Veterans Services Library Guide: Books and Videos

In A People's History of the U.S. Military, historian Michael A. Bellesiles draws from three centuries of soldiers' personal encounters with combat—through fascinating excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, as well as audio recordings, film, and blogs—to capture the essence of the American military experience firsthand, from the American Revolution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

This edited volume surveys critical aspects of modern military health care in the US and various other Western countries with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the United States, the military medical system, including care for veterans, is large and diverse and involves two institutions, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the US Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA).

American troops have a long and noble tradition of humanitarian service. From distributing candy bars and care packages to street children, to offering medical and dental care to the poor, to building churches and orphanages in third-world countries, these American men and women commit thousands of hours to the service of others around the world, without expectation of gratitude or praise.

In Children of Military Families, several children share their personal stories of what it is like to have a parent in the military serving overseas.

The most significant military engagements in history define the very nature of war. Considered in relation to each other, such battles--and others of less immediate renown--offer insight into the changing nature of armed combat, advances in technology, shifts in strategy and thought, as well as altered geopolitical landscapes.

From one of the most original French writers of our day comes a mysterious, prismatic, and at times profoundly sad reflection on humanity in its darker moments-one of which may very well be our own.

As the tales of Luther and Bobby unfold, Mark Powell masterfully engages with the vexing, bifurcated lives of combatants in the global war on terror, those who are simultaneously here and there and thus never fully freed from the life-and-death chaos of the battlefield.

In the title story, a soldier who has had to shoot dogs because they were eating human corpses must learn what it is like to return to domestic life in suburbia, surrounded by people "who have no idea where Fallujah is, where three members of your platoon died." In "After-Action Report", a Lance Corporal seeks expiation for a killing he didn't commit, in order that his best friend will be unburdened. A Mortuary Affairs Marine tells about his experiences collecting remains-of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers both. A chaplain sees his understanding of Christianity, and his ability to provide solace through religion, tested by the actions of a ferocious Colonel. And in the darkly comic "Money as a Weapons System", a young Foreign Service Officer is given the absurd task of helping Iraqis improve their lives by teaching them to play baseball.

A classic collection of short stories on the Vietnam War. The title story is a must read.

A satire set in Texas follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders. Made into a movie.

The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. The novel also offers insight into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home.

Follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. By the author of "The Perfect Storm."

Chivers traces the combat experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan of an F-14 pilot, a helicopter crew, a corpsman with the Marines in Anbar and infantry in the Korengal Valley. The author won a Pulitzer Prize.

Follows nine National Guard soldiers from Oregon, who ended up in some of the heaviest fighting of the Iraq war. Most of the photographs and footage were taken from the cameras of the soldiers themselves.

This short films tells the story of Alene B. Duerk, the first woman to earn the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy. Admiral Duerk served in World War II and during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. After retiring, she went on to deliver meals to the elderly before passing away in her late 90s.

This inspiring anthology is the first to convey the rich experiences and contributions of women in the American military in their own words—from the Revolutionary War to the present wars in the Middle East

When Janey Comes Marching Home juxtaposes forty-eight photographs by Sascha Pflaeging with oral histories collected by Laura Browder to provide a dramatic portrait of women at war. Women from all five branches of the military share their stori

The three become close friends, and through their daily interaction we see how military service changes their relationships with their families, their lovers, and their children.

An investigative documentary about the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military.

She flew the swift P-51 and the capricious P-38, but the heavy, four-engine B-17 bomber and C-54 transport were her forte. This is the story of Nancy Harkness Love who, early in World War II, recruited and led the first group of twenty-eight women to fly military aircraft for the US Army.

Donut Dolly puts you in the Vietnam War face down in the dirt under a sniper attack, inside a helicopter being struck by lightning, at dinner next to a commanding general, and slogging through the mud along a line of foxholes.

"A war memoir of unusual literary beauty and power from the acclaimed poet who wrote the poem 'The Hurt Locker.'

The author did three tours disarming IEDs.

The experiences of 20 African-American soldiers in Vietnam, told by the soldiers themselves.

Twenty veterans, now college students, write about who they are, hoping to undermine stereotypes about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.