Grunts

by John C. McManus

  Lewis, Adrian. The American Culture of War: The History of U.S. Military Force from World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom. New York: Routledge, 2007.

  Linn, Brian. Echo of Battle: The Army’s Way of War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.

  Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Influence of Sea Power upon History. Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1991.

  Maitland, Terrence, and Peter McInerney. The Vietnam Experience: A Contagion of War. Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1983.

  Marshall, S. L. A. Men Against Fire: The Problem of Command in Future War. Alexandria, VA: Byrrd Enterprises, 1947.

  McManus, John C. American Courage, American Carnage: The 7th Infantry Chronicles, the 7th Infantry Regiment’s Combat Experience, 1812 Through World War II. New York: Forge, 2009.

  ———. The Deadly Brotherhood: The American Combat Soldier in World War II. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998.

  ———. The 7th Infantry Regiment: Combat in an Age of Terror, the Korean War Through the Present. New York: Forge, 2008.

  People’s Army of Vietnam. Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954-1975. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2002.

  Ricks, Thomas. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006.

  West, Bing. The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics and the Endgame in Iraq. New York: Random House, 2008.

  Westmoreland, William. A Soldier Reports. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1976.

  Woodward, Bob. Plan of Attack. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

  Guam

  Arthur, Robert, and Kenneth Cohlmia. The Third Marine Division. Washington, D.C.: Infantry Journal Press, 1948.

  Crowl, Philip. The United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific, Campaign in the Marianas. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1960.

  Gailey, Harry. The Liberation of Guam, 21 July-10 August, 1944. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1988.

  Josephy, Alvin. The Long and the Short and the Tall: Marines in Combat on Guam and Iwo Jima. Short Hills, NJ: Burford Books, 1946.

  Lodge, Major O. R. The Recapture of Guam. Washington, D.C.: Historical Branch, U.S. Marine Corps, 1954.

  O’Brien, Cyril. Liberation: Marines in the Recapture of Guam. Washington, D.C.: Marine Corps Historical Center, 1994.

  Putney, William. Always Faithful: A Memoir of the Marine Dogs of WWII. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 2001.

  Shaw, Henry, Bernard Nalty, and Edwin Turnbladh. History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II: Central Pacific Drive. Washington, D.C.: Historical Branch, 1966.

  Peleliu

  Camp, Dick. Last Man Standing: The 1st Marine Regiment on Peleliu, September 15-21, 1944. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press, 2008.

  Davis, Burke. Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller. New York: Bantam, 1991.

  Davis, Ray. The Story of Ray Davis, General of Marines. Fuquay Varina, NC: Research Triangle Publishing, 1995.

  Davis, Russell. Marine at War. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1961.

  81st Infantry Division Wildcat Historical Committee. The 81st Infantry Wildcat Division in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Infantry Journal Press, 1948.

  Gailey, Harry. Peleliu 1944. Annapolis, MD: The Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1983.

  Garand, George, and Truman Strobridge. History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II: Western Pacific Operations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps Historical Division, 1971.

  Gayle, Gordon. Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu. Washington, D.C.: Marine Corps Historical Center, 1996.

  Hoffman, Jon. Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC. New York: Random House, 2001.

  Hough, Major Frank. The Assault on Peleliu. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps Historical Branch, 1950.

  Hunt, George. Coral Comes High. New York: Signet, 1946.

  Johnston, James. The Long Road of War: A Marine’s Story of Pacific Combat. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

  Kennard, Major Richard. Combat Letters Home. Bryn Mawr, PA: Dorrance & Company, Inc., 1985.

  Leckie, Robert. Helmet for My Pillow. New York: Bantam Books, 1957.

  McMillan, George. The Old Breed: A History of the First Marine Division in World War II. Washington, D.C.: Infantry Journal Press, 1949.

  Ross, Bill. A Special Piece of Hell: The Untold Story of Peleliu—The Pacific War’s Forgotten Battle. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.

  Sledge, E. B. With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

  Sloan, Bill. Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944—The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

  Smith, Robert Ross. The U.S. Army in World War II: The Approach to the Philippines. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1953.

  Aachen

  MacDonald, Charles. The U.S. Army in World War II: The Siegfried Line Campaign. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1963.

  Whiting, Charles. Bloody Aachen. New York: Playboy Press, 1976.

  Battle of the Bulge

  Cavanagh, William C. C. The Battle East of Elsenborn & the Twin Villages. South Yorkshire, England: Pen & Sword Books, Limited, 2004.

  Cole, Hugh. The United States Army in World War II: The Ardennes. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1965.

  Keefer, Louis. Scholars in Foxholes: The Story of the Army Specialized Training Program in World War II. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers, 1988.

  Lauer, Walter. Battle Babies: The Story of the 99th Infantry Division in World War II. Nashville, TN: The Battery Press, 1950.

  MacDonald, Charles. Company Commander. New York: Bantam, 1947.

  ———. A Time for Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge. New York: Bantam Books, 1984.

  Murphy, Edward. Heroes of World War II. New York: Ballantine Books, 1990.

  Roland, Charles. My Odyssey Through History: Memoirs of War and Academe. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.

  Vannoy, Allyn, and Jay Karamales. Against the Panzers: United States Infantry Versus German Tanks, 1944-1945. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Publishers, 1996.

  Masher/White Wing

  Carland, John. “How We Got There: Air Assault and the Emergence of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), 1950-1965.” Arlington, VA: Association of the United States Army, 2003.

  ———. The United States Army in Vietnam: Stemming the Tide, May 1965 to October 1966. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2000.

  Gwin, Larry. Baptism: A Vietnam Memoir. New York: Ivy Books, 1999.

  Hymoff, Edward. The First Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. New York: MW Lads Publishing Co., 1967.

  Kinney, Charles. Borrowed Time: A Medic’s View of the Vietnam War. Victoria, Canada: Trafford, 2003.

  Laurence, John. The Cat from Hue: A Vietnam War Story. New York: Public Affairs, 2002.

  Mason, Robert. Chickenhawk: A Shattering Personal Account of the Helicopter War in Vietnam. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.

  Mertel, Kenneth. Year of the Horse—Vietnam, 1st Air Cavalry in the Highlands. New York: Bantam Books, 1990.

  Moore, Harold, and Joe Galloway. We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey to the Battlefields of Vietnam. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008.

  ———. We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

  Tolson, Lieutenant General John. Vietnam Studies: Airmobility, 1961-1971. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1989.

  Combined Action Platoons

  Akins, John. Nam Au Go Go: Falling for the Vietnamese Goddess of War. Port Jefferson, NY: The Vineyard Press, 2005.

  Corson, William. The Betrayal. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968.

  Cosmas, Graham, and Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Murray. U.S. Marines in Vietnam: Vietnamization and Redeployment, 1970-1971. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps History and Museums Division
, 1986.

  Estes, Jackson. A Field of Innocence. Portland, OR: Breitenbush Books, 1987.

  Flynn, Thomas. A Voice of Hope. Baltimore, MD: American Literary Press, Inc., 1994.

  Goodson, Barry. CAP Mot: The Story of a Marine Special Forces Unit in Vietnam, 1968- 1969. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 1997.

  Hemingway, Al. Our War Was Different: Marine Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994.

  Peterson, Michael. The Combined Action Platoons: The U.S. Marines’ Other War in Vietnam. New York: Praeger, 1989.

  Shulimson, Jack, and Major Charles Johnson. U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Defining Year, 1968. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps History and Museums Division, 1997.

  ———, Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Blaison, Charles Smith, and Captain David Dawson. U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Landing and the Buildup, 1965. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps History and Museums Division, 1978.

  Smith, Charles. U.S. Marines in Vietnam: High Mobility and Standdown, 1969. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps History and Museums Division, 1988.

  Telfer, Major Gary, Lieutenant Colonel Lane Rogers, and V. Keith Fleming. U.S. Marines in Vietnam: Fighting the North Vietnamese, 1967. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Marine Corps History and Museums Division, 1984.

  Trullinger, James. Village at War: An Account of Revolution in Vietnam. New York: Longman, 1980.

  Walt, Lewis. Strange War, Strange Strategy: A General’s Report on Vietnam. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1970.

  West, Bing. The Village. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.

  Dak To

  Arthurs, Ted. Land with No Sun: A Year in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006.

  Atkinson, Rick. The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966. New York: Owl Books, 1989.

  Babcock, Robert, ed. War Stories: Utah Beach to Pleiku. Marietta, GA: Deeds Publishing, 2001.

  Garland, Lieutenant Colonel Albert. A Distant Challenge: The U.S. Infantryman in Vietnam. New York: Jove Books, 1983.

  Murphy, Edward. Dak To: America’s Sky Soldiers in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands. New York: Ballantine Books, 2007.

  Pierce, Ivan. An Infantry Lieutenant’s Vietnam. El Dorado Springs, MO: Capsarge Publishing, 2004.

  Stanton, Shelby. The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965-1973. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003.

  Gulf War

  Atkinson, Rick. Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

  Bin, Alberto, Richard Hill, and Archer Jones. Desert Storm: A Forgotten War. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.

  Bourque, Stephen. Jayhawk! The VII Corps in the Persian Gulf War. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 2002.

  Flanagan, Lieutenant General Edward. Lightning: The 101st in the Gulf War. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1994.

  Hallion, Richard. Storm over Iraq: Air Power and the Gulf War. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

  Hartzog, William. American Military Heritage. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2001.

  Houlahan, Thomas. Gulf War: The Complete History. New London, NH: Schrenker Military Publishing, 1999.

  Lehrack, Otto, ed. America’s Battalion: Marines in the First Gulf War. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2005.

  Macgregor, Douglas. Warrior’s Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2009.

  Millett, Allan. Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps. New York: The Free Press, 1991.

  Santoli, Al, ed. Leading the Way: How Vietnam Veterans Rebuilt the U.S. Military, an Oral History. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.

  Scales, Robert. Certain Victory: The U.S. Army in the Gulf War. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Staff, United States Army, 1993.

  Shubert, Frank, and Theresa Kraus, general eds. The Whirlwind War: The United States Army in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2001.

  Swain, Richard. “Lucky War”: Third Army in Desert Storm. Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Press, 1997.

  Taylor, Thomas. Lightning in the Storm: The 101st Air Assault Division in the Gulf War. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1994.

  Vernon, Alex. Most Succinctly Bred. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006.

  Fallujah

  Afon, Milo. Hogs in the Shadows: Combat Stories from Marine Snipers in Iraq. New York: Berkley Caliber, 2007.

  Bellavia, David, and John Bruning. House to House: An Epic Memoir of War. New York: Free Press, 2007.

  Camp, Dick. Operation Phantom Fury: The Assault and Capture of Fallujah, Iraq. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press, 2009.

  Danelo, David. Blood Stripes: The Grunt’s View of the War in Iraq. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006.

  Gott, Kendall, ed. Eyewitness to War, Volume I: The U.S. Army in Operation Al Fajr, an Oral History. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2007.

  ———. Eyewitness to War, Volume II: The U.S. Army in Operation Al Fajr, an Oral History. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2007.

  Jadick, Richard. On Call in Hell: A Doctor’s Iraq War Story. New York: NAL Caliber, 2007.

  Kaplan, Robert. Imperial Grunts. New York: Vintage, 2005.

  Kasal, Brad, and Nathaniel Helms. My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story. Des Moines, IA: Meredith Books, 2007.

  Livingston, Gary. Fallujah with Honor: First Battalion, Eighth Marines in Operation Phantom Fury. North Topsail Beach, NC: Caisson Press, 2006.

  Matthews, Matt. Operation Al Fajr: A Study in Army and Marine Corps Joint Operations. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006.

  O’Donnell, Patrick. We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah. New York: DaCapo, 2006.

  Pantano, Ilario, and Malcolm McConnell. Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy. New York: Threshold Editions, 2006.

  West, Bing. No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah. New York: Bantam Books, 2005.

  Wright, David, and Timothy Reese. On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign, the United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-January 2005. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2008.

  7th Infantry Counterinsurgency War

  Mansoor, Peter. Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander’s War in Iraq. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2008.

  ENDNOTES

  Introduction

  1 Captain William Whyte, “Will the Queen Die?” Marine Corps Gazette, January 1946, p. 10. In an article arguing for the infantry’s continued importance, Whyte quoted another commentator who claimed that the infantry would soon be “extinct as the dodo bird”; Captain William C. Boehm, letter to the editor, Infantry Journal, September 1947.

  2 S. L. A. Marshall, Men Against Fire: The Problem of Command in Future War (Alexandria, VA: Byrrd Enterprises, Inc., 1947), p. 15; Ralph Peters, “The Counterrevolution in Military Affairs,” Weekly Standard, February 6, 2006, p. 18.

  3 For more on the American notion of war as a logistical or engineering problem, see Brian Linn, The Echo of Battle: The Army’s Way of War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007). Linn trenchantly identifies three major intellectual groups that have dominated the Army’s thinking since the earliest days of American history. The Guardians see war as primarily a science that is subject to natural laws and principles. In the nineteenth century, they favored coastal defense fortifications; in the twentieth, they argued for missile defense. The Managers think of warfare as a question of national mobilization, resource management, and the employment of overwhelming force. The Heroes argue that the human factor is paramount in war. They believe that battles, and wars, are decided by the fighting spirit of soldiers along with the inspirational leadership that motivates them to fight.

  4 Department of Def
ense Web site, Fiscal Year 2007 Budget by Service; Bing West, The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics and the Endgame in Iraq (New York: Random House, 2008), pp. 155, 346; August Cole and Yochi Dreazen, “Boots on the Ground or Weapons in the Sky?” Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2008, p. A14. The reference to inadequate equipment and weaponry for ground combat soldiers comes from my own Group Combat After Action Interview with Task Force 2-7 Infantry, enlisted soldiers, May 23, 2006. This problem is also general knowledge.

  5 I am by no means the first author to make this case about the importance of ground forces. Marshall and Peters have, of course, emphasized these same points, albeit many decades apart. More recently, Daniel Bolger, Death Ground: Today’s American Infantry in Battle (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1999), Frederick Kagan, Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy (New York: Encounter Books, 2006), and Adrian Lewis, The American Culture of War: The History of U.S. Military Force from World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom (New York: Routledge, 2007), all articulated similar arguments.

  6 Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Palmer, “Infantry and VT Fires,” Infantry School Quarterly , October 1950, p. 8.

  7 The numbers on urban population come from a United Nations habitat study at www.unhabitat.org. According to the study, over half the world’s population lived in urban areas by 2007. For more on the planning of the Iraq War, see Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Vintage, 2007), Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), and Tom Ricks, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006).

  8 For an excellent, groundbreaking study on killing in combat and its psychological effects, see Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995). Grossman made the salient point that, as a society, we know much about the phenomenon of warfare but very little about actual killing in combat. He equates this to knowing much about relationships but nothing of sex.