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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Military life & institutions
"It is impossible to reproduce the state of mind of the men who
waged war in 1917 and 1918," Edward Coffman wrote in "The War to
End All Wars." In "Doughboys on the Great War" the voices of
thousands of servicemen say otherwise. The majority of soldiers
from the American Expeditionary Forces returned from Europe in
1919. Where many were simply asked for basic data, veterans from
four states--Utah, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Virginia--were given
questionnaires soliciting additional information and "remarks."
Drawing on these questionnaires, completed while memories were
still fresh, this book presents a chorus of soldiers' voices
speaking directly of the expectations, motivations, and experiences
as infantrymen on the Western Front in World War I.
What was it like to kill or maim German soldiers? To see friends
killed or maimed by the enemy? To return home after experiencing
such violence? Again and again, soldiers wrestle with questions
like these, putting into words what only they can tell. They also
reflect on why they volunteered, why they fought, what their
training was, and how ill-prepared they were for what they found
overseas. They describe how they interacted with the civilian
populations in England and France, how they saw the rewards and
frustrations of occupation duty when they desperately wanted to go
home, and--perhaps most significantly--what it all added up to in
the end. Together their responses create a vivid and nuanced group
portrait of the soldiers who fought with the American Expeditionary
Forces on the battlefields of Aisne-Marne, Argonne Forest, Belleau
Wood, Chateau-Thierry, the Marne, Metz, Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel,
Sedan, and Verdun during the First World War.
The picture that emerges is often at odds with the popular
notion of the disillusioned doughboy. Though hardened and harrowed
by combat, the veteran heard here is for the most part proud of his
service, service undertaken for duty, honor, and country. In short,
a hundred years later, the doughboy once more speaks in his own
true voice.
Richard Gough was just 23 years old when the Falklands conflict
took place in 1982. He was the youngest weapons director to take
part in the conflict, seeing combat onboard the Type 21 frigate,
HMS Ardent. Six years later as a Chief Petty Officer he protected
British shipping in the Iran and Iraq tanker wars that disrupted
the Gulf region for nearly ten years. His final work with the Royal
Navy was to direct the acceptance firings of the fleets latest
missile system, Vertical Launch SeaWolf, onboard the Type 23
frigate HMS Norfolk. His book explores the role of the weapon
director in the fleet as well as revealing what it's really like to
be a sailor in the modern Royal Navy.
This book provides an in-depth analysis of sexual assault in the
military from historical and contemporary perspectives, offering
suggestions that could change the existing culture and approaches
that will reduce or eliminate sexual assault in the armed forces.
Sexual assault has been an aspect of the U.S. military historically
and is today widely recognized as a significant problem with
far-reaching repercussions. How does sexual assault negatively
impact not only the victims themselves but also the U.S. military's
strength, readiness, and morale? This book answers these questions
and documents the problems with reporting and prosecuting sexual
assault complaints within our armed forces, examines the current
policy and laws to identify what changes are needed, and analyzes
recent efforts to prevent sexual assault. Author Rosemarie Skaine
introduces the subject with a historical perspective that covers
women, men, gays and lesbians, and non-military personnel as the
subjects of sexual assault and provides readers with clear
definitions of sexual harassment and sexual assault. The chapters
explain how sexual assault negatively affects the military's
performance as a whole, thereby serving to undermine national
security; and covers preventative approaches and legislation
intended to change the current military culture. The book also
includes a bibliography, tables of key figures, and footnotes and
endnotes that fully document the data presented. Provides
fact-based analyses of one of the most pressing issues facing
today's U.S. military that will aid informed policy guidance for
policymakers in the military as well as those in higher
education-another institution grappling with the challenges of
eradicating sexual assault Written by a noted author on topics
regarding issues surrounding women who serve in today's military
Presents input from military contributors who add credibility and
invaluable insight into the problem of sexual assault within the
U.S. military
"Unlike cricket, which is a polite game, Australian Rules Football
creates a desire on the part of the crowd to tear someone apart,
usually the referee." This is only one of the entertaining and
astute observations the U.S. military provided in the pocket guides
distributed to the nearly one million American soldiers who landed
on the shores of Australia between 1942 and 1945. Although the Land
Down Under felt more familiar than many of their assignments
abroad, American GIs still needed help navigating the distinctly
different Aussie culture, and coming to their rescue was
"Instruction for American Servicemen in Australia, 1942," The
newest entry in the Bodleian Library's bestselling series of
vintage pocket guides, this pamphlet is filled with pithy notes on
Australian customs, language, and other cultural facts the military
deemed necessary for every American soldier.
From the native wildlife--a land of "funny animals"--to the
nation's colonial history to the general characteristics of
Australians--"an outdoors sort of people, breezy and very
democratic"--"Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia"
gives a concise yet amazingly informative overview of the island
nation. Regarding Aussie slang, it notes that "the Australian has
few equals in the world at swearing. . . . The commonest swear
words are 'bastard' (pronounced 'barstud'), 'bugger, ' and 'bloody,
' and the Australians have a genius for using the latter nearly
every other word." The pamphlet also contains a humorous
explanation of the country's musical traditions--including an
annotated text of "Waltzing Matilda"--as well as amusing passages
on sports, politics, and the Aussies' attitudes toward Yanks and
Brits.
A fascinating look at a neglected Allied front in the Southern
hemisphere, "Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia,
1942" follows its successful predecessors as a captivating
historical document of a pivotal era in history.
This book investigates the demobilization and post-war readjustment
of Red Army veterans in Leningrad and its environs after the Great
Patriotic War. Over 300,000 soldiers were stood down in this
war-ravaged region between July 1945 and 1948. They found the
transition to civilian life more challenging than many could ever
have imagined. For civilian Leningraders, reintegrating the rapid
influx of former soldiers represented an enormous political,
economic, social and cultural challenge. In this book, Robert Dale
reveals how these former soldiers became civilians in a society
devastated and traumatized by total warfare. Dale discusses how,
and how successfully, veterans became ordinary citizens. Based on
extensive original research in local and national archives, oral
history interviews and the examination of various newspaper
collections, Demobilized Veterans in Late Stalinist Leningrad peels
back the myths woven around demobilization, to reveal a darker
history repressed by society and concealed from historiography.
While propaganda celebrated this disarmament as a smooth process
which reunited veterans with their families, reintegrated them into
the workforce and facilitated upward social mobility, the reality
was rarely straightforward. Many veterans were caught up in the
scramble for work, housing, healthcare and state hand-outs. Others
drifted to the social margins, criminality or became the victims of
post-war political repression. Demobilized Veterans in Late
Stalinist Leningrad tells the story of both the failure of local
representatives to support returning Soviet soldiers, and the
remarkable resilience and creativity of veterans in solving the
problems created by their return to society. It is a vital study
for all scholars and students of post-war Soviet history and the
impact of war in the modern era.
In Warriors for a Living, Idan Sherer examines the experience of
the Spanish infantry during the formative period of the Italian
Wars. Decades of clashes between Spain and France transformed Italy
into a crucible of military tactics and technology and brought
about the emergence of the Spanish infantry tercios as Europe's
finest military force for more than a century. From their
recruitment, through the complexities of everyday life in the army
and culminating in the potential brutality of soldiering, the book
offers a fresh and much needed exploration, analysis and, at times,
reconsideration of what it meant to be a professional soldier in
early modern Europe.
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When we met, Sam shared his own story with me and explained his
growing passion to help other Soldiers suffering from
post-traumatic stress. I encouraged him to expand his efforts, and
we kept in touch after he retired. He shared with me the feedback
he received from Soldiers and their families after they had heard
his presentations, and he gave me a copy of his first book,
Changing the Military Culture of Silence. I could only be impressed
as he carried his message across the country. George W. Casey
General, US Army (Ret) Former Army Chief of Staff With our veterans
committing suicide at an epidemic rate of 22 suicides per day, the
chains of stigma must be broken. This book is a reflection of Sam
Rhodes s personal experiences; he wears the proverbial tee-shirt.
One doesn t experience life without experiencing life-changing
events. It s how one handles those changes that counts. This book
addresses ways to handle those changes to effect a positive
outcome. Charles T. Jones Colonel, KYARNG Deputy Chief of Staff
Personnel CSM Rhodes carried the hidden wounds of three combat
tours inside him when he returned to Fort Benning to serve as the
CSM of the Infantry School Training Brigade. After much
soul-searching and anguish, he finally realized and publicly
acknowledged that he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD). In doing so, he realized that part of his healing needed to
include a concerted effort on his part to give back to the extended
family he had come to know so well, his fellow Soldiers and their
families, and to confront the issues plaguing him. Philip R. Tilly,
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army (Ret)"
Volume: 2 Publisher: London: Bell Publication date: 1920 Subjects:
Armor -- History Weapons -- History Notes: This is an OCR reprint.
There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no
illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of
this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you
can select from more than a million books for free. You can also
preview the book there.
Volume: 2 Publisher: London: Bell Publication date: 1920 Subjects:
Armor -- History Weapons -- History Notes: This is an OCR reprint.
There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no
illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of
this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you
can select from more than a million books for free. You can also
preview the book there.
Volume: 2 Publisher: London: Bell Publication date: 1920 Subjects:
Armor -- History Weapons -- History Notes: This is an OCR reprint.
There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no
illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of
this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you
can select from more than a million books for free. You can also
preview the book there.
Over the past decade, states and international organizations have
shifted a surprising range of foreign policy functions to private
contractors. But who is accountable when the employees of foreign
private firms do violence or create harm? This timely book
describes the services that are now delivered by private
contractors and the threat this trend poses to core public values
of human rights, democratic accountability, and transparency. The
author offers a series of concrete reforms that are necessary to
expand traditional legal accountability, construct better
mechanisms of public participation, and alter the organizational
structure and institutional culture of contractor firms. The result
is a pragmatic, nuanced, and comprehensive set of responses to the
problem of foreign affairs privatization.
Is today's All-Volunteer Force still "This Man's Army"?
In a nation that has seen the rise of feminism, the decline of
blue-collar employment, military defeat in Vietnam, and a general
upheaval of traditional gender norms, what kind of man is today's
military man? What kind does the military want him to be?
In Enlisting Masculinity, Melissa Brown asks whether appeals to and
constructions of masculinity remain the underlying basis of
military recruiting-and if so, what that notion of masculinity
actually is. Are the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines courting
warriors or breadwinners; patriots or pragmatists; dominant masters
of technology, or strong yet compassionate masters of themselves?
Is each military branch recruiting the same model of masculinity?
Based on an analysis of more than 300 print advertisements
published between the early 1970s and 2007, as well as television
commercials, recruiting websites, and media coverage of recruiting,
Enlisting Masculinity argues that masculinity is still a foundation
of the appeals made by the military, but that each branch deploys
various constructions of masculinity that serve its particular
personnel needs and culture, with conventional martial masculinity
being only one among them. The inclusion of a few token women in
recruiting advertisements has become routine, but the
representations of service make it clear that men are the primary
audience and combat their exclusive domain. Each branch constructs
soldiering upon a slightly different foundation of masculine ideals
and Brown delves into why, how, and what that looks like.
The military is an important site for the creation and propagation
of ideas of masculinity in American culture, and it is often not
given the attention that it warrants as a nexus of gender and
citizenship. Although most Americans believe they can ignore the
military in the era of the all-volunteer force, when it comes to
popular culture and ideas about gender, the military is not a thing
apart from society. Building a fighting force, Brown shows, also
means constructing a gender. Enlisting Masculinity gives us a
unique and important perspective on both military service and
prevailing conceptions of masculinity in America.
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