The
California Military Museum
The
NCO Guide (6th Edition)
by J. D. Pendry
Soldiers learn from their closest noncommissioned leader. I’ve been writing down how I feel about things for many years. It’s just something I do to help me think through things important to me and those who have had to look to me for leadership. I never expected anything I’ve written to take on the form of a book. And certainly, I do not consider myself as the how to authority on NCO leadership. There is no one way to do it and I’ve known too many great NCOs who were just better at it than me. My hope for this book is to add the NCO’s voice to the discussion of leadership and generate discussion by NCOs about leadership. It’s a voice that’s been missing in a discussion previously reserved for officers. The noncommissioned officers of the Army owe our thoughts on leading to the soldiers. The on the ground perspective is different from the birds-eye view officers see. It’s time to fill the void. The real leaders of our Army are noncommissioned officers. The men and women, who as a matter of their daily lives, lead, train, and care for soldiers and their families. There is no better way to understand leadership and what it entails until you’ve witnessed, practiced, and examined it in the three-meter zone.
Art
of War
The Art of War offers a clear look at the way that many Easterners--as well as an increasing number of Western power personalities--conduct both their lives and businesses. A classic contract written 2,500 years ago by a leading Chinese philosopher/general, The Art of War advances a perspective with which to negotiate daily conflicts and provides insightful tools with which to succeed in life.
On War
Combat
Team: The Captains' War: An Interactive Exercise in Company Level
Command in Battle
Prodigal
Soldiers : How the Generation of Officer Born of Vietnam Revolutionized
American Style War (An AUSA Institute of Land Warfare Book) by James Kitfield
Paperback. Published by Brasseys. March 1997
Kitfield's history of the recovery of U.S. armed forces from the Vietnam War up to their victory in the Persian Gulf is comprehensive, readable, frequently fascinating, and sometimes moving. It focuses on the careers of several men who were junior officers in Vietnam, personally participated in the reforms, and eventually held high rank during the Gulf War. Along the way, Kitfield imparts an enormous amount of information about U.S. military life, the Goldwater reforms, the management of the armed forces (or its absence), and several unsung heroes, such as Tactical Air Command's General Creech, who never made headlines but to whom the country has reason to be grateful. Kitfield does tend toward a promilitary stance, but it is not a mindless one, and while telling the tales of the command post, he also shows how the reforms looked in the front line. Neither Kitfield nor his subjects are without flaws, but both have labored to good purpose and deserve to be commended for a job well done. Roland Green Copyright© 1995, American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Blackhawk
Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden
Hardcover. Published by Grove/Atlantic
Journalist Mark Bowden delivers a strikingly detailed account of the 1993 nightmare operation in Mogadishu that left 18 American soldiers dead and many more wounded. This early foreign-policy disaster for the Clinton administration led to the resignation of Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and a total troop withdrawal from Somalia. Bowden does not spend much time considering the context; instead he provides a moment-by-moment chronicle of what happened in the air and on the ground. His gritty narrative tells of how Rangers and elite Delta Force troops embarked on a mission to capture a pair of high-ranking deputies to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid only to find themselves surrounded in a hostile African city. Their high-tech MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down and a number of other miscues left them trapped through the night. Bowden describes Mogadishu as a place of Mad Max-like anarchy--implying strongly that there was never any peace for the supposed peacekeepers to keep. He makes full use of the defense bureaucracy's extensive paper trail--which includes official reports, investigations, and even radio transcripts--to describe the combat with great accuracy, right down to the actual dialogue. He supplements this with hundreds of his own interviews, turning Black Hawk Down into a completely authentic nonfiction novel, a lively page-turner that will make readers feel like they're standing beside the embattled troops. This will quickly be realized as a modern military classic. --John J. Miller
