This is a book about military professionals. It outlines the personal reflections of a U.S. Army lieutenant/captain on active duty in Europe during the Vietnam War. There, the enemy was drugs, boredom, racism, and illiteracy. Few, if any, books concern the Vietnam-era veteran. "The American Military Ethic" tells the story of one such veteran--of basic combat training, of Infantry OCS, and of airborne school--who had charge of a nuclear weapons unit in Europe during the late 1960s and early 1970s. First person accounts are blended with a more traditional scholarly examination of professional military training for junior and senior officers (ROTC and the war colleges) and of the American military ethic itself.

Toner argues that the American military ethic has undergone a deserved rejuvenation. The ethic itself--which is the source of true professionalism--has a sacred character, for it involves its professors in a solemn oath: to preserve and to protect the republic. That mission can lead officers to the ultimate test of leadership: whether to accomplish the mission or to safeguard the people for whom the leader is responsible. Still, this book is not of the guts-and-glory variety. It is a study in practical, real leadership; it examines leadership problems of the type real junior officers confront daily; and it explores the kinds of ethical problems real senior officers frequently confront. Its thesis is this: A professional military ethic depends, ultimately, upon the formation of responsible character in (and by) its leaders; for that, sound education is a necessity. ROTC and senior professional military education depend, therefore, upon challenging, serious, and substantial academic experiences. In the end, the American military ethic is a function of the wisdom and virtue learned and taught by its officers. This volume will be of great interest to active duty military professionals, students of military history, and veterans of the Vietnam era.

One of the brightest Canadian scientists of his generation, Omond McKillop Solandt was a physiologist by training, an engineer by disposition, and a manager by necessity. A protege of insulin's co-discoverer, Charles Best, Solandt worked as a scientist for the British government during the Second World War, including as a pioneer of operational research and a manager of scientific establishments. Ending the war as a colonel, he served on the British Mission to Japan, where he studied the effects of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, before returning to Canada to become chairman of the newly created Defence Research Board. There he spearheaded Canada's attempt to create a new and innovative government science infrastructure that served the needs of the Canadian military at the dawn of the nuclear age and worked alongside allies in Britain and the United States. In Maestro of Science, Jason S. Ridler draws on interviews with Solandt and his colleagues and declassified records from Canada and the United Kingdom to paint a vivid picture of the influence and achievements of a Canadian leader in Cold War military research.

While existing accounts of this period have elevated the exploits of the British soldiers on the battlefield to almost legendary status, the operations of the British Expeditionary Force in the dramatic opening campaign of the First World War remain poorly understood. Based on official unit war diaries, as well as personal papers and memoirs of numerous officers, this study sheds significant new light on the retreat from Mons in August 1914, the advance to the River Aisne in September, and the climactic First Battle of Ypres in October and November. In addition, Gardner provides important insights into the ideas and values of British officers in the initial stages of the war. Beyond explaining the conduct of the 1914 campaign, Gardner analyzes the initial stages of the "learning curve" experienced by British officers as they grappled with an unaccustomed type of warfare, including the unprecedented scale and intensity of the conflict as well as the advent of trench warfare. He also demonstrates the impact of rivalries among senior officers on the operations of the army. As a whole, the study adds depth to our understanding of command in European armies during the First World War.

In 2001, Captain James "Yusuf" Yee was commissioned as one of the first Muslim chaplains in the United States Army. After the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, he became a frequent government spokesman, helping to educate soldiers about Islam and build understanding throughout the military. Subsequently, Chaplain Yee was selected to serve as the Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, where nearly 700 detainees captured in the war on terror were being held as "unlawful combatants."
In September 2003, after serving at Guantanamo for ten months in a role that gave him unrestricted access to the detainees--and after receiving numerous awards for his service there--Chaplain Yee was secretly arrested on his way to meet his wife and daughter for a routine two-week leave. He was locked away in a navy prison, subject to much of the same treatment that had been imposed on the Guantanamo detainees. Wrongfully accused of spying, and aiding the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Yee spent 76 excruciating days in solitary confinement and was threatened with the death penalty.
After the U.S. government determined it had made a grave mistake in its original allegations, it vindictively charged him with adultery and computer pornography. In the end all criminal charges were dropped and Chaplain Yee's record wiped clean. But his reputation was tarnished, and what has been a promising military career was left in ruins.
Depicting a journey of faith and service, Chaplain Yee's "For God and Country" is the story of a pioneering officer in the U.S. Army, who became a victim of the post-September 11 paranoia that gripped a starkly fearful nation. And it poses a fundamental question: If our country cannot beloyal to even the most patriotic Americans, can it remain loyal to itself?

An Industrial Age model continues to shape the way the Army approaches its recruiting, personnel management, training, and education. This outdated personnel management paradigm--designed for an earlier era--has been so intimately tied to the maintenance of Army culture that a self-perpetuating cycle has formed, diminishing the Army's attempts to develop adaptive leaders and institutions.

This cycle can be broken only if the Army accepts rapid evolutionary change as the norm of the new era. Recruiting the right people, then having them step into an antiquated organization, means that many of them will not stay as they find their ability to contribute and develop limited by a centralized, hierarchical organization. Recruiting and retention data bear this out.

Several factors have combined to force the Army to think about the way it develops and nurtures its leaders. Yet, Vandergriff maintains, mere modifications to today's paradigm may not be enough. Today's Army has to do more than post rhetoric about adaptability on briefing slides and in literature. One cannot divorce the way the Army accesses, promotes, and selects its leaders from its leadership-development model. The Army cannot expect to maintain leaders who grasp and practice adaptability if these officers encounter an organization that is neither adaptive nor innovative. Instead, Army culture must become adaptive, and the personnel system must evolve into one that nurtures adaptability in its policies, practices, and beliefs. Only a detailed, comprehensive plan where nothing is sacred will pave the way to cultural evolution.

Here is the first book to look at African politics and the new problems facing the military leadership. The contributors to The Military in African Politics have divided the regimes into three categories or case studies. These studies focus on the characteristics of the officers who came to power--young or old, revolutionary or conservative, on each country's particular problems, and on the strategies used by the military leaders to stay in power.

Valor features the thrilling stories that are the fruit of Mark Lee Greenblatt's interviews with brave American servicemen from twenty-first-century wars. These soldiers, sailors, and Marines have risked their lives several times over for their country as well as for their fellow troops and civilians. Still, until now, their stories have largely gone unnoticed by the public, perhaps lost in the frenzied and often nasty debate surrounding those conflicts. As the author writes, "This generation does not have an Audie Murphy. I set out to change that with this book." Detailing incredible and evocative feats-including an Army pilot who rescued two fellow pilots from a deadly crash in hostile territory and strapped himself to the helicopter's exterior for the flight to the hospital-Greenblatt provides glimpses into the minds of these men as they face gut-wrenching decisions and overcome enormous odds. However, this book is much more than tales of riveting action. Each chapter goes beyond linear combat stories to explore each hero's motivations, dreams, and the genuine emotions that were evoked in the face of extreme danger. Readers will be transported to a variety of settings-from close-quarters urban fighting in Iraq to mountainside ambushes in rural Afghanistan to a midnight rescue in the middle of the Atlantic-as they accompany the men who do not see themselves as heroes but as patriots in the line of duty.

Providing a compelling look at veterans' policy, this book describes why the Republican party is considered the party for veterans despite the fact that Congressional Democrats are responsible for a greater number of policy initiatives. The United States is home to 21 million veterans, and Veterans' Affairs is the second-largest federal department, with a budget exceeding $119 billion. Many veterans, however, remain under-served. Republicans are seen as veterans' champions, and they send the majority of Congressional constituent communications on veterans' issues, yet they are lead sponsors on only 37 percent of bills considered by the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. What accounts for this discrepancy? Drawing on thousands of e-newsletters sent from Congress to constituents, Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis argues that the distribution of veterans across districts and the Republican Party is based on government spending, which pulls Republican legislators in opposite directions. This eye-opening book offers a history of veterans' programs, highlights legislative leaders and the most pressing policy areas for reform, identifies the issues most often discussed by members of Congress from each party, points out which Congresspeople have acted on veterans' issues and which have not, and offers an analysis of veteran population distribution and legislative policy preferences. Includes content from nearly 20,000 e-newsletters sent from Congress members to constituents to demonstrate the differences in how Congress discusses and legislates veterans' issues Provides a detailed description of the key legislative players, proposals, and communication strategies surrounding veterans' policies Offers advice on providing for the future of veterans' policies and describes the risks and benefits associated with moving veterans' care into private industry Offers the first in-depth case study on the implementation of the post-9/11 GI bill Suggests the scandal surrounding the 2010 Phoenix VA hospital is an example of partisan differences in communication tactics

Colin Powell epitomizes the American success story, yet his heroism is uncommon and unique. Born in New York City to Jamaican-immigrant parents, Powell entered a recently desegregated army, rising to become its highest-ranking member. He is a Republican at a time when a vast majority of African Americans consider themselves Democrats. He is one of the most famous Americans alive, yet has spent much of his professional life in behind-the-scenes positions. Beginning with his humble origins, this biography traces Powell's experiences from childhood, moving from his early days in the military through his climb to the highest echelons of power in Washington D.C. A timeline clarifies the key events in Powell's life and career, and a bibliography covers print and electronic sources for further research. This concise biography is ideal for students and general readers interested in the story behind one of America's most important and respected citizens, and the struggles an African American must face and overcome to succeed in contemporary America.

Shortlisted for the 2014 Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize and the 2014 Templer Award for the Best First Book by a New Author. Sex and alcohol preoccupied European officers across India throughout the nineteenth century, with high rates of venereal disease and alcohol-related problems holding serious implications for the economic and military performance of the East India Company. These concerns revolved around the European soldiery in India - the costly, but often unruly, 'thin white line' of colonial rule. This book examines the colonial state's approach to these vice-driven health risks. In doing so it throws new light on the emergence of social and imperial mindsets and on the empire, fuelled by fear of the lower orders, sexual deviation, disease and mutiny. An exploration of these mindsets reveals a lesser-explored fact of rule - the fractured nature of the Company state. Further, it shows how the measures employed by the state to deal with these vice-driven health problems had wide-ranging consequences not simply for the army itself but for India and the empire more broadly. By refocusing our attention on to the military core of the colonial state, Wald demonstrates the ways in which army decision-making stretched beyond the cantonment boundary to help define the state's engagement with and understanding of Indian society.

Hundreds of thousands of US military personnel have been victims of sexual assault and harassment. This client workbook is an essential part of an integrative, evidence-based treatment developed over many years by Lori S. Katz, PhD, which has already helped hundreds of survivors of Military Sexual Trauma (MST). The only workbook of its kind, it provides a wide range of therapeutic exercises and activities to help survivors restore their sense of safety and reclaim their lives. These include obtaining an in-depth understanding of MST, opportunities for self-discovery, and engaging the body with movement and relaxation exercises in a context of support, caring, and validation. This workbook is designed to help MST survivors understand normal reactions to MST and how to manage them. Readers will learn how to release the grips of anger and resentment, injustice, betrayal, self-blame, shame, and grief. They will learn how to deal with such physical symptoms as sleep problems and stress and engage in assessment of their own interpersonal patterns. The book also explores the impact of MST on relationships and how to cultivate and sustain healthy relationships, intimacy and sexuality. Additionally, the workbook can be used to help individuals who have experienced childhood and/or adult sexual abuse and trauma. Through Warrior Renew, survivors will be able to move forward in their lives by creating a new sense of identity, purpose, and self-worth. Key Features: Provides an effective, easy-to-use treatment for MST Based on a proven program already in use at several VA centers and military bases Addresses a variety of issues specific to MST such as injustice, betrayal, self-blame, effect on intimacy and trust, and emotional isolation Includes therapeutic activities including writing exercises, visualizations, relaxation and movement exercises, and group interactions Stresses an integrative approach to psychotherapy

This unique study argues that the draft dodgers who went to Canada during the Vietnam War were not always the anti-war radicals portrayed in popular culture. Many were the products of stable, conservative, middle class homes who were more interested in furthering their education and careers than in fighting in Southeast Asia. The conflict in Vietnam was just one cause among many for their deep sense of disaffection from the land of their birth. These expatriates remained quintessentially American, because evading the draft was in their opinion consistant with the very best American traditions of individualism and resistance to undue authority or state servitude.

Although the war was not the only or even the primary reason for their immigration to Canada, it was the final action in response to an increasing sense of alientation from America that many had felt since childhood. Kusch's work also raises questions about what it means to be an American. Intriguingly, it suggests the actions of these expatriates should be seen not merely as a drastic response to the Vietnam war, but as a commitment to the core ideals of American and European thought since the Enlightenment.

Taking military charter schools as her subject, and drawing on years of research at one school in particular, Brooke Johnson explores the underpinings of a culture based on militarization and neoliberal educational reforms and probes its effects on individual identity and social interactions at the school.