I wanted to give everyone some things to do during your downtime. I have talked about military movies in the past, so I thought books would be the next best thing to cover. I have always been a firm believer in trying to learn new things. I believe during downtime; you should be doing what you can to improve wherever you can. I had an old C.O. that use to say, “always improve your fighting position.” He meant that you might think you are good, but you can always be better. Uses downtime to improve yourself. You can take a dive COI online or read about different things that might help you. There used to be a time you would have to take books with you on deployment to give you something to do when you were not working. I have always tried to read books about military history as I think you can still learn from the past. Here are some books in no order, but The Element of Surprise by Darryl Young is one of my favorites. There are many SEAL Vietnam books, and this was the first one I read and the one I like the most. I had more on here, but I cut it back. I took books out that are also movies, like Band of Brothers, Black Hawk Down, and We were Soldiers. As I am sure you know, you will get more from the book than from the movie. I also left out the books I know everyone has read or knows about or says they have read, like Sun Tzu, many people love to say they have read that book.
The Element of Surprise by Darryl Young
Journals of Robert Rogers of the Rangers by Robert Rogers
Inside the V.C. and the NVA by Michael Lanning and Dan Cragg
On War by Carl von Clausewitz
Attack by Erwin Rommel
On Guerrilla Warfare: Mao Tse-tung
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
The Liberator by Alex Kershaw
Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
Stormtrooper Tactics: Innovation in the German Army by Bruce Gudmundsson
The One that Got Away by Chris Ryan
The Odd Angry Shot by William Nagle and Paul Ham
Into the Mouth of the Cat: The Story of Lance Sijan, by Malcolm McConnell
My Commando Operations by Otto Skorzeny
Commando: Special Forces in World War II by Kenneth Macksey
American Commando: Evans Carlson, His Marine Raiders by John F. Wukovits
Striking Back: A Jewish Commando’s War Against the Nazis by Peter Masters
The Water is Never Cold: The Origins of U.S. Naval Combat Demolition Units, UDTs, and SEALs. by James Odell
We Few U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam by Nick Brokhausen
The Swamp Fox How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller
The Jedburghs The Secret History of the Allied Special Forces by Will Irwin
SOG The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos in Vietnam by John Plaster
Kokoda by Peter Fitzsimons
Never in Finer Company the Men of the Great War’s Lost Battalion by Edward G. Lengel
Brandenburg Division – Commandos of the Reich by Eric Lefevre
Bush War Operator by A.J. Balaam
Fire in the Night: Wingate of Burma, by John Smith
German Combat Divers in World War II by Michael Jung
Descent into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941: A Navy Diver’s Memoir by Edward C. Raymer
Soldier Five, The Real Truth About the Bravo Two Zero Mission by Mike Coburn
SAS: Secret War in South East Asia by Peter Dickens
The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan by Lester W. Grau,
Tribe: Sebastian Junger
The Last 100 Yards the NCO contribution to Warfare: by H.J. Pool
One to add would be The Other Side of the Mountain, the companion book for The Bear Went Over the Mountain
Good point. Those are books you should read with a highlighter
Would have been nice if I had read them about 19 years ago. All kinds of good info
One more to add to those two The Zinky Boys it is 1st hand accounts from Russian soldiers from their time in country the name comes from the zink coffins they where returned in. I read it while I was there, interesting to see what it was like for them compared to us.
Thanks for the list.
Hmmmm.
I’d add to ‘The Odd Angry Shot’ the following:
-‘Through Enemy Eyes’ by David Sabben
-‘View From A Low Bough’ by Barrie Crowley
-‘When The Buffalo Fight’ by Lex McAuley
Cheers,
Linz
I did forget “ sleeping with your ears open” Gary McKay, i will look those other ones up. Thanks
You might also (if you can find them)…
‘First To Fight’ (Bob Breen): 1 RAR service with 173 AB in SVN (contrasting styles)
‘Behind Enemy Lines’ (O’Farrel): personal account of SAS ops in SVN.
Thanks
One an eagle by anton meyer is a goodie. Its one I recommend to my friends children to read when they get the idea to serve in the military.
John, the series is called ‘Once an Eagle’, and you are being way too simplistic in stating you “recommend this to friends children when they get the idea to serve in our military”.
The protagonist in Once an Eagle is actually a stand up flag O, who actually gives a fuck. Maybe you could of been a bit more in detail and mentioned to those not in the know that it is the antagonist Courtney Massengale who is the political douche of the series. Just because we have a lot of generals and admirals like Courtney Douche-Massengale in reality Thant doesn’t mean good men and women can’t serve in our armed forces and remain honorable.
I’d presume it’s you who is real douche since you didn’t mention your own children or if you ever have any.
Crazy that you made Darryl Young your first mention. I had the honor of meeting him when was in college at the University of Montana in the 90’s. We had to read “The Element of Suprise” and then he came to the class and talked to us, actually signed my copy. I got to hold the leaf spring with the lizard outline pictured in the book.