Recounts a Medal of Honor recipient s legendary career in both enlisted and commissioned service that spanned more than four decades of U.S. military operations

This is a captivating account of a Marine Rifle Squad as it prepared for deployment to Vietnam, and establishing the enclave south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Mentored by Korean Veterans, the Marine Riflemen become veterans tested in the rice paddies at Da Nang, Phu Bai, and the highlands of Khe Sanh. They walked from Khe Sanh to Dong Ha, Vietnam, one of the first units to do so since the fall of the French at Dien Bien Phu, 1954. They become Marine Riflemen ready to pick up their rifle and accomplish their mission under any physical conditions.

Over 600 total pages ... Congratulations on your enrollment in a distance education course from the Distance Learning and Technologies Department (DLTD) of the Marine Corps Institute (MCI). Since 1920, the Marine Corps Institute has been helping tens of thousands of hard-charging Marines, like you, improve their technical job performance skills through distance learning. By enrolling in this course, you have shown a desire to improve the skills you have and master new skills to enhance your job performance. Designed for Pvt-Sgt in all MOSs.

Nestled in Vietnam’s Thua Thien Province, west of the city of Hue, and bordering Laos, the narrow 40-kilometer long A Shau Valley, situated between densely forested mountain ranges, witnessed prolonged campaigning throughout the Vietnam War and served as a hub of the Communist supply network as well as a key point of access to South Vietnam. Drawing upon an impressive array of archival materials, this deeply researched book offers the first comprehensive account of operations and battles that transpired there during the war, coupled with a trenchant analysis of the American failure to wrest control of the Valley despite years of commitment of troops and resources, and how that failure contributed to the final outcome of the war. In so doing, it not only sheds light on where military tactics and strategy devised by American leaders went awry, but also traces the extraordinary acts of heroism on the part of American soldiers, many of whom lost their lives fighting the North Vietnamese in this hostile, forbidding terrain. This book, which fills a gap in the historiography of the Vietnam War, will appeal to scholars seeking to enhance their understanding of major events and turning points in the war, as well as to students of military history and strategy.

A definitive account of the famous battle of Iwo Jima, and the men who fought there. The battle of Iwo Jima saw one hundred thousand men fighting over a tiny volcanic island of just 8 square miles. The island was of major strategic importance to the US Air Force. However, it was also of supreme importance to the 20,000 Japanese troops who were deeply entrenched in the island when the Marines invaded, and to whom surrender was not an option. The titanic struggle dragged on for 36 days, eclipsing all that had gone before. The loss of Iwo Jima was proof to the Japanese that the Americans could seize one of the world's most heavily defended islands, and filled them with foreboding about the inevitable invasion of their homeland. This book covers the campaign in detail, and also the experiences of the men who fought for their lives on the black sands of Iwo Jima in one of the most savage battles of the Pacific War. This book contains material previously published in Campaigns 81: Iwo Jima 1945, Warrior 95: Japanese Infantryman 1937–45 and WAR 112: US Marine Rifleman 1939–45: Pacific Theater

Women, Warfare and Representation considers the various ways the American servicewoman has been represented throughout the 20th century and how those representations impact the roles she is permitted to inhabit. While women have a relatively short history in the American military, the last century shows an evolution of women's direct participation in war despite the need to overcome societal sex-role expectations. The primary focus is on the American case, but Emerald Archer also introduces a comparative element, showing how women's integration in the military differs in other countries, including Great Britain, Canada and Israel. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws on military history, theory and social psychology to offer a more complete and integrated history of women in the military and their representation in society.