War Stories of the Infantry: Americans in Combat, 1918 to Today

by Michael Green, James D. Brown

Overview

"I love the infantry," famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle said, "because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without."This book tells the stories of these soldiers. From the muddy trenches of France in World War I to the arid landscape of Iraq, War Stories of the Infantry immerses the reader in the immediate drama of combat as American infantrymen, Army and Marine Corps, have experienced it. In its pages, infantrymen tell of their struggles with the enemy, the terrain, and the weather, as well as their own fears and doubts in battle. In the humid heat of a faraway jungle, in the bone-chilling cold of a Korean mountaintop, we endure what they endure, see what they see--as they rout the enemy, open their eyes in a field hospital, or suffer the indignities of a POW camp. These are the stories of the largely unsung heroes who do the lion’s share of fighting and dying for their country while protecting the freedoms and liberties that many of us take for granted.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616732486
Publisher:	Quarto Publishing Group USA
Publication date:	08/31/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	680,724
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Michael Green is a freelance writer, researcher, and photographer who specializes in military, transportation, and law enforcement subjects with more than ninety books to his credit. In addition, he has written numerous articles for a variety of national and international military-related magazines.James D. Brown served twenty years in the U.S. Army as an armor officer with a secondary specialty in research and development. His active-duty service includes a four-year tour as an assistant professor of engineering at the United States Military Academy, where he taught combat vehicle design and automotive engineering.

Read an Excerpt

Our literature is replete with military histories-stories of conquests made and empires expanded or lost, of political, economic, social, or religious goals achieved or failed. Such accounts are told not only in text but in the pictorial language of maps re-colored and redrawn, and of boldly swooping arrows tracing the progress of campaigns across countries and continents. Their military forces are depicted as so many game pieces deployed across irregular and multi-colored chessboards. This isn't one of those books.

These accounts weren't set down by men who write history; they are the words of men who made history. The infantrymen, whose stories these are, were at the cutting edge of the arrows you have already seen drawn across the maps. Theirs are not the tales of countries conquered but of farmers' fields crossed under fire dragging a wounded buddy. Their victories were not of cities captured or fortresses reduced but of machine-gun bunkers silenced and hedgerows crossed.

War is a terrible undertaking, and infantrymen bear the worst of it. Artillerymen, aviators, cavalrymen, and tankers see their share of the terrors of combat, but anybody who's ever been in a fight will tell you that the infantry always has it the toughest.

An infantryman knows more than one treatment for malaria and can state his personal preference. He knows why you crawl through the jungle alongside a trail instead of walking along it. An infantryman knows why that rock out in the clearing looked like it was crawling closer to his foxhole last night. And he knows that no foxhole is ever deep enough to protect him from that one-in-a-million mortar round that has his name on it.

Acommon thread running through these stories is that almost none of these guys started out trying to be a hero, and even fewer ended up trying to be one. They were sons of Iowa farmers, New Jersey grocers, and Texas ranchers who were just trying to do their duty and keep alive in the process. . . . (from the introduction)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1

Introduction 3

Chapter 1 World War I (1914-1918) 7

Chapter 2 World War II (1939-1945) 35

Chapter 3 Korean War (1950-1953) 121

Chapter 4 Vietnam War (1965-1975) 141

Chapter 5 Grenada and Panama (1983-1989) 177

Chapter 6 Operation Desert Storm (1991) 203

Chapter 7 Somalia (1993) 223

Chapter 8 Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2004) 267

Index 305

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Stevo’s Book Review“’I love the infantry,’ famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle said, ‘because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without.’ This book tells the stories of these soldiers. From the muddy trenches of France in World War I to the arid landscape of Iraq, War Stories of the Infantry immerses the reader in the immediate drama of combat as American infantrymen, Army and Marine Corps, have experienced it. In its pages, infantrymen tell of their struggles with the enemy, the terrain, and the weather, as well as their own fears and doubts in battle. In the humid heat of a faraway jungle, in the bone-chilling cold of a Korean mountaintop, we endure what they endure, see what they see—as they rout the enemy, open their eyes in a field hospital, or suffer the indignities of a POW camp. These are the stories of the largely unsung heroes who do the lion's share of fighting and dying for their country while protecting the freedoms and liberties that many of us take for granted.”

Accent on Tampa Bay Magazine“From the muddy trenches of France in World War I to the arid landscape of Iraq, War Stories of the Infantry immerses a reader in the immediate drama of combat as American infantrymen. Army and Marine Corps, have experienced it. In its pages, infantrymen tell of their struggles with the enemy, the terrain, the weather, as well as their own fears and doubts in battle. We endure what they endure, as they rout the enemy or open their eyes in a field hospital or suffer the indignities of a POW camp.”

Bookviews, May 2009“These are the accounts set down by men who were engaged in the battles, telling what it was like to cross a field of fire to rescue a fallen comrade in arms. A former infantryman myself, I can attest that it is always the infantry, the foot soldier, that bears the real brunt of battle. These stories are not by men who set out to be heroes, but rather of ordinary men who were doing their duty and trying to stay alive in the process.”

Editorial Reviews

Stevo’s Book Review
“’I love the infantry,’ famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle said, ‘because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without.’ This book tells the stories of these soldiers. From the muddy trenches of France in World War I to the arid landscape of Iraq, War Stories of the Infantry immerses the reader in the immediate drama of combat as American infantrymen, Army and Marine Corps, have experienced it. In its pages, infantrymen tell of their struggles with the enemy, the terrain, and the weather, as well as their own fears and doubts in battle. In the humid heat of a faraway jungle, in the bone-chilling cold of a Korean mountaintop, we endure what they endure, see what they see—as they rout the enemy, open their eyes in a field hospital, or suffer the indignities of a POW camp. These are the stories of the largely unsung heroes who do the lion's share of fighting and dying for their country while protecting the freedoms and liberties that many of us take for granted.”



Accent on Tampa Bay Magazine
“From the muddy trenches of France in World War I to the arid landscape of Iraq, War Stories of the Infantry immerses a reader in the immediate drama of combat as American infantrymen. Army and Marine Corps, have experienced it. In its pages, infantrymen tell of their struggles with the enemy, the terrain, the weather, as well as their own fears and doubts in battle. We endure what they endure, as they rout the enemy or open their eyes in a field hospital or suffer the indignities of a POW camp.”



Bookviews, May 2009
“These are the accounts set down by men who were engaged in the battles, telling what it was like to cross a field of fire to rescue a fallen comrade in arms. A former infantryman myself, I can attest that it is always the infantry, the foot soldier, that bears the real brunt of battle. These stories are not by men who set out to be heroes, but rather of ordinary men who were doing their duty and trying to stay alive in the process.

From the Publisher