What Are You Currently Reading?

[CQB]

I've got Barry's book, I've read the other one by Frank Walker, and I've come to the conclusion that Frank is a bit of a dick head. Need to read the original and have been meaning to get onto it since he died a few years ago.

Masters would struggle to get the same access to diggers these days. His reporting on BRS, VC, MG hasn't been received well. Even if it may turn out to be somewhat accurate.

I haven't read the Frank Walker book & I wouldn't dismiss Chris Masters due to the BRS shitstorm & have to agree, he wouldn't get access now. The BRS matter is awaiting a decision. I was originally with Masters on this because of his access, & therefore his better knowledge, but have since been turned around as I've followed events pretty closely. Be interesting to see what the decision is & I hope he's exonerated.

 

[Gunz]

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, by Barbara W Tuchman.

Vinegar Joe is the only American general to lead a foreign army in combat. She combines his bio into this history of China post Boxer Rebellion through WW2.

Also listening to the audio-book edition of “Is Paris Burning?”

I also want to recommend to all of you, The Spy and the Traitor, by Ben Macintyre, published in 2018, a fascinating non-fiction page-turner about the greatest espionage story of the Cold War. It’s hands down the best true spy story and one of the most satisfying books I’ve ever read.

 

[MIkeH92467]

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of "Shattered Sword". The comprehensive review of the Battle of Midway. The authors used access to Japanese war records that were either overlooked, ignored or dismissed by western historians and military analysts. The picture they build is markedly different from the picture that was built up in the wake of Japan's defeat and understandable reliance on American records and recollections. It's still the story of a magnificent victory, but one that paints a very different picture of Japanese figures such as Kido Bhutai commander Vice-Admiral Nagumo and the legendary Admiral Yamamoto. Well worth the time for anyone who's interested in a more rounded assessment of how (and why) the Americans defeated what up to that point was the mightiest striking force in the world.

 

[Viper1]

 

[Viper1]

 

[AWP]

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of "Shattered Sword". The comprehensive review of the Battle of Midway. The authors used access to Japanese war records that were either overlooked, ignored or dismissed by western historians and military analysts. The picture they build is markedly different from the picture that was built up in the wake of Japan's defeat and understandable reliance on American records and recollections. It's still the story of a magnificent victory, but one that paints a very different picture of Japanese figures such as Kido Bhutai commander Vice-Admiral Nagumo and the legendary Admiral Yamamoto. Well worth the time for anyone who's interested in a more rounded assessment of how (and why) the Americans defeated what up to that point was the mightiest striking force in the world.

I’ve written about the book several time here. It is a fantastic work of art, not history, because it is just that good.

 

[SpitfireV]

View attachment 40458

I've heard this is pretty good, if a little outdated these days.

 

[MIkeH92467]

I’ve written about the book several time here. It is a fantastic work of art, not history, because it is just that good.

Definitely a great read/listen. Authoritative and readable/listenable. It really helps penetrate the fog of war. Having a better idea of what happened doesn't change the fact that Midway was a famous victory well-earned by a combination of brilliant strategy, informed by superb intelligence and the heroism of the American pilots. Sun Tzu would have given Nimitz & Co. an A+

 

[JedisonsDad]

Finished Confessions of a Spy. It was a good read, and made me wonder how anything got done with the amount of double agents, drinking, and just general fuckery that was happening. Also, Rosario Ames was also a real piece of shit.

Starting The Pueblo Surrender, about the USS Pueblo that was captured by North Korea in the 60s.

 

[AWP]

I have 3 or 4 to write up, I'll get around to those in the next week.

 

[Failure404]

Heard Nick Lavery's interview on Mentors4Mil podcast and decided to pick up his book, Objective Secure, since I'm in a very goal oriented mood. I also got Jocko's Leadership Strategy and Tactics. I plan to focus more of my attention on the leadership reading list because I lack confidence in leadership roles.

 

[Viper1]

Heard Nick Lavery's interview on Mentors4Mil podcast and decided to pick up his book, Objective Secure, since I'm in a very goal oriented mood. I also got Jocko's Leadership Strategy and Tactics. I plan to focus more of my attention on the leadership reading list because I lack confidence in leadership roles.

He is the real deal. And a good human being.

 

[Devildoc]

Finished Confessions of a Spy. It was a good read, and made me wonder how anything got done with the amount of double agents, drinking, and just general fuckery that was happening. Also, Rosario Ames was also a real piece of shit.

Starting The Pueblo Surrender, about the USS Pueblo that was captured by North Korea in the 60s.

I recently read an article about the Walker spy ring, and the damage they did to the US Navy. The Pueblo event was a direct result of the Soviets getting that intel. Walker and his son and buddies, also real pieces of shit.

 

[AWP]

The Pentagon's Brain by Annie Jacobsen, about DARPA's founding and work. Great stuff so far. It might still be a Kindle book deal for like 2-3 bucks, I'm not sure.

 

[Devildoc]

The Pentagon's Brain by Annie Jacobsen, about DARPA's founding and work. Great stuff so far. It might still be a Kindle book deal for like 2-3 bucks, I'm not sure.

There's a fair amount of research locally funded by DARPA. Some of it is Area 51 type classified, some of it not. I have to look into this book.

 

[TLDR20]

There's a fair amount of research locally funded by DARPA. Some of it is Area 51 type classified, some of it not. I have to look into this book.

They do all kinds of weird stuff. Part of my wife’s Ph.D research was funded by DOD and DARPA, and it had to do with implantable skin scaffolds to reduce burn injury.

 

[Devildoc]

They do all kinds of weird stuff. Part of my wife’s Ph.D research was funded by DOD and DARPA, and it had to do with implantable skin scaffolds to reduce burn injury.

I have talked with a few P.I.s over the years about some projects. When I was in nursing school I worked in a lab at the light blue place down the street on an off-the-shelf hemoglobin O2 carrier; partially funded by DARPA. You would have been at home; it was live tissue training on Yucatan pigs, sedating, intubating, whacking their femoral, and infusing the product and observing them in ICU setting for 72 hours and keeping them alive before putting them down.

 

[SpitfireV]

I've heard this is pretty good, if a little outdated these days.

I'm walking this back I think I was confused with another of the 250k books written.

 

[MIkeH92467]

I'm enjoying "The Dawn of Everything" about the (alleged?) origins of civilization and inequality. It was written by radical anarchist/anthropologist David Graebner (who radical was he? he was so radical he couldn't get tenure at Yale) who helped organized Occupy Wallstreet and archaelogist David Wengrow. It would seem like a heavy slog, but it's quite engrossing. The authors are clearly having fun pointing out the weakness, fallacies and embedded assumptions that have formed the basis of modern theories about how civilizations evolved. While it is a polemic, I don't really see it as trying to push a specific viewpoint as much as forcing us to rethink our assumptions about our most distant ancestors and how they conducted their affairs. They don't hold back from attacking sacred cows of both the left and the right (anarchists tend not to have a lot of friends on either side of the spectrum even though there are times that the lines between left, right and anarchist can get quite blurry) and they've pissed off a lot of people on the respective sides of the aisle. I enjoy a Grisham or Clancy page-turner as much as anyone, but if you're looking for something that will make you re-examine a lot of what you thought you knew, without providing you with clear-cut answers this is a great read/listen.

 

[JedisonsDad]

Finished The Pueblo Surrender by Robert Liston. It can be a little difficult at time, with how he jumps from one person to another as a source, but it’s an interesting look at what could be the story of how and why the Pueblo was surrendered/captured. Towards the end he gets a little tin-foiled with the operations of the NSA, leading me to question the whole book and myself.

Next up is First Voyage.