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Dozens of new military books arrive in stores every month and it’s often tough to figure out whether a new title is worth picking up. We’ll help you out there — our reviewers comb through each week’s new arrivals looking for worthy titles to add to your collection. Read our reviews here.

Homefront heroes
The childhood of second-grader Jake “Dutch” Tatum juxtaposes wonderment with anxiety.
Portrait series memorializes World War II vets
While a student two years ago at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Thomas Sanders wandered into The Villages retirement home seeking “any interesting elderly people to...
Military marvels
A military career can certainly be adventurous. But for an airman and a former Marine, writing superhero action stories for comic-book giant Marvel has become the ultimate adventure experience.
Book Review: ‘Ike: An American Hero’
In his introduction to “Ike: An American Hero,” Michael Korda writes that “a reputation can be revised by a single great book.”
Book Review: “The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944”
A big book with a big story, “The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944” is the second volume in Rick Atkinson’s trilogy about the liberation of Western Europe by...
Scenes from a Wall
Michael Sofarelli’s “Letters on the Wall” opens with an anecdote, probably apocryphal, about a naval officer who tossed his dead brother’s Purple Heart into some wet concrete...
Books: Vietnam-era GI lighters tracked changing attitudes toward war
Given the countless lungs healed, lives rescued and dollars saved in today’s post-tobacco America — when cigarette companies have shrunk from their former ubiquity and smokers are pariahs...
Hard Corps
The moral of this story is pretty simple: As impossible as it may sometimes seem, people can change. Even small-minded, petty and violent criminals like Marco Martinez.
Vietnam-era GI lighters tracked changing attitudes toward war
Given the countless lungs healed, lives rescued and dollars saved in today’s post-tobacco America — when cigarette companies have shrunk from their former ubiquity and smokers are...
Savvy and sincere: Two war-zone accounts that stand out
The welcome mat for memoirs by veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom might never wear out so long as they write with the savvy of Brandon Friedman and the sincerity of Heidi...
‘15 Stars’ examines legendary generals’ intersecting lives
Gen. Douglas MacArthur didn’t walk on water, contrary to the image his staff cultivated throughout his 51-year Army career. In Stanley Weintraub’s new history of three great Americans,...
Former Joint Chiefs chair’s book to examine his tenure
Retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is working on a book he says will offer a rare inside look at the highest levels of the U.S. government in the post-Sept. 11...
With the 101st Airborne at war
A newly published history of the storied “Screaming Eagles” in Operation Iraqi Freedom is a rarity among books about the Iraq war.
Combat hero’s story is about his troops
In small type at the beginning of “My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story,” author Nathaniel R. Helms offers a clue about what to expect in the pages ahead:
Is Harry’s doom ahead in ‘Hallows’?
Could she? Would she?
Marvel buries Captain America at Arlington
NEW YORK — It’s a funeral fit for a superhero.
A command decision
Read edited excerpts of Sean Naylor's exclusive June 14 interview with Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of a SEAL mission gone terribly wrong.
‘Operation Homecoming’ collects wartime works of troops, families
An Army sergeant pours out his anger, frustration and fear after a particularly gruesome month in Iraq’s Anbar province.
‘Army@Love’ offers dark, bizarre look at future war
See pages from “Army@Love” No. 1 (mature audiences)
On watch at home
Each week, another new book is published that examines some aspect of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military members, authors and journalists alike come back from the war zones with...
A spouse’s tale of strength
Michelle Keener’s husband was deployed twice, and Keener had her hands full both times.
Decatur biography examines famed Navy commander’s life
During a dinner party in April 1816 at the Exchange Coffee House in Norfolk, Va., Commodore Stephen Decatur, the daring, skilled commander whose heroism became widespread news during the Barbary...
A novel approach to air war
Using a clever ruse that won’t be given away in this review, American F-4C Phantom II crews lured the North Vietnamese air force into battle and shot down seven of Hanoi’s MiG-21s with no...
‘Blog of War’ offers war-zone insights
Following the rise in popularity of blogs as a means of finding boots-on-the-ground perspective on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army cracked down on these online diaries, requiring that...
Captain America, 89; defender of freedom
Steve Rogers, a fine-arts student turned super-soldier who fought America’s enemies for more than six decades as Captain America, was assassinated while entering the U.S. Federal Court in New...
Comic hero Captain America dies — for now
Captain America has undertaken his last mission, but could he make a comeback?
‘We Were One’ follows 4 pairs of friends through Fallujah
It may not be considered a classic among recent Iraq war books, but “We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah” is still first-rate reading.
Oral history of Iraq vets weaves tales of courage, sacrifice
Readers who want a firsthand look at what is happening in Iraq have been rewarded with a handful of memoirs by war fighters.
Hero vs. Hero
During World War II, the U.S. unleashed more than just its military against the Axis powers. In the pages of comic books, a new and timely generation of superheroes -- Captain America, the Submariner...
9/11 — the graphic novel
Still haven’t found the time to wade through all 600-plus pages of “The 9/11 Commission Report”?
The art of war
Gen. William T. Sherman said “war is hell.” If it’s not, Tom Waltz’s graphic novel “Children of the Grave” lets you know it’s at least in the same...
Modern-day Spartan
In embedded journalist John Koopman’s book about the march into Baghdad, “McCoy’s Marines,” Lt. Col. Bryan P. “Darkside” McCoy has the title role.
Wounded reporter’s memoir offers view of amputee ward
“Blood Brothers: Among the Soldiers of Ward 57” may well become the touchstone for all writing on the experiences of wounded combat veterans who endure excruciating pain, amputation,...
'Roughneck' highlights little-known spec ops battle
Written by two combat-tested soldiers with unique access to special operations troops and records, "Roughneck Nine-One: The Extraordinary Story of a Special Forces A-Team at War" is a valuable...
Rescue mission
Most books about war focus on the battles, the lives lost and the strategic meaning of it all. "Rescuing Da Vinci" is something else altogether. This is a book about the contrast of good and evil and...
'Portrait of a Battle' goes inside Iwo
As a young student in the years after World War II, Eric Hammel's fascination with the battle of Iwo Jima began with Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's iconic portrait of the...
Transformation exploration
History books and classes generally come in two versions, focusing on either "just the facts" or the root causes behind world events.
'Air Combat' tells war tales in aviators' own words
When "Marine Air: The History of the Flying Leathernecks in Words and Photos" was published last fall, it offered a unique and highly illustrated history of an air arm whose tradition is as legendary...
Uncommon leadership
In "No Higher Honor," Bradley Peniston tells the story of the Perry-class frigate Samuel B. Roberts and its successful fight to survive the damage done April 14, 1988, by an Iranian mine during the...
From camp to combat
"They were superb. While taking terrific casualties, they showed rare courage and tremendous fighting spirit. Everybody wanted them," said Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall.
Bomber war's last days
It is easy to forget the courage of British and American bomber crews who waged the final air offensive against Germany in 1944 and 1945.
Battle for Fallujah gets insider's first-rate look
Although slim in size and scope, "Fighting for Fallujah: A New Dawn for Iraq" is an intense and vivid chronicle of a turning point in the counterinsurgency fight.
The picture that told a thousand stories
Ed Terella remembers that day in vivid detail, even though it happened in 1945. The young Marine private had been on Iwo Jima just four days when he and thousands of other Marines and sailors saw a...
4-stars offer battle of words in revisiting war planning
What happens in the Tank, stays in the Tank.
To tell the truth
Arguably, the best of the soldier memoirs that have been arriving almost monthly from the Middle East is “The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier’s Account of the...
Book excerpt: Mine strike in the gulf
In 1988, the guided-missile frigate Samuel B. Roberts headed to the Persian Gulf at the height of the Tanker War between Iran and Iraq. Its crew had a dangerous mission for their maiden deployment:...
Cartoonist kept loyal Air Force following with straight-laced adventures of fictional flyboy
Milton Caniff was hardly fighter pilot stock. If it weren’t for his phlebitis, a vein ailment, the narcolepsy alone would have barred him from the cockpit.
Excerpt from ‘Hard Corps’
Up overhead, Cobra helicopters whirled on their way to strafe roads and buildings. When the helos passed, the palm fronds on our trees swayed. As the gun battle inside the house raged on, I glanced...
Collection from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial shows a glimpse of survivors’ grief
Michael Sofarelli’s “Letters on the Wall” opens with an anecdote, probably apoc¬ryphal, about a naval officer who tossed his dead brother’s Pur¬ple Heart into some...

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