rapidfire In Review
Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Af- termath. By Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009. $30. ISBN 978-0-374- 27260-9.
Boy Scouts Jam Out n expected 43,000 Boy Scouts and their leaders are gearing up for the 2010 National Scout Jamboree and 100-year celebration of scouting in
A
the U.S. The July 26 get-together at Fort A.P. Hill, Va., in- cludes activities like kayaking and trap-shooting. Sir Robert Baden-Powell, a lieutenant general in the
British army and founder of the Scout movement, once characterized the importance of the jamboree at its 10th installment, saying “The secret of its growth lies in that indeterminate force which we know as the ‘Scout spirit.’ ” Baden-Powell’s idea for the Scouts came from the military scouting models of the time. The military parallels continue today: Several promi- nent military offi cials will speak at the jamboree.
TRICAREUPDATE
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF wants servicemembers to know it is OK to get help for behavioral health-related conditions. In a new video available at
www.tricare.mil/mentalhealth, Adm. Mike Mullen, USN, sends a strong message to servicemembers struggling with feelings of stress, anxiety, or depression. Troops should tell someone in their chain of com- mand if they are having difficulties working through stress from deployments or the demands of military life. These are issues all servicemembers might have at one time or another, Mullen says. By ignoring them, servicemembers can hurt not only themselves but also their family, friends, and colleagues. “The truth is, many people are reluctant to seek
counseling because they fear the stigma attached to psychological or emotion problems,” Mullen says.
2 2 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R J U LY 2 0 1 0
Military duty in
the Philip- pines in
1941 was a dream-like paradise
until the Japanese invaded and a nightmare ensued for the Americans and Filipinos. The fall of the Philippines in 1942 and the Bataan Death March and its horrible aftermath are infamous events of World War II in the Pa- cifi c, now graphically and brilliantly presented in this book.
The authors describe
the heroic but futile de- fense of the Philippines by unprepared American and Filipino soldiers, their crushing defeat by a veteran Japanese “army of savage intent” and the years of unbelievable suf- fering as POWs. This is a violent and
sad story of men sub- jected to unspeakable cruelty. POWs died by the thousands from deliberate starvation, torture, dis- ease, forced labor, mad- ness, and murder.
Tales of incredible
courage and shameful cowardice, as well as the resulting war-crimes tri- als, bring this battle home.
Men at War: A Soldier’s- Eye View of the Most Im- portant Battles in History. Edited by Bill Fawcett. Berkley Caliber, 2009. $15. ISBN 978- 0-425-23013-8.
These eight battlefi eld vignettes written
by distin- guished authors
and historians show war through the eyes of seven soldiers and one sailor. Starting with Caesar’s
Gallic War of the fi rst cen- tury B.C. and ending with a story from Vietnam, these warriors explain their combat experiences under the harshest conditions imaginable — the fear, uncertainty, exhilaration, courage, and chaos of close-quarters battle as only fi ghting men know. Featured accounts in-
clude an English knight outside the walls of Jerusalem during the Third Crusade; a Union soldier at Gettysburg, Pa., in 1863; a soldier on D-Day in Nor- mandy, France; a Marine freezing at the Chosin Res- ervoir in Korea in 1950; and a Navy SEAL during a night ambush in Vietnam in 1969. — William D. Bushnell
PHOTO: TOP, PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS STEVE ORR, USN/DOD
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84