<p>"Bush Kicks Off Foreign Language Initiative" Link to DoD article:
<a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2006/20060105_3849.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2006/20060105_3849.html</a></p>
<p>You flygirls out there might want to check this out:
<a href="http://www.thaiwave.com/hwelte/%5B/url%5D">http://www.thaiwave.com/hwelte/</a></p>
<p>Thanks for posting that AWESOME link navy09mom!</p>
<p>a good book about life at Annapolis would be:</p>
<p>Annapolis Autumn - Bruce Fleming.</p>
<p>other good military books:</p>
<p>On Vietnam:</p>
<p>Patriots
Everything We Had
Fallen Angels</p>
<p>WWII:</p>
<p>Band of Brothers
Flags of Our Fathers</p>
<p>Service Academies:
West Point:</p>
<p>Dress Gray
Full Dress Gray
Absolutely American</p>
<p>Annapolis:</p>
<p>Annapolis Autumn
The US Naval Academy: An Illustrated History
(good book; has to do from the Academy's first years up until the early 90's or so. has its boring parts.)</p>
<p>The Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II
by Leo Litwak</p>
<p>Here's an interesting one -- not exactly "military" but tangential to USNA:</p>
<p>State of Grace by Robert Timberg</p>
<p>He is the author of Nightengale's Song. This book is autobiographical and mostly about the Lynvets -- a sandlot football team (post high school and very big in New York in the 50's and 60's). His decision to attend the Academy -- and the influence of his teammates on his future military leadership -- is is interwoven with the story of the team. Great reading for football lovers!</p>
<p>I just ordered "Imperial Grunts". It looked really interesting and I just read somewhere that President Bush is currently reading it.</p>
<p>Flemming: thought the mids were boycotting his stuff? Seems to me when we were there I saw a few walking around with tee-shirts saying "Set Aside- and Proud of it" or something like that. Talk about ruffling some annapolis feathers-</p>
<p>The Art of War
Band of Brothers
All the Michael Shaara (?) books (I second Killer Angels)
The Hunt for Red October
The Flight of the Intruder
Rogue Warrior</p>
<p>"American Soldier" written by General Tommy Franks. It is a great account of the path of a college dropout to 4 star general- quite amazing. Also, the autobiography of Norman Schwartzkopf is outstanding (there is a chapter or two on West Point if I remember correctly).</p>
<p>Dink - GaDink</p>
<p>Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story about Love and the U.S. Marine Corps </p>
<p>John & Frank Schaeffer</p>
<p>The Pentagon's New Map and Blue Print For Action both by Thomas P M Barnett are must reads</p>
<p>"Becoming a Leader the Annapolis Way" by Johnson and Harper. It came out last year. It offers a really good overview of the leadership training. For those of us with incoming plebes, and especially those with no first hand experience with Annapolis or the military, it offers some real insight into the plebe experience and how it lays the groundwork for military leadership. I've encouraged my son to read it before I-Day.</p>
<p>Gates of Fire---my all-time favorite
The Warrior Elite
Down Range
D-Day (Ambrose)
Citizen Soldiers
Omaha Beach
Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper
The Germany Way of War</p>
<p>and those are just a few...</p>
<p>Anything by Tom Clancy, especially his NON-fiction stuff.</p>
<p>Anything by Ambrose.</p>
<p>Just finished "Faith of My Fathers" by John McCain. Great book - some interesting commentary on the US Naval Academy from a midshipman's perspective. Also a lot of naval history about his father and grandfather, and of course his years in the Hanoi Hilton. </p>
<p>Also just found out that John (Jack) McCain, his son, is now a plebe at the Academy. Fourth generation of John McCains to become a midshipman. What a legacy!</p>
<p>Gotta include The Long Gray Line.</p>
<p>West Point class of 1966 </p>
<p>Rick Atkinson is a Pulitzer Prize winning author - great read</p>
<p>Anyone considering service to the nation must read Anton Myer's "Once an Eagle".</p>
<p>Starship Troopers... not the movie, good for leadership lessons.</p>
<p>One Bullet Away, by Nathaniel Flick, former USMC Captain. He was one of the first troops in Afganistan after 9/11 and Iraq. Tells of his time from PLC, to Infantry Officer training to his time in Force Recon as well as his experiances in combat.</p>
<p>and Gates of Fire, as said, is a must read.</p>
<p>Thanks for all these good suggestions. I've only read a couple and look forward to reading more of these titles.</p>
<p>"The Things They Carried" is a work of genius. </p>
<p>I wasn't a fan of "Annapolis Autumn," though. Author (and USNA English instructor) Fleming is, of course, welcome to his opinion that Annapolis offers a substandard education, but I grew weary of his personal indulgences-- especially those about his own impressive physique, his solitary resistance to administrative dogma, and his unique understanding of the plebe mind. I kept thinking, even hoping, he'd pull himself together and find a job that suited him better.</p>