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Commemorating Memorial Day

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Memorial Day 2023 is gone, but here’s hoping its significance lingers long.

 

Jay Nordlinger in NRO unabashedly admits to “love these United States.” Adds he, “Always have since early childhood.”

 

I hope our country is never brought down, by foes domestic or foreign. May we outshine, and outlive, haters of the American experiment, no matter which “side” they come from.

 

When Mr. Nordlinger expressed this sentiment on Twitter, Leroy Ferrell, a rescuer of dogs, sent a wonderful photographic response:

In a separate article in NRO, John Hillen, a former assistant secretary of state, and now a member of the National Review Inc. board of directors, offers his list of recommendations to watch or read during the summer to help you continue to celebrate Memorial Day.

Narrative Histories

  • The Winter Soldiers, Saratoga,or Victory at Yorktown, by Richard Ketchum (American Revolution)
  • Six Frigates, by Ian Toll (Post Revolution to 1812)
  • Any descriptions of battle from the Civil War histories of Shelby Foote, Stephen Sears, or Bruce Catton
  • The Rick Atkinson trilogies of the American Revolution or World War II, or his book The Long Gray Line (Vietnam)
  • The Pacific War Trilogy, by Ian Toll (WWII)
  • Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, by James D. Hornfischer (WWII Navy)
  • Band of Brothers andThe Wild Blue, by Stephen Ambrose
  • The Korean War, by Max Hastings
  • This Kind of War, by T. R. Fehrenbach (Korea)
  • We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young, by Hal Moore and Joe Galloway (Vietnam)
  • Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam, by Mark Bowden
  • Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History, by Wallace Terry
  • Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden (Somalia)
  • War, by Sebastian Junger (modern)

 

Memoirs

  • A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, by Joseph Plumb Martin (American Revolution)
  • The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, by Ulysses S. Grant
  • Company Aytch or a Side Show of the Big Show: A Memoir of the Civil War, by Sam R. Watkins
  • Military Memoirs of a Confederate, by Edward Porter Alexander
  • Inside the Army of the Potomac: The Civil War Experience of Captain Francis Adams Donaldson, edited by J. Gregory Acken
  • The Fall of Fortresses, by Elmer Bendiner (WWII bomber campaign)
  • With the Old Breed, by E. B. Sledge (WWII Pacific Theater)
  • Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II, by James Tobin (kinda, sorta a memoir)
  • If You Survive: From Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to the End of World War II, by George Wilson
  • A Rumor of War, by Phil Caputo (Vietnam)
  • Chickenhawk, by Robert Mason (Vietnam)
  • Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam, by Lynda Van Devanter
  • One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer, by Nate Fick (Iraq)
  • Run to the Sound of the Guns: The True Story of an American Ranger at War in Afghanistan and Iraq, by Nicholas Moore
  • Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning, by Elliot Ackerman (modern)

 

Novels

  • The Spy, by James Fenimore Cooper (American Revolution)
  • The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara and Shiloh by Shelby Foote (Civil War historical fiction)
  • The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane (anti-war Civil War classic)
  • Once an Eagle, by Anton Myrer (multiple American wars)
  • Run Silent, Run Deep, by Ned Beach (submarine warfare)
  • The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk (WWII Navy)
  • The Good Shepherd, by C. S. Forester (WWII Navy)
  • E. B. Griffin’s The CorpsSeries (WWII)
  • A Walk in the Sun, by Harry Brown (WWII)
  • The Thin Red Line, by James Jones (WWII)
  • The Marines of Autumn, by James Brady (Korea)
  • The Thirteenth Valley, by John Del Vecchio (Vietnam)
  • Fields of Fire, by Jim Webb (Vietnam)
  • The Lionheads, by Josiah Bunting (Vietnam)

 

Movies

  • The Crossing
  • The Patriot
  • Gettysburg
  • Glory
  • Sergeant York
  • Saving Private Ryan
  • Band of Brothers
  • The Longest Day
  • A Bridge Too Far
  • Greyhound
  • Hacksaw Ridge
  • Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
  • The Tuskegee Airmen
  • Memphis Belle
  • 12 O’Clock High
  • Letters from Iwo Jima
  • Flags of Our Fathers
  • The Bridges at Toko-Ri
  • Run Silent, Run Deep
  • Hamburger Hill
  • We Were Soldiers 
  • Black Hawk Down
  • The Hurt Locker
  • American Sniper
  • Restrepo
  • Lone Survivor

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