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 You ll Be Sor ree written by Sid Phillips and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sid Phillips, a World War II Marine Corps hero featured in HBO®'s The Pacific, offers up an invaluable firsthand account of the war against Japan. A mortarman with H-2-1 of the legendary 1st Marine Division, Sid was only seventeen years old when he entered combat with the Japanese. Some two years later, when he returned home, the island fighting on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester had turned Sid into an "Old Timer" by Marine standards, and more: he left as a boy, but came home a man. These are his memoirs, the humble and candid tales that Sid collected during a Pacific odyssey spanning half the globe, from the grueling boot camp at Parris Island, to the coconut groves of Guadalcanal, to the romantic respite of Australia. Sid recalls his encounters with icons like Chesty Puller, General Vandergrift, Eleanor Roosevelt, and his boyhood friend, Eugene Sledge. He remembers the rain of steel from Japanese bombers and battleships, the brutality of the tropical elements, and the haunting notion of being expendable. This is the story of how Sid stood shoulder to shoulder with his Marine brothers to discover the inner strength and deep faith necessary to survive the dark, early days, of World War II in the Pacific.
Download or read book Preparing for Victory written by David J Ulbrich and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preparing for Victory explains how and why Commandant Thomas Holcomb successfully supervised the dramatic expansion of the Marine Corps from 18,000 officers and men in 1936 to 385,000 in 1943. Not only did Holcomb leave the Corps much larger, but he also helped establish it as the United States’ premier amphibious assault force and a major contributor to victory over Japan. Despite Holcomb’s successes, he has been ignored or given short shrift in most histories of the Marine Corps. No book-length study of his commandancy exists until now. Drawing on a wide range of printed and archival sources, my book contends that Holcomb expertly guided the Corps’ preparations for war during the last years of the Great Depression and then provided his “Leathernecks” with astute direction during the first harrowing twenty-five months of World War II. When measured with principles of organization theory and leadership studies, Holcomb’s abilities and achievements match those of such outstanding American military managers as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Chester W. Nimitz, and George C. Marshall. Like these unassuming yet efficient officers, Holcomb shied away from the limelight and therefore never garnered the attention that “Chesty” Puller or “Howlin’ Mad” Smith have. This book fills a void and tells the story of one of the key leaders in World War II. More than any other marine, Holcomb molded his Corps into the modern force-in-readiness that would eventually help fight the Cold War and the Global War on Terror.
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 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 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 Marine Combat Correspondent written by Samuel E. Stavisky and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This riveting firsthand chronicle of a Marine journalist on the front lines in the Pacific during World War II was made possible after Stavisky joined a unique unit of rifle-toting writers called the Combat Correspondent Corps. He gives a heart-pounding, eye-witness account of hellish battles and American heroism.
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 Once a Legend written by Jon T. Hoffman and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II combat correspondent Richard Tregaskis, author of Guadalcanal Diary, called Maj. Gen. Merritt "Red Mike" Edson "the best soldier I ever knew". Fitting praise for a hardnosed general who earned an unmatched reputation for fearlessness in a Marine Corps career that spanned thirty years. Edson earned the Medal of Honor and lasting fame during a desperate, two-day defense of Guadalcanal's vital airfield. The battle immediately became known as one of the epic struggles in Marine Corps history, the Battle of Edson's Ridge. Edson first gained renown in the Marine Corps for his exploits during the "Banana Wars" in Central America during the 1920s. He became an authority on guerilla warfare and went on to create and command the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. After World War II, Edson demonstrated moral courage that matched his fearlessness under fire as he fought to preserve the Corps's identity during the service unification debates. In the political "jungles" of Washington, D. C., he used his unorthodox tactics to combat Army encroachment on Marine Corps turf, and even took on President Truman, who was intent on disbanding the Corps. Edson was a professional - the ideal fighting man with nerves of steel, devoted to his troops, dedicated to improving the Corps - but there was a dark side to this model military man. Hoffman explores Red Mike's personal life as well - his unhappy marriage; his morose, fatalistic outlook on life and death; his tragic suicide at the age of 58. Based on the general's recently unsealed personal papers, and interviews with family, friends, and fellow Marines, this is the first biography of the man described by former commandant Gen. Wallace Greene as "thepersonification of the great fighting tradition of our Corps".
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.
