Robert Neiman, perhaps the most experienced combat commander of the U.S. Marine Corps' tank arm, was one of the rare USMC officers to serve in both Iwo Jima and Okinawa battles. In "Tanks on the Beaches, " Neiman and his coauthor, Kenneth Estes, relay vivid accounts of fighting in the Pacific War, as well as Marine Corps service during the entire World War II period, devoid of idolatry and mythmaking. The result is a war story told from the unique perspective of men fighting from armored machines in desperate battles against a determined enemy.
After the capture of Guadalcanal, Neiman...

As German pressure on Europe escalated in the late 1930s, a young Belgian pacifist completing his Ph.D. in chemistry watched with horror the preparation for the inevitable invasion of his country. In the face of advancing German troops, his passion for freedom and his growing hatred of Hitler led him and a group of his friends into the resistance movement and five years of privation, danger, and, for some, torture and death, at the hands of the Gestapo.
This dramatic memoir traces Herman Bodson's transformation from a pacifist and scientist to, in his own words, "a cold fighter and a...

"The Defense of Vicksburg: ""A"" Louisiana Chronicle" is the story of the Louisiana soldiers who fought at Vicksburg, as told through their letters, diaries, and remembrances. Most histories of this famous Civil War siege have been written by the victors; this one presents a day-by-day account from the Confederate vantage point. Indeed, these long-dead men come to life as we read their experiences and perceptions told in their own voices, which ring clear and without apology.
In 1862 the Dixie Rebels of DeSoto Parish left for New Orleans. They and other Louisianians were formed into...

Twenty years old when he entered the army in 1942, Leo Bogart was one of sixteen million Americans who served with the armed forces during World War II. Over the next four years he, and perhaps the nation, came of age. In numerous letters home, he provided a glimpse into the mind of a young American intellectual whose wartime journey carried him from New York to Germany and from adolescence to experience of the world's complexities.
As shown by the letters and the narrative that fills in the gaps between them, the war engaged him, as it did many others, long before he put on a uniform....

Following the Second World War, Dan Summitt cruised the China Sea in a destroyer. During the Cold War, he worked with Adm. Hyman Rickover and commanded two nuclear submarines. In "Tales of a Cold War Submariner," Summitt tells the dramatic story of his military life on and under the sea, focusing on his experiences with nuclear submarines and Admiral Rickover, "the father of the nuclear navy." His stories, anecdotes, and detailed descriptions bring this tense era to life for the reader.Summitt recounts his service as commander of the USS Seadragon on its secret mission to the North Pole,...

Through one man's career, "Colt Terry, Green Beret" portrays the birth and development of America's most elite fighting unit. The 10th Special Forces Group was the first of the Green Beret units. Its five hundred men, all Airborne and mostly Rangers, received extensive training in everything from specialized weapons to uncommon languages. Their primary mission was to train and lead indigenous guerillas operating in enemy territory. Second Lieutenant Colt Terry, who had joined the 82nd Airborne in 1947, had already done this in Korea. As a volunteer in the 10th SFG, he carried on his service,...

At the conclusion of World War II, Americans anxiously contemplated the return to peace. It was an uncertain time, filled with concerns about demobilization, inflation, strikes, and the return of a second Great Depression. Balanced against these challenges was the hope in a future of unparalleled opportunities for a generation raised in hard times and war.
One of the remarkable untold stories of postwar America is the successful assimilation of sixteen million veterans back into civilian society after 1945. The G.I. generation returned home filled with the same sense of fear and hope as...

Nicknamed "the truck killer," the AC-119K gunship and its counterpart, the AC-119G, were developed in the late 1960s in response to the needs of the U.S. military in Vietnam. This important book examines the evolution of these aircraft and their role within Vietnam, military policy, and geopolitical realities.
Drawing on unpublished studies and a host of primary materials, William Head discusses the events that led to the birth of the AC-119, the planning and modification processes that followed, and its operational history. The G model, or "Shadow," focused on air support and...

Through two victorious world conflicts and a Cold War, the U.S. Navy and American ocean scientists drew ever closer, converting an early marriage of necessity into a relationship of astonishing achievement. Beginning in 1919, Gary Weir's "An Ocean in Common" traces the first forty-two years of their joint quest to understand each other and the deep ocean.
Early in the twentieth century, American naval officers questioned the tactical and strategic significance of applied ocean science, demonstrating the gap between this kind of knowledge and that deemed critical to naval warfare. At the...