In the decades since the Vietnam War, veteran memoirs have influenced Americans' understanding of the conflict. Yet few historians or literary scholars have scrutinized how the genre has shaped the nation's collective memory of the war and its aftermath. Instead, veterans' accounts are mined for colorful quotes and then dropped from public discourse; are accepted as factual sources with little attention to how memory, no matter how authentic, can diverge from events; or are not contextualized in terms of the race, gender, or class of the narrators. Veteran Narratives and the Collective Memory of the Vietnam War is a landmark study of the cultural heritage of the war in Vietnam as presented through the experience of its American participants. Crossing disciplinary borders in ways rarely attempted by historians, John A. Wood unearths truths embedded in the memoirists' treatments of combat, the Vietnamese people, race relations in the United States military, male-female relationships in the war zone, and veterans' postwar troubles. He also examines the publishing industry's influence on collective memory, discussing, for example, the tendency of publishers and reviewers to privilege memoirs critical of the war. Veteran Narratives is a significant and original addition to the literature on Vietnam veterans and the conflict as a whole.

Initially, the author intended to write a book entitled "Alleviating Stress of the Soldier". However, after going through the extensive literature and recalling his childhood memories of war times, he decided to write "Alleviating Stress of the Soldier and Civilian". Sufficient historical evidence indicates that both soldiers as well as civilians have faced the war and tolerated its deleterious consequences simultaneously. However, a soldier and his/her family face unexpected and unpredictable stresses requiring: physical and mental fitness, character, dedication, commitment, communication, mutual understanding, adjustment, discipline, tolerance, patience, isolation, resilience, hyper-vigilance, minimum vulnerability, sanitation, nutritional stress, sleep deprivation, patriotism, and sacrifice. This book (i) confers basic knowledge of diversified stresses; (ii) prepares readers to face stresses with patience, endurance, and resilience; (iii) and presents novel strategies of alleviating physical, psychological, and physiological stresses of war-wounded soldiers, prisoners of war (POWs), and veterans. The book guides the soldiers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, SEALS (sea, air, and land), POWs, and civilians to handle their professional and family stresses without having to suffer from Combat Stress Reaction (CSR) or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) before, during, and/or after the war or conflict. It also guides those who experienced early childhood neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse, and other stresses of diversified origin. It is envisaged that this timely released book will be particularly of great interest to the soldier's family members, their spouses, children, parents, relatives, and friends because of its motivational messages, immediate demand, and versatility. The author hopes that this unique manuscript will encourage, motivate, excite, and guide young soldiers, civilians, and their families to tackle stresses with courage, patience, and resilience to successfully accomplish their trainings, adventurous professional career, and married life.

One of the most important public figures in antebellum America, Winfield Scott is known today more for his swagger than his sword. ""Old Fuss-and-Feathers"" was a brilliant military commander whose tactics and strategy were innovative adaptations from European military theory; yet he was often under appreciated by his contemporaries and until recently overlooked by historians. While John Eisenhower's Agent of Destiny provides a solid summary of Scott's remarkable life, Timothy D. Johnson's much deeper critical exploration of this flawed genius should become the standard work. Thoroughly grounded in an essential understanding of nineteenth-century military professionalism, it draws extensively on unpublished sources in order to reveal neglected aspects of Scott's life, present a more complete view of his career, and accurately balance criticism and praise. Johnson dramatically relates the key features of Scott's career: how he led troops to victory in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, fought against the Seminoles and Creeks, and was instrumental in professionalizing the U.S. Army, which he commanded for two decades. He also tells how Scott tried to introduce French methods into army tactical manuals, and how he applied his study of the Napoleonic Wars during the Mexico City Campaign but found European strategy of little use against Indians. Johnson further suggests that Scott's creation of an officer corps that boasted Grant, Lee, McClellan and other veterans of the Mexican War raises important questions about his influence on Civil War generalship. More than a military history, this book tells how Scott's aristocratic pretensions placed him at odds with emerging notions of equality in Jacksonian America and made him an unappealing politician in his bid for the presidency. Johnson not only recounts the facets of Scott's personality that alienated nearly everyone who knew him but also reveals the unsavory methods he used to promote his career and the scandalous ways he attempted to relieve his lifelong financial troubles. Although his legendary vanity has tarnished his place among American military leaders, Scott is shown to have possessed great talent and courage. Johnson's biography offers the most balanced portrait available of Scott by never losing sight of the whole man.

After the feverish mobilization of secession had faded, why did Southern men join the Confederate army? Kenneth Noe examines the motives and subsequent performance of ""later enlisters."" He offers a nuanced view of men who have often been cast as less patriotic and less committed to the cause, rekindling the debate over who these later enlistees were, why they joined, and why they stayed and fought. Noe refutes the claim that later enlisters were more likely to desert or perform poorly in battle and reassesses the argument that they were less ideologically savvy than their counterparts who enlisted early in the conflict. He argues that kinship and neighborhood, not conscription, compelled these men to fight: they were determined to protect their families and property and were fueled by resentment over emancipation and pillaging and destruction by Union forces. But their age often combined with their duties to wear them down more quickly than younger men, making them less effective soldiers for a Confederate nation that desperately needed every able-bodied man it could muster. Reluctant Rebels places the stories of individual soldiers in the larger context of the Confederate war effort and follows them from the initial optimism of enlistment through the weariness of battle and defeat.

In 1965, the first incidents of armed resistance occurred in South West Africa. The military wing of SWAPO, called the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), established a base at Ongulumbashe, in northern South West Africa, from where they intended to launch their armed struggle. However, the South African Police were quick to attack the base successfully.

This set the stage for a war that would continue over the next thirty years. The Army was involved soon, and when the Portuguese left Angola in 1975, it created a vacuum which saw an entirely different situation arising. The Cubans rushed to Angola in aid of the newly established MPLA Government, while the South African Defence Force, at the request of the United States, invaded southern Angola to counter the Cuban threat, as well as establish Jonas Savimbi's Unita Party.

Over the next months and years the war escalated to new heights. There was a sudden demand for more and better arms and an even bigger demand for specialist groups within the existing military. This was quickly changed from a conventional to a counter-insurgency force. In 1968, a Special Forces group was born with the first "unconventional warfare" course. In 1969, Captain Jan Breytenbach and General Fritz Loots were the first commanders of this group. These two gentlemen are considered the fathers of the South African Special Forces.

The first group was 1 Reconnaissance Commando, followed by 4 Reconnaissance Commando. Later it was changed to Reconnaissance Regiments, and referred to as the Recces, with 1 Recce in Durban, 4 Recce in Langebaan, 5 Recce in Phalaborwa. 2 Recce were members of the civilian force, and 3 Recce was disbanded. The brave and daring exploits of the Recces became legendary, and was rated at the time on the same operational levels as the SAS, SBS, the Marines, the Seals and the Green Berets. As the war on the border between South West Africa and Angola developed, it became known as the Bush War, or Border War, a war mainly fought between South Africa and the Russian backed Cuban forces.

And here is my story. The story that was my life. The story which I have written to the best of my recollection and experience. This book was not written to discuss the technical and/or tactical aspects of Operation Argon, but to give the reader an inside glimpse into a part of my life that determined the remaining part of it. The psychological effects of these two and a half years have been huge, and I am still experiencing the effects today, thirty years later. And it will probably continue to do so for the rest of my life.

With the production and release of the documentary Plot for Peace, I realised that the time has come to write this book, to take the reader on an intriguing journey behind the scenes that few people knew about. This is where the quote from Tennyson's poem The Charge of the Light Brigade: "Yours is not to reason why, Yours is but to do or die..." is so superbly depicted in a true life story. My own, in Judas Goat. My life and the lives of Corporal Rowland Liebenberg and Corporal Louis van Breda. I acknowledge the role that my fellow operators played.

This story is not about your selfless service, it's not about your respective heroics, that is why I did not elaborate your roles in Operation Argon, but rather concentrated on my own emotions, how I experienced it, and where my weaknesses and strengths were highlighted. A large part of my story cannot give documentary proof. It is based on my experience and the information conveyed to me by many sources, with whom I physically came into contact over the course of many years.

Everything in this book reflects my perception of the truth, and what had actually happened. In the end it is for the reader to decide what is truth and what is not.

In Mei 1985 land 'n nege-man-span van die Suid-Afrikaanse Spesiale Magte op 'n strand in die olieryke Cabinda-provinsie van Angola. Hul uitsluitlike doel is die vernietiging van ses massiewe olie-opgaartenks. Die daaropvolgende skietgeveg lei tot die dood van twee soldate en die gevangeneming van kaptein Wynand du Toit. Dit alles dui op een ding: Verraad!

Lees hier in sy eie woorde die gebeure van daardie nag en die diepgaande nagmerrie van sy gevangeneskap, die sameswerings en die uiteindelike afleiding dat die hele operasie slegs 'n openingskuif was wat uiteindelik die Suid-Afrikaanse volk moes mislei tot oorgawe in Angola en die onafhanklikheid van Namibie¨"

The Civil War in New Mexico began in 1861 with the Confederate invasion and occupation of the Mesilla Valley. At the same time, small villages and towns in New Mexico Territory faced raids from Navajos and Apaches. In response the commander of the Department of New Mexico Colonel Edward Canby and Governor Henry Connelly recruited what became the First and Second New Mexico Volunteer Infantry. In this book leading Civil War historian Jerry Thompson tells their story for the first time, along with the history of a third regiment of Mounted Infantry and several companies in a fourth regiment. Thompson's focus is on the Confederate invasion of 1861-1862 and its effects, especially the bloody Battle of Valverde. The emphasis is on how the volunteer companies were raised; who led them; how they were organized, armed, and equipped; what they endured off the battlefield; how they adapted to military life; and their interactions with New Mexico citizens and various hostile Indian groups, including raiding by deserters and outlaws. Thompson draws on service records and numerous other archival sources that few earlier scholars have seen. His thorough accounting will be a gold mine for historians and genealogists, especially the appendix, which lists the names of all volunteers and militia men.

Compiled by a serving military chaplain

Raised as an army brat, Angie Ricketts though she knew what she was in for when she eloped with Darrin - then an Infantry Lieutenant - on the eve of his deployment to Somalia. Since then, Darrin, now a Colonel, has been deployed eight times, serving four of those tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Ricketts has lived every one of those deployments intimately - distant enough to survive the years apart from her husband, but close enough to share a common purpose and a lifestyle they both love.With humor, candor, and a brazen attitude, Ricketts pulls back the curtain on a subculture many readers know, but few ill ever experience Counter to the dramatized snapshot seen on Lifetime's Army Wives, Ricketts digs into the personalities and posturing that officers' wives must survive daily - whether navigating a social event at the base, suffering through a husband's prolonged deployment, or reacting to a close friend's death in combat.At its core, No Man's War is a story of sisterhood and survival. As Ricketts states: "We tread those treacherous waters together. Do we sometimes shove each other's heads underwater for a few seconds? Maybe even on purpose? Of course. Are we sometimes dragged underwater ourselves by the undertow created by all of us struggling together too closely? Without a doubt. But we never let each other drown. Our buoyancy is our survival."