Featured Book Reviews

September 2025 Book Reviews


 

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River Warfare in Vietnam: A Social, Political, and Military History, 1945-1975

Robin Rielly, McFarland, 2024, 536 pages

Book Review written by: John T. Kuehn, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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Wake Island Wildcat: A Marine Fighter Pilot's Epic Battle at the Beginning of World War II

William L. Ramsey, Stackpole Books, 2024, 232 pages

Book Review written by: Sean Kentch, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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U.S. Army Divisions of the Pacific War

Stephen R. Taaffe, Casemate, 2024, 256 pages

Book Review written by: Col. Scott Cunningham, U.S. Army, Retired, Leavenworth Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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The Pirate Menace: Uncovering the Golden Age of Piracy

Angus Konstam, Osprey, 2024, 384 pages

Book Review written by: Matthew Kiefer, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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Conflict Realism: Understanding the Causal Logic of Modern War and Warfare

Amos Fox, Howgate, 2024, 230 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Nathan Jennings, U.S. Army, Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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Decisions of the Maryland Campaign: The Fourteen Critical Decisions that Defined the Operation

Michael S. Lang, University of Tennessee Press, 2022, 344 pages

Book Review written by: Stephen Harvey, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World

Caroline Alexander, Viking, 2024, 496 pages

Book Review written by: Col. Robert Sherrill, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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The Luzon Campaign 1945: Macarthur Returns

Nathan N. Prefer, Casemate, 2024, 336 pages

Book Review written by: Paul J. Narowski II, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

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Burma ’44: The Battle that Turned Britain’s War in the East

James Holland, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024, 413 pages

Book Review written by: Rick Baillergeon, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 18, 2025

 

Born from War

Born from War: A Soldier's Quest to Understand Vietnam, Iraq, and the Generational Impact of Conflict

Patrick W. Naughton Jr., Casemate, 2025, 272 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Rick Baillergeon, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 4, 2025

 

Army Combat Medics in the Vietnam War

Army Combat Medics in the Vietnam War

Harry Spiller, McFarland, 2024, 185 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Jason L. Johnson, U.S. Army, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: September 4, 2025

 

Uninvited Valor

Uninvited Valor: The Forsaken Soldiers of WWII: Based on the Epic True Story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team

John C. Kiyonaga, DartFrog Blue, 2024, 222 pages

Book Review written by: Col. Robert C. Shaw, U.S. Army, Retired, Culpeper, Virginia

Date Published: September 4, 2025

 

August 2025 Book Reviews


 

We Dare to Fly

We Dare to Fly: Dangerous Secret Missions During the Vietnam War

William Reeder Jr., Lyons Press, 2024, 272 page

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. James H. Willbanks, PhD, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Date Published: August 25, 2025

 

General David Wooster

General David Wooster: Hero of the American Revolution, 1710–1777

Jason Edwin Anderson, McFarland, 2024, 232 pages

Book Review written by: James Lowry Kennedy Jr., Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Date Published: August 25, 2025

   

 'Tis Not Our War

'Tis Not Our War: Avoiding Military Service in the Civil War North

Paul Taylor, Stackpole Books, 2024, 456 pages

Book Review written by: Richard S. Faulkner, PhD, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 25, 2025

Mission Iran

Mission Iran: Special Forces Berlin & Operation Eagle Claw JTF 1-79

James Stejskal, Casemate, 2024, 192 pages

Book Review written by: Dirk C. Blackdeer, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 22, 2025

 

Bullets, Bandages and Beans

Bullets, Bandages and Beans: United States Army Logistics in France in World War I

Alexander F. Barnes and Peter L. Belmonte, McFarland, 2023, 236 pages

Book Review written by: Kathy Kim Strand, MEd, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 22, 2025

 

Reflections on Captivity

Reflections on Captivity: A Tapestry of Stories by a Vietnam War POW

Porter A. Halyburton, Naval Institute Press, 2022, 216 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Travis M. King, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 22, 2025

 

Becoming Eisenhower

Becoming Eisenhower: How Ike Rose from Obscurity to Supreme Allied Commander

Michael Lee Lanning, Stackpole Books, 2024, 288 pages

Book Review written by: Barry M. Stentiford, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 22, 2025

 

Epidemics and the American Military

Epidemics and the American Military: Five Times Disease Changed the Course of War

Jack McCallum, Naval Institute Press, 2023, 288 pages

Book Review written by: Matthew Kiefer, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 22, 2025

 

Fury and Ice

Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II

Peter Harmsen, Casemate, 2024, 256 pages

Book Review written by: James Lowry Kennedy Jr., Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Date Published: August 22, 2025

 

Custer

Custer: From the Civil War's Boy General to the Battle of the Little Big Horn

Ted Behncke and Gary Bloomfield, Casemate, 2020, 230 pages

Book Review written by: Dirk C. Blackdeer, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 07, 2025

 

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks

Scott J. Shapiro, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023, 432 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Stephen G. Redmon, U.S. Army, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 07, 2025

 

No Average Day

No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

Rona Simmons, University of Missouri Press, 2024, 340 pages

Book Review written by: Andrew K. Murray, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 07, 2025

 

Backpack to Rucksack

Backpack to Rucksack: Insight into Leadership and Resilience by Military Experts

Daniel Zia Joseph, pub. by author, 2023, 379 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col Henry C. (Hank) Young Jr., U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 04, 2025

 

The Dark Path

The Dark Path: The Structure of War and the Rise of the West

Williamson Murray, Yale University Press, 2024, 488 pages

Book Review written by: Robert F. Williams, PhD, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: August 04, 2025

 

A Doctor's War

A Doctor's War: Letters and Reflections from the Frontlines of World War II

Peter J. Lapp, Post Hill Press, 2023, 272 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Mark F. Kormos, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Date Published: August 04, 2025

 

July 2025 Book Reviews


 

Queen of Cuba

Queen of Cuba: An FBI Agent's Insider Account of the Spy Who Evaded Detection for 17 Years

Peter J. Lapp, Post Hill Press, 2023, 272 pages

Book Review written by: Matthew Kiefer, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: July 25, 2025

 

Empire of the Summer Moon

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in U.S. History

S. C. Gwynne, Scribner, 2010, 371 pages

Book Review written by: Andrew K. Murray, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: July 25, 2025

 

This Ghastly War

"This Ghastly War" The Diary and Letters of a Woman Doctor in the American Ambulance Hospital in France, 1914-1915

Mary M. Crawford, edited by Mary E. Osbourne, McFarland, 2023, 265 pages

Book Review written by: Maj. Taylor Herrington, U.S. Army, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: July 25, 2025

 

Reflections on Net Assessment

Reflections on Net Assessment

Andrew W. Marshall, edited by Jeffrey S. McKitrick and Robert S. Angevine, Institute for Defense Analysis, 2022, 331 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Carl "Pete" Johnson, U.S. Army, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: July 21, 2025

 

Field Manual 1

The Secret History of the Five Eyes

The Untold Story of the International Spy Network

Richard Kerbaj, Union Square, 2025, 448 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. John H. Modinger, PhD, U.S. Air Force, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: July 21, 2025

 

Through Blood and Brotherhood

Through Blood and Brotherhood

Comrades and Enemies in World War II Yugoslavia

Brian R. Johnson, Casemate, 2024, 282 pages

Book Review written by: Andrew K. Murray, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: July 21, 2025

 

June 2025 Book Reviews


 

Field Manual 1

Field Manual 1

The Army: A Primer to Our Profession of Arms

U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2025, 104 pages

Book Review written by: Maj. Erin A. Mauldin, U.S. Military Academy, West Point

Date Published: June 12, 2025

 

May 2025 Book Reviews


 

Holding Out

Holding Out

Holding Out The German Army Operational Command in 1917

Tony Cowan, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 386 pages

Book Review written by: Richard S. Faulkner, PhD., Fort Leavenworth

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Nothing Left to Prove, Nothing Left to Hide

Nothing Left to Prove, Nothing Left to Hide

The Long and Winding Road to Redemption of Major Thomas Tosto

Scott J. Zuckerman, Sunbury Press, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, 2023, 192 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Jerome C. Duffy Jr., U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

The First Hellcat Ace Review

The First Hellcat Ace

Hamilton McWhorter III and Jay Stout, Casemate, Philadelphia, 2024, 240 pages

Book Review written by: Dirk C. Blackdeer, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing Review

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing

The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hackse

Scott J. Shapiro, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2023, 432 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Mike Bizer, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

I Will Tell No War Stories Review

I Will Tell No War Stories

What Our Fathers Left Unsaid About World War II

Howard Mansfield, Lyons Press, 2024, 160 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col Rick Baillergeon, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Indochina Hand Review

Indochina Hand

Tales of a CIA Case Officer

Barry Michael Broman, Casemate, Philadelphia, 2024, 288 pages

Book Review written by: Col. Robert Sherrill, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Bipolar General Review

Bipolar General

My Forever War with Mental Illness

Gregg F. Martin, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2023, 288 pages

Book Review written by: Kathy Kim Strand, MEd, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

George Washington versus the Continental Army Review

George Washington versus the Continental Army

Showdown at the New Windsor Cantonment, 1782-1783

Michael S. McGurty, McFarland, 2023, 237 pages

Book Review written by: Col. Ken Turner, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

American Eagles Review

American Eagles

A History of the United States Air Force

Daniel Patterson and Clinton Terry, Lyons Press, Essex, Connecticut, 2024, 336 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Stephen G. Redmon, U.S. Army, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Life and Death at Abbey Gate Review

Life and Death at Abbey Gate

The Fall of Afghanistan and the Operation to Save Our Allies

Mikael Cook and Robert Conlin, Casemate, 2024, 192 pages

Book Review written by: Sean R. Kentch, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Warfare in the Robotics Age Review

Warfare in the Robotics Age

Ash Rossiter and Peter Layton, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2024, 257 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Lowell E. Howard Jr., U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Your Next Leap of Faith Review

Your Next Leap of Faith

How to Hear God's Voice and Boldly Follow

Shane Winnings, Chosen Books, 2023, 192 pages

Book Review written by: Stephen S. Harvey, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

The Weaponisation of Everything Review

The Weaponisation of Everything

A Field Guide the New Way of War

Mark Galeotti, Yale University Press, 2022, 248 pages

Book Review written by: Lt. Col. Robert B. Haines, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Date Published: May 20, 2025

 

Of Their Own Accord Review

Of Their Own Accord

A Company of Army Rangers Changing Lives in Changing Times

Lawson Magruder and Fred Kleibacker, Deeds Publishing, 2024, 332 pages

Book Review written by: Col. Chaveso “Chevy” Cook, PhD, U.S. Army, Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.

Date Published: May 12, 2025