Non-Fiction

Title: George - 3 - 7th Marines: A Brief Glimpse Through Time of a Group of Young Marines
Author: Jim Nicholson
Genre: History
Reviewer: Steve Maffeo

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1426947828

In the four years of the Korean War, America lost almost 54,000 men, roughly the same number who lost their lives in Vietnam, yet this war has almost disappeared into American history as the "Forgotten War". George-3-7th Marines tells a story of the bloody Marine infantry campaigns fought in the deadly mountain ranges of Korea; it is a story told by the men who fought there-and died anonymously-in an unknown and bloody war. The never-before-told tales of the battle-hardened Marines of G-3-7 were collected and recorded by one of their own. Described by those who experienced the action firsthand, these accounts blend the shocking details of savage, bloody, killing with gentle, almost heartbreaking prose seldom seen in a chronicle of war. Jim Nicholson paints a brutally accurate picture of America and the Valhalla culture that shaped the toughness of soldiers in the fifties. He examines the events and mistakes that led to a collision of the free world with the rapidly expanding Communist military machine. He reminds us that history does, in fact, show clearly that the sacrifice of young American boys saved the South Koreans, who now live freely in their beautiful "Land of the Morning Calm".

Title: The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II
Author: Lawrence Verria & George Galdorisi
Genre: History
Reviewer: Candace Thompson

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1612510787

On August 14, 1945, Alfred Eisenstaedt took a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, minutes after they heard of Japan's surrender to the United States. Two weeks later LIFE magazine published that image. It became one of the most famous WWII photographs in history (and the most celebrated photograph ever published in the world's dominant photo-journal), a cherished reminder of what it felt like for the war to finally be over. Everyone who saw the picture wanted to know more about the nurse and sailor, but Eisenstaedt had no information and a search for the mysterious couple's identity took on a dimension of its own. In 1979 Eisenstaedt thought he had found the long lost nurse. And as far as almost everyone could determine, he had. For the next thirty years Edith Shain was known as the woman in the photo of V-J DAY, 1945, TIMES SQUARE. In 1980 LIFE attempted to determine the sailor's identity. Many aging warriors stepped forward with claims, and experts weighed in to support one candidate over another. Chaos ensued.

For almost two decades Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi were intrigued by the controversy surrounding the identity of the two principals in Eisenstaedt's most famous photograph and collected evidence that began to shed light on this mystery. Unraveling years of misinformation and controversy, their findings propelled one claimant s case far ahead of the others and, at the same time, dethroned the supposed kissed nurse when another candidate's claim proved more credible. With this book, the authors solve the 67-year-old mystery by providing irrefutable proof to identify the couple in Eisenstaedt's photo. It is the first time the whole truth behind the celebrated picture has been revealed.

The authors also bring to light the couple's and the photographer's brushes with death that nearly prevented their famous spontaneous Times Square meeting in the first place. The sailor, part of Bull Halsey's famous task force, survived the deadly typhoon that took the lives of hundreds of other sailors. The nurse, an Austrian Jew who lost her mother and father in the Holocaust, barely managed to escape to the United States. Eisenstaedt, a World War I German soldier, was nearly killed at Flanders.

Title: RPM Rockin' in the Free World
Author: Heather Means
Genre: Memoir
Reviewer: Hodge Wood

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0988175207

"Once in awhile, right in the middle of ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale." So begins a gripping memoir written by a young Special Forces Army wife as her husband lay dying. Ryan Means grew up wanting to be a soldier. At age thirty-one, after the loss of his best friend in the 9/11 attacks, Ryan joined the US Army. He barely got to know his daughter Elizabeth when he was deployed to Iraq. In 2009, Ryan was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of liver cancer and quickly passed away due to complications. RPM Rockin' in the Free World is a raw and inspirational tale of modern love and war that reminds us to appreciate life and live it to its fullest. It is proof that grief does not have to prevail over eternal love. Portions of sales from this book will be donated to Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

Title: SUBIC: A Sailor's Memoir: Based on the Story of Bobby Earl Perkins
Author: Barbara Elleng Brown
Genre: Memoir
Reviewer: Jim Greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1479134287

In this riveting memoir, Bobby Earl Perkins recollects the constitutional issue of racial discrimination and how his Christian faith ushers him amid the seemingly insurmountable struggles to establish his pride and dignity while stationed in Subic Bay Naval Base, Philippines. This sailor's account somehow mirrors the civil rights movements happening back in the U.S. soil in 1960s and provides a glimpse of how a group of servicemen, in a risk-taking effort, upholds the sense of justice and equality that every American is entitled of--even aboard a foreign land. Subic is a story that is not so ordinary; however, its significance is not alien to many.