Military Career
Mentorship
Professional Development
Military History
Professionalism
The "Fred" Factor. Awesome book.
A Message to Garcia. Good essay on getting the job done.
"Achilles in Vietnam". As a Soldier, NCO or officer, you will deal with someone with PTSD sooner or later, or you might have it yourself. This book will help you understand PTSD using the return of Achilles from the Trojan war as a metaphore.
Awesome book.
On Killing by Col. David Grossman
On Combat by Col. David Grossman
Histories by Herodotus
On War by Carl Von Clausewitz
Masters of War by Michael Handel
The Challenge of Command by Colonel Roger Nye
A great recommendation thanks to CPT Robert McCormick: for portability, convenience, and ability to hold multiple titles try the Amazon Kindle... the basic reader is very inexpensive and you can take an entire library along with you anywhere. Go to http://www.gutenberg.org/ for a ton of great FREE reading material! Many eBooks are now public domain and considered legal and completely free to download; ~42K totally FREE eBooks include some of the greatest classic literature ever written. Excellent advice, thanks again CPT McCormick!
Working on a staff, the ideas outlined in here are a great way to get out of the rut staffs inevitable run into - projects, workload, meetings, hiring, etc. RECOMMENDED!!!!
The prose is stilted to today's ear, and some of the examples seem absurdly simple, but a GREAT book to read once a year.
I have a fairly extensive library; most of the titles came at the recommendation of various first line supervisors and commanders over the years.
But my favorite is one that is a little lesser known:
"To the Last Man: Kubles' Mongrels at the Chosin" by MAJ (Ret.) Frank Kestner, Sr.
It is a fairly simple telling of PVT Kestner's experiences at the Chosin Reservoir in 1950 with D CO, 10th EN (yes, there were a few Army Sappers up there). No great tactics, no shining examples of great leadership, just a great story of U.S. Sodliers and Marines standing strong against incredible odds in some of the worst conditions imaginable. It is not an easy book to find but there are a few copies available on Amazon; I highly recommend it.
CPT M, thanks for your reply and for sharing your methodology, I also keep notes on professional reading recommendations from courses, classes, mentors, friends, etc. The larger body of consolidated notes is more than I could likely consume in a lifetime, although it has served as a great academic reference, as well as for recommendations for those I mentor, and for building my own library as well. I've attached a link for MAJ Kestner's book "To the Last Man..." and just one quick admin note for those who may not be familiar with Amazon; this will take you to the main area for this book, you can shop prices, options, and sellers from here by navigating through the links. Again, thank you for sharing you wisdom along with an outstanding book recommendation!
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