Today's military spouses are understandably upset when they see war reports on television. Faster e-mails from their loved ones have replaced the slower snail mail of the past--but war is still war. Military spouses then and now have to be gutsy and are expected to remain strong no matter what comes their way.

In the insightful memoir, "Undaunted," author Anne Scott McElroy, or Scotty, shares her own experiences as a Navy wife. From being the fiancee of a handsome midshipman who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1943, until the day Scotty's husband retired in 1964, Scotty knew it took a...