Download or read book Chesty written by Jon T. Hoffman and published by Random House. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featured on the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ Reading List and the Chief of Naval Operation’s “Naval Power” Reading List The Marine Corps is known for its heroes, and Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller has long been considered the greatest of them all. His assignments and activities covered an extraordinary spectrum of warfare. Puller mastered small unit guerrilla warfare as a lieutenant in Haiti in the 1920s, and at the end of his career commanded a division in Korea. In between, he chased Sandino in Nicaragua and fought at Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu. With his bulldog face, barrel chest (which earned him the nickname Chesty), gruff voice, and common touch, Puller became—and has remained—the epitome of the Marine combat officer. At times Puller's actions have been called into question—at Peleliu, for instance, where, against a heavily fortified position, he lost more than half of his regiment. And then there is the saga of his son, who followed in Chesty's footsteps as a Marine officer only to suffer horrible wounds in Vietnam (his book, Fortunate Son, won the Pulitzer Prize). Jon Hoffman has been given special access to Puller's personal papers as well as his personnel record. The result will unquestionably stand as the last word about Chesty Puller.
Download or read book Fortunate Son written by Lewis B. Puller and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Lewis Puller tripped a booby-trapped howitzer round in Vietnam, triggering a explosion that would cost him his legs, his career as a soldier ended--and the battle to reclaim his life began. "An extraordinary story of survival. And of love."--Mary Jordan, "The Washington Post."
Download or read book And My Mother Danced with Chesty Puller written by Bruce Hoffman and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2010-02-23 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bruce Hoffman spent four years in the United States Marine Corps. Two of those years were spent in Vietnam and Okinawa. And My Mother Danced with Chesty Puller is the story of a young Marines adventures during the Vietnam War, sometimes humorous, sometimes hair-raising. The story begins with a young man drawn into the Marine Corps to become an Embassy Marine but he ends up stuck with an office job instead. He struggles to get into the fight in Vietnam, only to be stationed in South Carolina and is offered a part-time job with a bootlegger to ride shotgun. When he finally arrives in Vietnam he discovers that he isnt supposed to be there, but in Okinawa instead, which turns out to be the land of booze and brothels. He was able to find a few girlfriends along the way, not only in South Carolina and Okinawa, but in Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Marines werent all in combat; many were in the rear with the beer. After volunteering three times for Vietnam he was able to transfer to Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron VMO-2, and fly as an Aerial Gunner in UH-1E Huey Helicopters. Finally, he became a Marine in combat.
Download or read book War Is a Racket written by Smedley D. Butler and published by Wyatt North Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2018-02-18 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War Is a Racket is a famous anti-war book written by retired Major General Smedley Buter. In the book, Butler discusses how businesses profit from conflict.
Download or read book Last Man Standing written by Dick Camp and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2010-11-10 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history, Operation Stalemate, as Peleliu was called, was overshadowed by the Normandy landings. It was also, in time, judged by most historians to have been unnecessary; though it had been conceived to protect MacArthur’s flank in the Philippines, the U.S. fleet’s carrier raids had eliminated Japanese airpower, rendering Peleliu irrelevant. Nevertheless, the horrifying number of casualties sustained there (71% in one battalion) foreshadowed for the rest of the war: rather than fight to the death on the beach, the Japanese would now defend in depth and bleed the Americans white. Drawing extensively on personal interviews, the Marine Corps History Division’s vast oral history and photographic collection, and many never-before-published sources, this book gives us a new and harrowing vision of what really happened at Peleliu--and what it meant. Working closely with two of the 1st Regiment’s battalion commanders--Ray Davis and Russ Honsowetz--Marine Corps veteran and military historian Dick Camp recreates the battle as it was experienced by the men and their officers. Soldiers who survived the terrible slaughter recall the brutality of combat against an implacable foe; they describe the legendary “Chesty” Puller, leading his decimated regiment against enemy fortifications; they tell of Davis, wounded but refusing evacuation while his men were under fire; and of a division commander who rejects Army reinforcements. Most of all, their richly detailed, deeply moving story is one of desperate combat in the face of almost certain failure, of valor among comrades joined against impossible odds.
Download or read book The Art of Command written by Harry Laver and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2008-10-17 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What essential leadership lessons do we learn by distilling the actions and ideas of great military commanders such as George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Colin Powell? That is the fundamental question underlying The Art of Command: Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell. The book illustrates that great leaders become great through conscious effort—a commitment not only to develop vital skills but also to surmount personal shortcomings. Harry S. Laver, Jeffrey J. Matthews, and the other contributing authors identify nine core characteristics of highly effective leadership, such as integrity, determination, vision, and charisma, and nine significant figures in American military history whose careers embody those qualities. The Art of Command examines each figure’s strengths and weaknesses and how those attributes affected their leadership abilities, offering a unique perspective of military leadership in American history. Laver and Matthews have assembled a list of contributors from military, academic, and professional circles, which allows the book to encompass diverse approaches to the study of leadership.
Download or read book Puller s Runner written by Nick Ragland and published by Government Institutes. This book was released on 2009-08-16 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lewis 'Chesty' Puller is the most famous and most decorated of all Marines. Michael Abbo is an average American kid who enlists in the Marine Corps just before Pearl Harbor. As he struggles to adapt, he unwillingly finds himself assigned to the duty of runner for Chesty Puller, a highly decorated jungle fighter from the 'Banana Wars.' Abbo is shocked by Chesty's harsh training methods and the horrors of the amphibious warfare of the Pacific, but survives World War II, finishes college, and becomes a newspaper reporter for The Chicago Tribune. He is called up from the Marine Reserves in 1950 to serve in Korea, and finds himself assigned once again to Chesty Puller. He serves well throughout the Inchon landing, the battle for Seoul, and into the hellish Chosin Reservoir, meanwhile gaining respect and awe for the once-enlisted man who takes great pride in 'leading from the front.' Abbo eventually returns to the Tribune, and covers Puller's forced retirement as well as his dramatic testimony in the court martial of a Marine drill instructor at Parris Island. For more info, check out www.pullersrunner.com
Download or read book On Desperate Ground written by Hampton Sides and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War. "Superb ... A masterpiece of thorough research, deft pacing and arresting detail...This war story—the fight to break out of a frozen hell near the Chosin Reservoir—has been told many times before. But Sides tells it exceedingly well, with fresh research, gritty scenes and cinematic sweep." —The Washington Post On October 15, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of UN troops in Korea, convinced President Harry Truman that the Communist forces of Kim Il-sung would be utterly defeated by Thanksgiving. The Chinese, he said with near certainty, would not intervene in the war. As he was speaking, 300,000 Red Chinese soldiers began secretly crossing the Manchurian border. Led by some 20,000 men of the First Marine Division, the Americans moved deep into the snowy mountains of North Korea, toward the trap Mao had set for the vainglorious MacArthur along the frozen shores of the Chosin Reservoir. What followed was one of the most heroic--and harrowing--operations in American military history, and one of the classic battles of all time. Faced with probable annihilation, and temperatures plunging to 20 degrees below zero, the surrounded, and hugely outnumbered, Marines fought through the enemy forces with ferocity, ingenuity, and nearly unimaginable courage as they marched their way to the sea. Hampton Sides' superb account of this epic clash relies on years of archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of Marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly detailing the follies of the American leaders, On Desperate Ground is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances. Hampton Sides has been hailed by critics as one of the best nonfiction writers of his generation. As the Miami Herald wrote, "Sides has a novelist's eye for the propulsive elements that lend momentum and dramatic pace to the best nonfiction narratives."
Download or read book I m Staying with My Boys written by Jim Proser and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-02-02 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authorized biography of World War II hero John Basilone--who held off 3,000 Japanese troops after his unit was reduced to three men--is being published to coincide with Steven Spielberg's HBO miniseries, "The Pacific." Illustrations throughout.
Download or read book The Gentle Warrior written by Clifton La Bree and published by Kent State University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In November 1950, United Nations forces in Korea narrowly escaped being overrun by Chinese Communist forces, due to the military expertise of General Oliver Prince Smith. Using the general's own notes and diaries, this book describes Smith's long and distinguished career, his command in Iceland in 1940, in the Pacific campaigns, and in Korea. The general's wartime dealings witrh military and political leaders is also discussed, paying tribute to a man called the gentle warrior.
Download or read book Over The Seawall U S Marines At Inchon Illustrated Edition written by Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes more than 40 maps, plans and illustrations. This volume in the official History of the Marine Corps chronicles the invasion by United States Marines at Inchon in the initial stages of the Korean War. The Battle of Inchon was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations. The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South Korea capital Seoul two weeks later. The code name for the operation was Operation Chromite. The battle began on 15 September 1950 and ended on 19 September. Through a surprise amphibious assault far from the Pusan Perimeter that UN and South Korean forces were desperately defending, the largely undefended city of Incheon was secured after being bombed by UN forces. The battle ended a string of victories by the invading North Korean People’s Army (NKPA). The subsequent UN recapture of Seoul partially severed NKPA’s supply lines in South Korea. The majority of United Nations ground forces involved were U.S. Marines, commanded by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of the United States Army. MacArthur was the driving force behind the operation, overcoming the strong misgivings of more cautious generals to a risky assault over extremely unfavorable terrain.
Download or read book Old Breed General written by Amy Rupertus Peacock and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marine general William H. Rupertus is best known today for writing the Corps’ Rifleman’s Creed, which begins, “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine”—which has been made famous by films such as Full Metal Jacket and Jarhead. Rupertus was one of the outstanding Marines of the twentieth century, standing alongside men such as Smedley Butler, Chesty Puller, and Arthur Vandegrift, but he died in 1945, so his story has never been told. Rupertus “made his bones” in the USMC’s “savage wars of peace” before World War II: Haiti for three years after World War I, China in 1929 (where he lost his wife and children to the scarlet fever epidemic) and again in 1937 (where he witnessed the beginning of Japan’s war against China that turned into the Pacific War of World War II). In World War II, Rupertus commanded during four important battles: Tulagi and Henderson Field during the Guadalcanal campaign; the Battle of Cape Gloucester; and Peleliu. It was a series of blistering battles—and ultimately victories—that helped break the back of the Japanese and pave the way for American victory. In the course of these battles, Rupertus became the Patton of the Pacific—ruthless in war, always on the attack, merciless against the enemy, undefeated in battles—even as he proved himself very much like Eisenhower, suavely diplomatic and able to balance war with politics. These skills allowed Rupertus to crush the enemy in the malaria-infested jungles of the Pacific and personally escort Eleanor Roosevelt on her tour of the Pacific. Old Breed General is the biography of Rupertus and the story of the Marines at war in the Pacific. This is an American story of love, loss, shock, horror, tragedy, and triumph that focuses on Rupertus and the 1st Marine Division in World War II, but which resonates through the 1st, to Chosin in Korea and James Mattis’s command in Iraq.
Download or read book Underdogs written by Aaron B. O'Connell and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-29 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Marine Corps has always considered itself a breed apart. Since 1775, America’s smallest armed service has been suspicious of outsiders and deeply loyal to its traditions. Marines believe in nothing more strongly than the Corps’ uniqueness and superiority, and this undying faith in its own exceptionalism is what has made the Marines one of the sharpest, swiftest tools of American military power. Along with unapologetic self-promotion, a strong sense of identity has enabled the Corps to exert a powerful influence on American politics and culture. Aaron O’Connell focuses on the period from World War II to Vietnam, when the Marine Corps transformed itself from America’s least respected to its most elite armed force. He describes how the distinctive Marine culture played a role in this ascendancy. Venerating sacrifice and suffering, privileging the collective over the individual, Corps culture was saturated with romantic and religious overtones that had enormous marketing potential in a postwar America energized by new global responsibilities. Capitalizing on this, the Marines curried the favor of the nation’s best reporters, befriended publishers, courted Hollywood and Congress, and built a public relations infrastructure that would eventually brand it as the most prestigious military service in America. But the Corps’ triumphs did not come without costs, and O’Connell writes of those, too, including a culture of violence that sometimes spread beyond the battlefield. And as he considers how the Corps’ interventions in American politics have ushered in a more militarized approach to national security, O’Connell questions its sustainability.
Download or read book Frozen Chosin U S Marines At The Changjin Reservoir Illustrated Edition written by Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes more than 40 maps, plans and illustrations. This volume in the official History of the Marine Corps chronicles the part played by United States Marines in the Chosin Reservoir Campaign. The race to the Yalu was on. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur’s strategic triumph at Inchon and the subsequent breakout of the U.S. Eighth Army from the Pusan Perimeter and the recapture of Seoul had changed the direction of the war. Only the finishing touches needed to be done to complete the destruction of the North Korean People’s Army. Moving up the east coast was the independent X Corps, commanded by Major General Edward M. Almond, USA. The 1st Marine Division, under Major General Oliver P. Smith, was part of X Corps and had been so since the 15 September 1950 landing at Inchon. After Seoul the 1st Marine Division had reloaded into its amphibious ships and had swung around the Korean peninsula to land at Wonsan on the east coast. The landing on 26 October 1950 met no opposition; the port had been taken from the land side by the resurgent South Korean army. The date was General Smith’s 57th birthday, but he let it pass unnoticed. Two days later he ordered Colonel Homer L. Litzenberg, Jr., 47, to move his 7th Marine Regimental Combat Team north from Wonsan to Hamhung. Smith was then to prepare for an advance to the Manchurian border, 135 miles distant. And so began one of the Marine Corps’ greatest battles—or, as the Corps would call it, the “Chosin Reservoir Campaign.” The Marines called it the “Chosin” Reservoir because that is what their Japanese-based maps called it. The South Koreans, nationalistic sensibilities disturbed, preferred—and, indeed, would come to insist—that it be called the “Changjin” Reservoir.
Download or read book In Many a Strife written by Allan Reed Millett and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A veteran of both world wars and the Korean War, Gen. Gerald C. Thomas helped change the Marine Corps in the twentieth century. Though not as well-known as John Lejeune, Chesty Puller, and A. A. Vandegrift, he was, as this book clearly demonstrates, responsible for the transformation of the Marines into a highly effective amphibious assault force and Cold War force in readiness. In this volume, the well-known military historian Allan R. Millett provides not only an assessment of General Thomas's career but an objective analysis of the creation of the modern Marine Corps. At the same time, he offers an expert interpretation of the "inside" leadership of the Corps. Millett has based the book on documentary research in private and official papers, including the general's own oral memoir and draft autobiography.
Download or read book Chesty Puller written by John Wukovits and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Dutton Caliber's American War Heroes series, the dramatic tale of Marine Corps legend Chesty Puller, focusing on his combat service during the Pacific War. Chesty Puller is an American legend. He began his career fighting guerrillas in Haiti and Nicaragua during the 1920s and 1930s before displaying astonishing battlefield bravery in the Pacific during World War II. From Henderson Field to Peleliu, his courage under fire and unbreakable devotion to his men inspired not just those under his own command but marines everywhere. As the war marched on, one bloody battle after another, Chesty became the most decorated marine in U.S. history. Now, acclaimed World War II historian John Wukovits tells the story of Chesty Puller's heroism in the Pacific War.
Download or read book World War II Battlefields written by Paul Woodadge and published by Photographic Explorer. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring battlefield sites divided by wartime theater, World War II Battlefields allows the reader to explore well-known battle locations today and compare them to images captured during the height of the conflict. Examine the huge concrete bunker at Fort Eben Emael, Belgium, captured by German glider troops in May 1940 and still intact today. See the beaches at Tarawa atoll, a scene of fierce fighting between the US Marines and the Japanese defenders in 1943, or the streets of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the center of a bloody battle between the II SS Panzer Korps and the Red Army. Explore the Norman village of Villers-Bocage, where a few German Tiger tanks halted the advance of the British 7th Armoured Division a week after the D-Day landings. Visit the twin medieval towers of the bridge at Remagen on the Rhine river, made famous in photos and movies, or the dozens of Japanese ships sunk in Truk Lagoon following comprehensive American air attacks, and today a popular dive site. Examine Monte Cassino monastery in Italy, destroyed by Allied aerial bombing and since completely rebuilt as a place of pilgrimage. There are 75 sites in all.
