Sabbatical Reading List

Gator By Marriage

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Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides is an easy read about the greatest POW rescue mission of WWII.
I gifted this book to my late brother, Martin, who graduated from Hillsdale College with a degree in history. He loved it so much he returned the favor by gifting me three enormous volumes covering The French and Indian War written by a Scrooge-like character. The author, a Harvard graduate in mid-1800s, made the tome his life's work.

I never gave Martin another book.
I wanted to give you a "like" because I, too, thought "Ghost Soldiers" was a good read, but the last comment was too funny,
 

Lake Gator

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A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. My wife read it aloud while we drove to Montana from Florida. Every time she started to read a humorous line, she broke into tears of laughter, gasping for breath. I waited minutes for her to recover wondering what the hell was so funny. We stayed away from reading humor while driving after that.
 

Lake Gator

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Any book by Frederick Forsyth is difficult to put down. He specializes in spinning stories around actual historical events and people. His writing style makes it difficult for the reader to separate fact from fiction.
 

Detroitgator

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Any book by Frederick Forsyth is difficult to put down. He specializes in spinning stories around actual historical events and people. His writing style makes it difficult for the reader to separate fact from fiction.
He's one of my favorite authors, but shoulda stopped when he got old.
 

BNAG8R

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“Gods and Generals” by Shaara is done - on to his father’s book on Gettysburg.

Really liked it - very much a love letter for Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Really makes me question Lincoln’s decision-making, appointing political dumbasses to lead far superior numbers to crushing defeats.
 

Detroitgator

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“Gods and Generals” by Shaara is done - on to his father’s book on Gettysburg.

Really liked it - very much a love letter for Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Really makes me question Lincoln’s decision-making, appointing political dumbasses to lead far superior numbers to crushing defeats.
Spoiler: Lincoln gets smarter and sh!t changes. ;)
 

BNAG8R

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On a serious note, all of Newt Gingrich's "alternate history" books on the Civil War and WW II are informative and good...

Spoiler Alert: Even in his alternate history, the South and the Japs still lose. ;)

Did you ever read “Fatherland”? It’s a post WWII alternative where Germany wins the war and Joe Kennedy is president of Nazi-controlled America.
 

Gulfstream

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@BNAG8R ...Forgot about this one and it really fits into you vacation theme.

410RCMGO1xL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 

BNAG8R

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Finished “The Mission, The Men, and Me” by Peter Blaber. Not too complimentary of the helicopter boys. :lol:

Probably have 2 more reads in me.
 

Swamp Donkey

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Finished “The Mission, The Men, and Me” by Peter Blaber. Not too complimentary of the helicopter boys. :lol:

Probably have 2 more reads in me.
Helicopter boys? You mean the Air Force toolbag and the task force Blue Seal officer?

The helicopter boys were army, mostly 160th who did what they were forced to do by the ****birds that were running on the show hoping to grab a little Glory before the battle ended.

Air Force and Seal officers don't need to be trying to run a ground war, even for the sake of multiculturalism.
 

gatesm1

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Ron Rash writes books that are based in Southern Appalachia, but could really be any rural area in the country. I won't give more of a description, but you won't be disappointed in most of his fiction work, (avoid the poetry though).
 

Swamp Donkey

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Finished “The Mission, The Men, and Me” by Peter Blaber. Not too complimentary of the helicopter boys. :lol:
no comments?

why do you say helicopter boys? do you mean the SEALS who flew up in the helicopter?
 

BNAG8R

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no comments?

why do you say helicopter boys? do you mean the SEALS who flew up in the helicopter?

“Helicopter-centric planning was and still is the driving force behind the footprint paradox. Heavy-lift helicoptersi work well when used for what they were designed and developed for: inserting or extracting men to locations out of sight, sound, and line of fire from the enemy or a target. But they were never designed for the role they played in the ’90s and still play today—as all-purpose assault platforms.”

Excerpt From
The Mission, The Men, and Me
Pete Blaber
‎The Mission, The Men, and Me
This material may be protected by copyright.

“I had a personal “no heavy-lift helicopter” policy for any operation I was involved in. The historical pattern of failed missions and squandered opportunities in Vietnam, Iran, Somalia, and the “empty-target” raids, were deeply etched in my mind. Two common-denominator lessons linked all of them; first, the obvious: helicopters make it all but impossible to achieve surprise on an enemy-occupied target. The long-range wap-wap and thumpity-thump created by the turbo-powered heavy-lift rotors inevitably alert any and all enemy personnel occupying a target to the approaching heliborne assault force. After Somalia, every despot, drug kingpin, and dictator who had any reason to believe that the United States might be coming for him expected that when and if we actually came, we’d come in helicopters.3 Imagine the hyper-paranoid UBL sitting in the middle of nowhere in Afghanistan, hearing the distinctive Doppler-induced noise signature of multiple heavy-lift helicopters flying toward him. It wasn’t likely that he was going to mistake or dismiss the sound as that of a wayward traffic helicopter that took a wrong turn in New York.
Second, I believed that operationally defaulting to the use of[…]”

Excerpt From
The Mission, The Men, and Me
Pete Blaber
‎The Mission, The Men, and Me
This material may be protected by copyright.
 

Swamp Donkey

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gotcha. criticisms of the brass who wanted to use helicopters extensively and inappropriately versus criticism of the helicopter pilots.

the pilots involved were flat out heroic.

I really like that book. the general leadership concepts that he discusses, aside from the war issues altogether, are useful for really any business setting. I suspect many of us have run into the same problems.
 
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BNAG8R

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gotcha. criticisms of the brass who wanted to use helicopters extensively and inappropriately versus criticism of the helicopter pilots.

the pilots involved were flat out heroic.

I really like that book. the general leadership concepts that he discusses, aside from the war issues altogether, are useful for really any business setting. I suspect many of us have run into the same problems.

Zackly. One of my boys (Batman) was last a battalion then task force commander helo pilot. NSDQ.
 

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