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Summary: Flags of our Fathers
Review: A great book. The best I have read about war and its impact on those that saw combat. It gives true understanding to the phrase "unspeakable horror". I have read everything that Stephen Ambrose has written and I suspect that he is envious of this work. Once I started it I couldn't put it down. This work should be required reading for all revisionist historians who harbor any doubts about our justification in using the atomic bomb to end WWII.
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Summary: An image that characterizes a generation
Review: I highly recommend this book. It moved me on several levels: as a Marine with love, as a father with envy, and as an American with pride. This book is a testimony to a son's love of his father, a Marine's love for his buddy, and the special bond between the Corpsman and the Marines.It was an honor to get a glimpse of these great men and their families. And the men with whom they served.
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Summary: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
Review: IN THE BACK OF THIS BOOK THE AUTHOR SAYS THAT HE RECEIVED 27 REJECTIONS BEFORE HE FOUND A PUBLISHER. THOSE ARE 27 PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE WRONG LINE OF WORK. EXCELLENT BOOK ABOUT THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC.
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Summary: Flags of Our Fathers stirs our hearts
Review: This is a brilliant, satisfying & heart wrenching account of the life & times of the six young American GIs caught in a photographer's lens atop a barren hill on faraway island in a time not so long ago. The son of one of the three surviving flag raisers has penned a vivid portrait of America in the first half of the 20th Century; of six sons destined for a fate few had ever experienced before. When that photograph was printed on the front pages of every newspaper in the land, those GIs became icons to a nation at the cusp of war. How they got to Mount Suribachi, what happened to them when they came off that hill & afterwards when they arrived home is a story worth telling. James Bradley has woven a superb tapestry of war & disorder, arrogance & compassion, naivete & brutality. I agree with Stephen Ambrose's accolade about being the best battle book I ever read. I also assert that James Bradley's patchwork way of stitching each hero's life together into one quilt of a dangerous & triumphant history is awe inspiring. For my full review do visit [my website].
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Summary: Best work of its kind.
Review: I have been moved by three books in my life. The Bible, Atlas Shrugged and Flags of our Fathers. Flags is as moving and challenging a work as I have ever encountered. It made me realize things about where our country is now that is very sad indeed. It has been the inspiration as a call to action for me. If you don't read any other book about WWII, read this.
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Summary: They Were Not Heroes...
Review: Remember those four words the next time you visit Washington DC and take the trip to Arlington. You may stop and take a picture at the Marine Corps memorial, while staring up at this immense statue of the flagrising on Mt. Suribachi. Perhaps you even smile and point. Or maybe your take your cap off, hold it over your heart and say a prayer for those that didn't come back. Either way, just remember that those six individuals (three of whom DID NOT come back from that Hell of an island) where not heroes because of that single act. Capturing an irrelevant event for 1/400th of a second. This book will is probably one of the best books covering the topic of Iwo Jima. Its focus is on those six men (as one Marine once told me, "Five Devil Dogs and one Squid.") who happened, through divine coincidence, to be in the most reproduced photograph image of all time. The authors, James Bradley (son of the Navy Corpsman) and writing teammate, Ron Powers, have taken a most intimate look into the lives of those "common" men. They are a cross-section of America. The authors go back to their hometowns, gaining insight into these boys' lives. Many of the stories they relate are first-hand from the Marines' surviving Company members as well as the surviving family members. When training together, eating together, sleeping together and stuck on a transport ship for several weeks on the way to their fate on Iwo Jima, numerous stories were told and lifelong memories made. These are what Mr. Bradley and Mr. Powers use throughout the book as well as added factual accounts of the day-to-day battles. The stories are intimate. At times they will make you laugh out loud, but they will also leave you with tears streaming down your face. Several of the stories also made me lose my appetite, due to gruesome descriptions of the men dying and John Bradley (the authors father) scrambling across the beach to relieve the dying Marine's pain. Sometimes with morphine and sometimes just a soothing touch. I usually am able to read history books quite quickly. I find this one different. The battlefield accounts (about a third of the book) will tear you up. Especially when the author has already given you background on these men that makes you feel as if you knew them yourself. Then in a horrendous explosion of shrapnel or machine gun fire and this Marine that you have come to know is taken from you. After these accounts, usually I had to close the book and look up at the ceiling and reflect and say a quick prayer. It was like losig a friend. This is the part of the War that was not experienced except by those that were there, or the fmaily that had to open the Western Union telegram containing the ill-fated news. The last half of the book relates the post-War aftermath. Three Marines from the flagraising were killed on Iwo Jima. The other three would go back to cope in their own way. Of course everyone back home knew of the photograph and were crowning these "common" men as heroes. The media fabricated stories to embellish what those men felt was a non-heroic event (raising a "replacement" flag). John Bradley would be the last surviving member, dying in 1994. He lived nearly 50 years, holding the memories into himself. Barely uttering anything to family, friends, or the media relating his relationship with the flagraising and making it clear on a few occasion that he and the rest of the flagraisers should not be labeled heroes because of this accidental photograph. The real heroes were those that didn't come back. This book couldn't be more appropriate in this age of false hero-worship that the media creates. With the flood of movies, books and tv shows paying homage to World War II and the "Greatest Generation" I feel this book stands above all of them. It doesn't worship them in awe. They were from America. It is dedicated to them.
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Summary: Sorry John Wayne, This Iwo Jima was better.
Review: This is the best book I have ever read on WWII. James Bradley hit a home run. As a father with sons very close to the age of the boys in this book, I felt a special sense of awe for the sacrifices these people made for our country. The bravery and dedication to duty are simply stunning. Where do you see this level of duty and honor to country today? This should be required reading for every citizen in the United States of America.
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Summary: A Lesson In Understanding War Heroes
Review: A current(7/'00) Best Seller which will be rated, in time, as one of the most important books written about World War II. I can say that this book is the most well written and composed books I have ever read. Credit for that would go in large part to Ron Powers. Marines consider "With the Old Breed" as a sort of bible. They now have a second bible.The author is the son of one of the six men who raised the American flag atop Mt Surabachi. The lives of each of these men are followed in detail as is the effect of THE FLAG on the nation, the press and the various individuals who lives were touched by it. Ambrose called it the best battle book he had ever read. But the book is about much more than the battle. Every American should read this book.
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Summary: WOW!!
Review: What can I say that hasn't been said? This is hands down the best book on the subject of Iwo Jima I have ever read. These guys really were common men with uncommon valor. Read it!!
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Summary: Iwo Jima-Every American needs to know this true story.
Review: This book should be mandatory reading for every American, especially the younger generations. My own father landed on Omaha Beach and fought his way across Europe to Germany.He like so many veterans was silent about his experience, only saying what a waste of life and materials the war had been. I so appreciate the time James Bradley devoted to researching and writing the true stories of the 6 flagraisers.I now know and am so grateful for all the tremendous efforts and sacrfices made on Iwo Jima. We must never forget or fail to teach the new generations about these battles that allow us to be free today. This will become harder to do with the passage of time but the memories of these brave men must be kept alive.Read the book,tell a friend the stories, teach your kids,be thankful.
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