Calcasieu Parish Public Library

May 27^th is Memorial Day. It’s a day to remember and honor those brave men and women who have paid the ultimate price in the service of their country.  Originally dubbed “Decoration Day”, the idea for this holiday started during the Civil War when Southern women began decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and other tokens. The tradition then spread to the north and soon became a yearly observance nationwide.  By World War II, the name of the holiday had unofficially changed to Memorial Day, and was held every year on May 30th. It was not until 1968, that Congress passed an Act to have the name officially changed to Memorial Day, and the date changed to the last Monday in May, to allow for a three day holiday weekend. Now Memorial Day has come to commemorate all American service men and women, who have died in military service, both in times of war and peace. It is a somber holiday, full of patriotic speeches, waving flags, military marches, and the playing of “Taps” at grave sides. But this is not a day to mourn the dead. It is a day to celebrate their lives and show appreciation for their sacrifice, with family gatherings, parades, fireworks, cook-outs, church services, prayers,  and, of course, the decorating of their graves with flowers and American flags. So whether you are celebrating the holiday to remember an ancestor who fought with the Continental Army, or a loved one who was lost in recent wars, be assured that they will be remembered by a grateful nation.  Here’s a heartfelt “Thank You!” to the Men, Women… and animals… of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines… and let’s not forget the war time service of our U. S. Merchant Marine. Here are a few of the many books available at your library that reflect the service of our military.

Check the catalog for copies.

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick (2013)

Available format: Standard print book.

Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents have warily maneuvered around each other until April 19, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord. In June, however, with the city cut off from supplies by a British blockade and Patriot militia poised in siege, skirmishes give way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists. – Amazon.

This Great Struggle: America’s Civil War by Steven E. Woodworth (2011)

Available format: Standard print book.

Referring to the war that was raging across parts of the American landscape, Abraham Lincoln told Congress in 1862, "We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope on earth." Lincoln recognized what was at stake in the American Civil War: not only freedom for 3.5 million slaves but also survival of self-government in the last place on earth where it could have the opportunity of developing freely. Noted historian Steven E. Woodworth tells the story of what many regard as the defining event in United States history. While emphasizing the importance of action in the region between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River in determining the outcome of the war, Woodworth argues that the Civil War had a distinct purpose that was understood by most of its participants: it was primarily a conflict over the issue of slavery. The soldiers who filled the ranks of the armies on both sides knew what they were fighting for. The outcome of the war—from its beginnings at Fort Sumter to the Confederate surrender four years later—was the result of the decisions that those millions of Americans made. Written in clear and compelling fashion, This Great Struggle is their story—and ours.– Amazon

Five Lieutenants by James Carl Nelson (2012)

The heartbreaking story of five Harvard men who led America to victory in World War I

Available format: Standard print book.

Five Lieutenants tells the story of five young Harvard men who took up the call to arms in the spring of 1917 and met differing fates in the maelstrom of battle on the Western Front in 1918. Delving deep into the motivations, horrific experiences, and ultimate fates of this Harvard-educated quintet—and by extension of the brilliant young officer class that left its collegiate and post-collegiate pursuits to enlist in the Army and lead America’s rough-and-ready doughboys—Five Lieutenants presents a unique, timeless, and fascinating account of citizen soldiers at war, and of the price these extraordinary men paid while earnestly giving all they had in an effort to end “the war to end all wars.”

Drawing upon the subjects’ intimate, eloquent, and uncensored letters and memoirs, this is a fascinating microcosm of the American experience in the First World War, and of the horrific experiences and hardships of the educated class of young men who were relied upon to lead doughboys in the trenches and, ultimately, in open battle. – Amazon

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (2010)

A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Available format:  Standard and Large print books, Audio book on CD and eBook

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will. – Amazon  

The Pointblank Directive by Douglas Keeney (2012)

The three Generals and the untold story of the daring plan that saved D-Day

Available format: Standard print book.

Where was the Luftwaffe on D-Day? Historians have debated that question for six decades, but in 2010 a formerly classified World War II D-Day history was restored, and in it were a new set of answers. Pointblank is the result of extensive new research using that newly restored history to create a richly textured portrait of air power and leadership, and perhaps the last untold story of D-Day: Three uniquely talented men and why, on the single most important day to the survival of the Third Reich, the German Air Force was unable to mount a single effective combat mission against the invasion forces.

After a year of unremarkable bombing against Germany aircraft industry, and with just five months to go until D-Day, General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commander of the United States Army Air Forces placed his lifelong friend General Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz in command of the strategic bombing forces in Europe and gave his protégé, General James "Jimmy" Doolittle command of the Eighth Air Force in England. For these fellow aviation pioneers and air war strategists, he had but one set of orders: Sweep the skies clean of the Luftwaffe by June 1944. Spaatz and Doolittle couldn't do that, but they could do what Arnold really wanted: Clear the skies sufficiently to gain air superiority over the D-Day beaches. The plan was called Pointblank. In Pointblank, L. Douglass Keeney carefully reconstructs the events in the air war that led up to D-Day while painting an in-depth portrait of the lives and times of these aviation pioneers. – Amazon

Voices of the Pacific by Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton (2013)

Untold stories from the Marine heroes of World War II

Available format: Standard print book.

The book presents accounts of heroism and honor as told by World War II veterans Sid Phillips, R.V. Burgin, and Chuck Tatum—whose exploits were featured in the HBO mini-series The Pacific—and their Marine buddies from the legendary 1st Marine Division.

These Marines trace the action from the Pearl Harbor attack and intense boot camp training through battles with the Japanese on Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, and Okinawa, to their return home after V-J Day. With unflinching honesty, these men reveal harrowing accounts of combat with an implacable enemy, the friendships and camaraderie they found—and lost—and the aftermath of the war’s impact on their lives.

With unprecedented access to the veterans, never-before-seen photographs, and unpublished memoirs, Makos and Brotherton have forged Voices of the Pacific into an incredible historic record of American bravery and sacrifice. – Amazon

In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation by Melinda L. Pash (2012)

The Americans Who Fought the Korean War

Available format: Standard print book.

In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation traces the shared experiences of Korean War veterans from their childhoods in the Great Depression and World War II through military induction and training, the war, and efforts in more recent decades to organize and gain wider recognition of their service.

Largely overshadowed by World War II’s “greatest generation” and the more vocal veterans of the Vietnam era, Korean War veterans remain relatively invisible in the narratives of both war and its aftermath. Yet, just as the beaches of Normandy and the jungles of Vietnam worked profound changes on conflict participants, the Korean Peninsula chipped away at the beliefs, physical and mental well-being, and fortitude of Americans completing wartime tours of duty there. Upon returning home, Korean War veterans struggled with home front attitudes toward the war, faced employment and family dilemmas, and wrestled with readjustment. Not unlike other wars, Korea proved a formative and defining influence on the men and women stationed in theater, on their loved ones, and in some measure on American culture. In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation not only gives voice to those Americans who served in the “forgotten war” but chronicles the larger personal and collective consequences of waging war the American way. – Amazon

In County: Remembering the Vietnam War Edited by John Prados (2011)

Available format: Standard print book.

Young Americans went to South Vietnam and fought in a fierce war they barely understood. For a year they experienced an exotic land, strove to learn how to fight—and survive—looking eagerly ahead to their return from "The Nam." Their searing experiences varied by where they were assigned and at what point in the war they served. The Vietnamese adversaries, North and South, were defending their homes, fighting with no hope of ending the war other than by winning it. Too often the ordeals of those on both sides have been told by others—journalists, historians, even generals.

In an invaluable corrective, John Prados, one of our leading interpreters of the Vietnam War, opens a window into the visceral reality of those on the ground in Vietnam. His carefully chosen and thoughtfully introduced anthology gathers the voices—in narrative and poetry—of men and women; Americans and Vietnamese (both of the North and South); officers, enlisted men, and civilians. All the selections feature individuals’ experiences of war or witnessing specific events and the realities of being caught up in them. Bridging the chasm between history and memory, together they offer an intense, even blazing, testimonial to the human condition in war. – Amazon

The Outpost: an untold story of American Valor by Jake Tapper (20120

Available format: Standard print book.

At 5:58 AM on October 3rd, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating, located in frighteningly vulnerable terrain in Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistani border, was viciously attacked. Though the 53 Americans there prevailed against nearly 400 Taliban fighters, their casualties made it the deadliest fight of the war for the U.S. that year. Four months after the battle, a Pentagon review revealed that there was no reason for the troops at Keating to have been there in the first place.

In THE OUTPOST, Jake Tapper gives us the powerful saga of COP Keating, from its establishment to eventual destruction, introducing us to an unforgettable cast of soldiers and their families, and to a place and war that has remained profoundly distant to most Americans. A runaway bestseller, it makes a savage war real, and American courage manifest. – Amazon

Into the Fire by Dakota Meyer and Bing West (2012)

A firsthand account of the most extraordinary battle in the Afghan war.

Available format: Standard print book, eBook and eAudio. 

In the fall of 2009, Taliban insurgents ambushed a patrol of Afghan soldiers and Marine advisors in a mountain village called Ganjigal. Firing from entrenched positions, the enemy was positioned to wipe out one hundred men who were pinned down and were repeatedly refused artillery support. Ordered to remain behind with the vehicles, twenty-one year-old Marine corporal Dakota Meyer disobeyed orders and attacked to rescue his comrades.

With a brave driver at the wheel, Meyer stood in the gun turret exposed to withering fire, rallying Afghan troops to follow. Over the course of the five hours, he charged into the valley time and again. Employing a variety of machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers, and even a rock, Meyer repeatedly repulsed enemy attackers, carried wounded Afghan soldiers to safety, and provided cover for dozens of others to escape—supreme acts of valor and determination. In the end, Meyer and four stalwart comrades—an Army captain, an Afghan sergeant major, and two Marines—cleared the battlefield and came to grips with a tragedy they knew could have been avoided. For his actions on that day, Meyer became the first living Marine in three decades to be awarded the Medal of Honor. – Amazon

Task Force Black by Mark Urban (2011)

The explosive true story of the Secret Special Forces war in Iraq

Available format: Standard print book.

When American and British forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, select teams of special forces and intelligence operatives got to work looking for the WMD their governments had promised were there. They quickly realized no such weapons existed. Instead they faced an insurgency—a soaring spiral of extremism and violence that was almost impossible to understand, let alone reverse.

Facing defeat, the Coalition waged a hidden war within a war. Major-General Stan McChrystal devised a campaign fusing special forces, aircraft, and the latest surveillance technology with the aim of taking down the enemy faster than it could regenerate. Guided by intelligence, British and American special forces conducted a relentless onslaught, night after night targeting al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups. – Amazon

Battle Ready by Mark L. Donald and Scott Mactavish (2013)

Memoir of a SEAL warrior medic

Available format: Standard print book.

The gripping memoir of Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart recipient SEAL Lieutenant Mark L. Donald

As A SEAL and combat medic, Mark served his country with valorous distinction for almost twenty-five years and survived some of the most dangerous combat actions imaginable.

From the rigors of BUD/S training to the horrors of the battlefield, Battle Ready dramatically immerses the reader in the unique life of the elite warrior-medic who advances into combat with life-saving equipment in one hand and life-taking weapons in the other. It is also an uplifting human story that reveals how a young Hispanic American bootstrapped himself out of a life that promised a dead-end future by enlisting in the military. That new life begins with the Marines and includes his heroic achievements on the battlefield and the operating table, and finally, of his inspirational triumph over the demons caused by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that threatened to destroy him and his family. – Amazon