rapidfire
SPOUSE COUNCIL WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS MOAA’s Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Coun- cil (CSSAC) — a diverse group of active duty and reserve-component spouses who represent the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard — of- ficially began its 2016-17 term in September with a team of returning CSSAC members from the 2015-16 cohort and 10 new members who will have the option of continuing to 2018. New members include Michelle Aikman, Jude Black, Tiffany Bodge, Meghann Boyd, Kelly Kreis, Wes Loyd, Jacqueline McKenna, Jeri Noel, Kathy Thorp, and Mattrice Williamson. Returning members include Kerry Brooks, Rachel Conley, Lisa Curtin, Nerissa Custer, Scott Dardenelle, Terry Gruny, Rita Owens, Stacey Porter, Meredith Reed, Elizabeth Shaw, Tammie Smiley, and Anne Walsh. Learn more about CSSAC, shown below, at
www.moaa.org/spouseandfamily.
In Review
An Untaken Road: Strategy, Technology, and the Hidden History of America’s Mobile ICBMs. By Steven A. Pomeroy. Naval Institute Press, 2016. $44.95. ISBN 978-1-61251-973-9.
During the Cold War, America’s nuclear triad (bombers, submarines, and static missile silos) off ered credible nuclear deterrence and fi rst-strike capability. Technology his- torian and Air Force veteran Steven Pomeroy gives the hidden history of America’s survivable second-strike option — the ambitious plan for land-based mobile ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) systems based on truck and rail plat- forms — systems that were never built.
This is a fascinating Rebuilding Together
Rebuilding Together, a leading national nonprofit dedicated to providing safe and healthy housing, partnered with Home Depot, USAA, and other busi- nesses for Operation Freedom 2016 in Dallas. The event, which wrapped up on Veterans Day, focused on repairing, remodeling, and rebuilding homes in the greater Dallas area for veterans, injured first re- sponders, and families of fallen responders. For additional information about Rebuilding Togeth- er, visit
www.rebuildingtogether.org.
story of science, technology, and politics from the mid- 1950s to 1980s, as the Navy and Air Force bickered and scientists, engineers, politi- cians, and meddling bu- reaucrats feuded over roles, missions, funds, resources, and infl uence amid con- stantly shifting foreign and domestic policies. Although it reads like
a very technical doctoral thesis, Pomeroy’s history
22 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2016
and analysis explain the in- vention and development of creative, mobile ICBM plat- forms and why none ever ultimately was built.
Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story. By Matti Friedman. Algonquin Books, 2016. $25.95. ISBN 978-1- 61620-458-7.
In the late 1990s
1990s, award- winning
ard-
author Matti Friedman was an Is-
raeli soldier stationed in
a fortifi ed outpost in south- ern Lebanon fi ghting in “a forgotten little corner of a forgotten little war.”
As Friedman relates, his hilltop outpost, called the pumpkin, was on the Red Line in the security zone between northern Israel and southern Lebanon. The enemy was Hezbollah, a guerrilla force backed by Iran and Syria. Friedman’s poignant memoir is a vivid portrayal of a platoon of combat engineers pro- tecting a position under constant threat of snipers, ground assault, mortar and rocket attack, and IEDs. Years later, Friedman
returned to Lebanon to visit the pumpkin and relive those days and nights of boredom, homesickness,
and violent combat. — William D. Bushnell
PHOTO: MIKE MORONES
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