in, along with some boiled ears of Indian corn the men had scavenged from a muddy field.
He had ridden around the camp, offering Christmas greetings to each of the brigades. The sense of near rebellion of three days before had stilled somewhat. The most troublesome of the soldiers, close on to a thousand, had simply deserted. Others were just too sick to complain. As for the rest, there had been something of a Christmas miracle after all. Twenty head of cattle and two wagonloads of potatoes and one of flour had come in, actually gathered up by some patriots over at Plymouth Meeting as a present to the army. He had not pressed too hard on the inquiry as to how they obtained them. The gift givers were rather closed-mouthed when General Greene inquired as to where this largesse had come from.
It was enough for two full days of rations, and at that moment, to have an extra day's rations on hand seemed indeed to be a Christmas miracle almost as profound as the one of a year before. [More...]
Military operations don't stop for holidays. In Bob Hope's case, he was able to create a brief pause as he inserted humor into the lives of the U.S. troops he visited, from WWII to the Persian Gulf.
Watch his 1967 Christmas special from Southeast Asian military bases—non-stop jokes from Hope and laughter from the Soldiers and Marines.
While in Da Nang, he joked: "[The Marines'] motto is Semper Fidelis. And that means: Oh, don't worry about it doc. Just nail it back on." [More...]
In late December 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill joined President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., for the Arcadia Conference.
Dec. 24th, they delivered their Christmas greetings to the world, during the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C. [More...]
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is among the most-debated policies of the last decade.
This morning, President Obama will sign the repeal of the policy.
“This new book from the academic who first broke the story about the gay Arabic translators who were thrown out of the military is the best thing ever written about Bill Clinton’s disastrous policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ ”—Columbia Journalism Review
“A meticulously argued case for the dismantling of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and for the full reversal of the ban on gay and lesbian servicemembers.” —NPR.org
“Frank examines the 1993 law that bans open homosexual service in the U.S. military . . . and provides compelling evidence why the law should be repealed. . . . Unfriendly Fire is recommended reading, especially for those who proudly serve our Nation, because of its well-reasoned insights on how the current ban on homosexuals in the armed forces is currently undermining our military might.”—Military Review [More...]
The powerful unvarnished memoir of General Hugh Shelton, war hero, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during 9/11, and one of the leading military figures of our time.
Whether serving under a Democratic president or a Republican president, General Shelton was never afraid to speak out and tell it like it is. Shelton chronicles his incredible journey from a small farming community in North Carolina to the highest level of American military and political power at the Pentagon and White House.
Revealing, compelling, and controversial, this is the story of a man whose integrity and ethics were always above reproach, and who dedicated his life to serving his country.
Dec. 15, 1941, President Roosevelt addressed the nation, for the celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights.
Given just a week after the attack at Pearl Harbor, his speech underlined the guaranteed rights of the American people as a threat to Hitler's vision. [More...]
