Download or read book The Other Veterans of World War II written by Rona Simmons and published by Kent State University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold stories of troops serving miles away from front lines For decades, the dramatic stories of World War II soldiers have been the stuff of memoirs, interviews, novels, documentaries, and feature films. Yet the men and women who served in less visible roles, never engaging in physical combat, have received scant attention. Convinced that their depiction as pencil pushers, grease monkeys, or cowards was far from the truth, Rona Simmons embarked on a quest to discover the real story from the noncombat veterans themselves. She sat across from 19 veterans or their children, read their letters and journals, looked at photos, and touched their mementos: pieces of shrapnel, a Japanese sword, a porcelain tea set, a pair of wooden shoes, a marquisette wedding gown. Compiling these veterans' stories, Simmons follows them as they report for service, complete their training, and often ship out to stations thousands of miles from home. She shares their dreams to see combat and disappointment at receiving noncombat positions, as well as their selflessness and yearning for home. Ultimately, Simmons finds the noncombat veterans had far more in common with the front line soldiers than differences. Simmons's extensive research gives us a more complete picture of the war effort, bringing long-overdue appreciation for the men and women whose everyday tasks, unexpected acts of sacrifice, and faith and humor contributed mightily to the ultimate outcome of World War II.
Download or read book Veterans written by Sasha Maslov and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ichiro Sudan trained to be a kamikaze. Roscoe Brown was a commander in the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators. Charin Singh, a farmer from Delhi, spent seven years as a Japanese prisoner of war and was not sent home until four years after the war ended. Uli John lost an arm serving in the German army but ultimately befriended former enemy soldiers as part of a network of veterans—"people who fought in the war and know what war really means." These are some of the faces and stories in the remarkable Veterans, the outcome of a worldwide project by Sasha Maslov to interview and photograph the last surviving combatants from World War II. Soldiers, support staff, and resistance fighters candidly discuss wartime experiences and their lifelong effects in this unforgettable, intimate record of the end of a cataclysmic chapter in world history and tribute to the members of an indomitable generation. Veterans is also a meditation on memory, human struggle, and the passage of time.
Download or read book We Were There written by Yvonne Latty and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005-02-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greatest Generation meets Bloods in this revealing oral history of the unrecognized contributions of African American veterans. Award-winning journalist Yvonne Latty never bothered to find out the extent of her father's service until it was almost too late. Inspired by his moving story -- and eager to uncover the little-known stories of other black veterans, from those who served in the Second World War to the War in Iraq -- Latty set about interviewing veterans of every stripe: men and women; army, navy, and air force personnel; prisoners of war; and brigadier generals. In a book that has sparked discussions in homes, schools, and churches across America, Latty, along with acclaimed photographer Ron Tarver, captures not only what was unique about the experiences of more than two dozen veterans but also why it is important for these stories to be recorded. Whether it's the story of a black medic on Omaha Beach or a nurse who ferried wounded soldiers by heli-copter to medical centers throughout Asia during the Vietnam War, We Were There is a must-have for every black home, military enthusiast, and American patriot.
Download or read book Iwo Jima written by Larry Earl Smith and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2008 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the 1945 battle documents the significant losses on both sides, the controversy surrounding the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal, and the alleged suicide of Japanese general Tadamichi Juribayashi.
Download or read book Forgotten Heroes of World War II written by Thomas E. Simmons and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II was the defining event of the twentieth century. For everyone it was a time of confusion, fear, destruction, and death on a scale never before seen. Much has been written of the generals, campaigns, and battles of the war, but it was young, ordinary American kids who held our freedom in their hands as they fought for liberty across the globe. Forgotten Heroes of World War II offers a personal understanding of what was demanded of these young heroes through the stories of rank-and-file individuals who served in the navy, marines, army, air corps, and merchant marine in all theaters of the war. Their tales are told without pretense or apology. At the time, each thought himself no different from those around him, for they were all young, scared, and miserable. They were the ordinary, the extraordinary—the forgotten.
Download or read book The Other Side of Time written by Brendan Phibbs and published by . This book was released on 1989-02-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author recounts his experiences as a surgeon during World War II, from November of 1944 during the fighting for Alsace-Lorraine to the end of the War, when the men of his unit were among the first into Dachau
Download or read book We Fought to Win written by Kayleen Reusser and published by . This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kayleen Reusser has interviewed more than 250 World War II Veterans. In her first compilation of published stories, she has gathered 28 accounts of experiences with D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Battle of Remagen, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and more. Written for non-military readers, these stories explain in the words of our nation's oldest veterans the sacrifices they made for their country. We Fought to Win: American WWII Veterans Share Their Stories include men and women who served from 1941-1945 in the Army, Navy, Army Air Corps, WASP, Marines. This compilation is part of an effort the author is making to preserve a significant part of our national heritage. She has written two other books about veterans in the WWII Legacies series: They Did It for Honor: Stories of American WWII Veterans (Book 2); and We Gave Our Best: American World War II Veterans Tell Their Stories (Book 3).
Download or read book World War Ii Reminiscences written by Col. John H. Roush Jr. and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a dramatic collection of significant combat experiences of 79 men in WWII, as told from one combat veteran to another. In the 86 chapters are stories involving all the various branches of combat service and all of the various theaters of war. Within reminiscences, veterans of dangerous encounters are much more apt to open up with details in discussions with men who have also experienced combat. Many find it emotionally distressing to talk of the war with the general public or to recall the horrors of warfare. This is not a history book nor any attempt to tell the big picture of grand campaigns. Instead it is a collection of personal involvements in one-at-a-time incidents of conflict. Many ask what was it like in WWII, for our conflicts in recent years have been vastly different. It has been said that war has become and continues to be an intractable social phenomenon. While some say its elimination is necessary to the survival of mankind, we do not seem to have approached closer to that elimination in the sixty-seven years since WWII ended. Encounters of Warfare remain a stark reality within the present era. That being so, perhaps we should read of what happened as recalled in the most vivid memories of men involved in the most overpowering conflict of modern warfare. Sincerely, John Roush
Download or read book Official Publication of the Veterans of World War II Inc written by Veterans of World War II, Inc. (Springfield, Ill.) and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Crossing the Pond written by Jere Bishop Franco and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Crossing the Pond also chronicles the unsuccessful efforts of Nazi propagandists to exploit Native Americans for the Third Reich, as well as the successful efforts of the United States government and the media to recruit Native Americans, utilize their resources, and publicize their activities for the war effort. Attention is also given to the postwar experiences of Native American men and women as they sought the franchise, educational equality, economic stability, the right to purchase alcohol, and the same amount of respect given to other American war veterans."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book We Gave Our Best written by Kayleen Reusser and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Kayleen Reusser brings a third volume of poignant tales from interviews she conducted with more than 250 World War II veterans around the nation. Memories from men and women raised on farms and in small towns and cities bring the war to a personal level."--Back cover.
Download or read book Looking for the Good War written by Elizabeth D. Samet and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A remarkable book, from its title and subtitle to its last words . . . A stirring indictment of American sentimentality about war.” —Robert G. Kaiser, The Washington Post In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life. She exposes the confusion about American identity that was expressed during and immediately after the war, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans—all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States’ “exceptional” history and destiny. Samet finds the war's ambivalent legacy in some of its most heavily mythologized figures: the war correspondent epitomized by Ernie Pyle, the character of the erstwhile G.I. turned either cop or criminal in the pulp fiction and feature films of the late 1940s, the disaffected Civil War veteran who looms so large on the screen in the Cold War Western, and the resurgent military hero of the post-Vietnam period. Taken together, these figures reveal key elements of postwar attitudes toward violence, liberty, and nation—attitudes that have shaped domestic and foreign policy and that respond in various ways to various assumptions about national identity and purpose established or affirmed by World War II. As the United States reassesses its roles in Afghanistan and the Middle East, the time has come to rethink our national mythology: the way that World War II shaped our sense of national destiny, our beliefs about the use of American military force throughout the world, and our inability to accept the realities of the twenty-first century’s decades of devastating conflict.
Download or read book To Hear Only Thunder Again written by Mark David Van Ells and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The paucity of scholarly literature on World War II veteran readjustment might lead one to believe these nearly sixteen million men and women simply took off their uniforms after the War and reintegrated into society with ease. Mark D. Van Ells path-breaking work is the first serious analysis of the immense effort that was required to avoid the potential social decay so often associated with veteran reintegration. To Hear Only Thunder Again explores the topical issues of educational, health, employment, housing, medical, and personal readjustment faced by veterans while continuously situating these issues against the backdrop of society's political response. Never before, or since, had Americans taken such a keen interest in veterans' affairs. While post-World War II America was spared the problem of veteran unemployment and while veterans were not associated with crime and political disorder--as had often been the case after World War I--the package of readjustment benefits devised that allowed for such a smooth transition was extremely expensive. Veterans of later wars never received as much assistance and consequently experienced more difficulty returning to civilian life. Van Ells' work ensures that these lessons of the Second World War are not entirely lost. To Hear Only Thunder Again provides an unprecedented exploration of a period largely neglected by military historians.
Download or read book Coming Out Under Fire written by Allan Bérubé and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2010-09-07 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, as the United States called on its citizens to serve in unprecedented numbers, the presence of gay Americans in the armed forces increasingly conflicted with the expanding antihomosexual policies and procedures of the military. In Coming Out Under Fire, Allan Berube examines in depth and detail these social and political confrontation--not as a story of how the military victimized homosexuals, but as a story of how a dynamic power relationship developed between gay citizens and their government, transforming them both. Drawing on GIs' wartime letters, extensive interviews with gay veterans, and declassified military documents, Berube thoughtfully constructs a startling history of the two wars gay military men and women fough--one for America and another as homosexuals within the military. Berube's book, the inspiration for the 1995 Peabody Award-winning documentary film of the same name, has become a classic since it was published in 1990, just three years prior to the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which has continued to serve as an uneasy compromise between gays and the military. With a new foreword by historians John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, this book remains a valuable contribution to the history of World War II, as well as to the ongoing debate regarding the role of gays in the U.S. military.
Download or read book When Books Went to War written by Molly Guptill Manning and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New York Times bestselling account of books parachuted to soldiers during WWII is a “cultural history that does much to explain modern America” (USA Today). When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned 100 million books. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops, gathering 20 million hardcover donations. Two years later, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million specially printed paperbacks designed for troops to carry in their pockets and rucksacks in every theater of war. These small, lightweight Armed Services Editions were beloved by the troops and are still fondly remembered today. Soldiers read them while waiting to land at Normandy, in hellish trenches in the midst of battles in the Pacific, in field hospitals, and on long bombing flights. This pioneering project not only listed soldiers’ spirits, but also helped rescue The Great Gatsby from obscurity and made Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, into a national icon. “A thoroughly engaging, enlightening, and often uplifting account . . . I was enthralled and moved.” — Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried “Whether or not you’re a book lover, you’ll be moved.” — Entertainment Weekly
Download or read book The Last Jump written by John E. Nevola and published by Outskirts Press. This book was released on 2010-07 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mothers last dying wish propels her only son headlong into an unexpected adventure as revealed in The Last Jump. Fact and fiction intermix seamlessly as he endeavors to unravel a secret passionately guarded by four old soldiers who swore an oath never to reveal it. The Last Jump is a war story, a mystery, a love tale and a narrative of valor and honor about the gritty men and women who won World War II. The reader is transported back to a time when Americans stood shoulder to shoulder in defense of their nation. It was an imperfect America, with all its incredible virtues and vexing shortcomings, that struggled with racial and gender issues while fighting for its very survival. As our protagonist reaches out to these aging veterans to solve the puzzle, he uncovers truths he could never have imagined including the shocking conclusion. Visit our website Send me your comments
Download or read book Double Threat written by Ellin Bessner and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "He died so Jewry should suffer no more." These words on a Canadian Jewish soldier's tombstone in Normandy inspired the author to explore the role of Canadian Jews in the war effort. As PM Mackenzie King wrote in 1947, Jewish servicemen faced a "double threat" - they were not only fighting against Fascism but for Jewish survival. At the same time, they encountered widespread antisemitism and the danger of being identified as Jews if captured. Bessner conducted hundreds of interviews and extensive archival research to paint a complex picture of the 17,000 Canadian Jews - about 10 per cent of the Jewish population in wartime Canada - who chose to enlist, including future Cabinet minister Barney Danson, future game-show host Monty Hall, and comedians Wayne and Shuster. Added to this fascinating account are Jews who were among the so-called "Zombies" - Canadians who were drafted, but chose to serve at home - the various perspectives of the Jewish community, and the participation of Canadian Jewish women.
