Hi, everyone. I hope your September is off to a great start.
I will sign up to having received a great start – although mine actually jumped the gun a bit with events that began a few days earlier. The readers in the address groups who received the email notification note will know by this time that the reference is to the fact that the author’s copies of the latest military history book showed up on my door step last week.
It is always a delight to see the official version of a book for the first time. This one turned out to be a special treat. As I mentioned in the note, I think the layout, captions, photos maps, and other aspects of the book are certainly among the best – if not the best of any of the books so far. I hope those who choose to read it will arrive at the same conclusion.
The second piece of good news – which also was too good to go unmentioned in the note – was the correspondence (below) that I received from the publishing company’s marketing manager.
“I am writing to share a fantastic review of Taking Command that was just published by Library Journal. I’ll include the full review, and the excerpt I will be using for promotion.
“Full Review:
“Phillips (Taking Command: America’s Unsung Military Leaders, Innovators, and Difference Makers Since World War II) provides 25 short biographies of men who took command and did well but are not well known to the public. The book is divided into seven chapters covering the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, the Gulf War, and Afghanistan/Iraq/Global War on Terrorism. These men were called upon to do difficult tasks that resonate in American military history. William Tunner, who ran the Berlin Airlift 1948-49, leads off. Some figures will be familiar to readers, but others may not be. For instance, Bernard Shriever, John Paul Vann, and Edward Landsdale are not widely known outside of military circles but performed vital jobs in moments of crisis. Each entry describes the details of their tasks, and a scene-setting essay precedes each era. Photos, references, maps and bibliography are included. VERDICT: Recommended for all military history collections for breadth of coverage, its focus, and bringing some obscure but compelling readers to life.” – Library Journal.
“Excerpt:
“Recommended for all military history collections for its breadth of coverage, its focus, and bringing some obscure but compelling leaders to life.” – Library Journal
Wow, those are marvelous, surprising, ego-inflating words. They seemed too good to pass up. Hope you will indulge the ‘feel good’ epistle. I will try to refrain from doing that in the future.
Taking Command: America’s Unsung Military Leaders, Innovators, and Difference Makers Since World War II will be released worldwide on September 2nd. The invitation extended in my earlier note still applies: please join me in hoisting an extra cup of coffee (and maybe a cinnamon roll, donut, etc. – your choice) in celebration.
There is one small bit of quasi-related writing news to pass along. Time is no longer an ally of mine so we’re trying to begin the process of downsizing a bit. I had a dozen or so Air Force or Department of Defense publications that over the past several years I used in concert with courses I took or as references or background material for books I wrote or some courses I taught along the way. I offered them to the Heritage Program at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.** The Research Division has solicited three of them thus far. I am telling you about this because the next time you are at the Museum doing research on insurgency or counterinsurgency (as I’m sure many of you will be, it being a topic at the very peak of your bucket list of must do items) you might consider asking for the three items (below) as you settle in to your small but comfortable research carousel.
USAF Counterinsurgency Course Mini Manual of the Urban Guerrilla
Volume Six, June Special Operations Course, Selected Reading, June 1969, 67 pages
Introduction to Insurgency, Volume One
USAF Special Operations School Selected Reading, 83 pages
Introduction to Insurgency Volume One
USAF Counterinsurgency Course, Selected Reading, 56 pages
Dynamite reading – all of them – as you can tell. 😊
** The Museum is located at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio. If you are even a remotely interested airplane buff, please consider placing it on your must-see list. The museum displays include the world’s largest collection of military aircraft.
I am glad that September is upon us. (Not that it will last, but we have even been greeted by some decidedly cooler weather.) The baseball pennant races are heating up – looks like some interesting ones will go down to the wire – and football and volleyball seasons are underway. All things considered, it is a very nice time of year.
At this point, I know of only two writing-related events on tap for the rest of the year. Later this month there is an “authors fair” in a nearby city. In November, I’ll get to share a podium with friend and colleague Jeanne Kern at an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute-sponsored authors symposium here in Lincoln.
Okay, so here it is: A TRULY AWFUL PUN …
Who is in favor of bringing Roman numerals back into use?
I for one.
Note: My favorite daughters are the perpetrators of the puns that appeared in this month’s website and the earlier note that preceded it. Readers have begun questioning my parenting skills.
Have a great fall season. Best wishes,
Tom
I will sign up to having received a great start – although mine actually jumped the gun a bit with events that began a few days earlier. The readers in the address groups who received the email notification note will know by this time that the reference is to the fact that the author’s copies of the latest military history book showed up on my door step last week.
It is always a delight to see the official version of a book for the first time. This one turned out to be a special treat. As I mentioned in the note, I think the layout, captions, photos maps, and other aspects of the book are certainly among the best – if not the best of any of the books so far. I hope those who choose to read it will arrive at the same conclusion.
The second piece of good news – which also was too good to go unmentioned in the note – was the correspondence (below) that I received from the publishing company’s marketing manager.
“I am writing to share a fantastic review of Taking Command that was just published by Library Journal. I’ll include the full review, and the excerpt I will be using for promotion.
“Full Review:
“Phillips (Taking Command: America’s Unsung Military Leaders, Innovators, and Difference Makers Since World War II) provides 25 short biographies of men who took command and did well but are not well known to the public. The book is divided into seven chapters covering the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, the Gulf War, and Afghanistan/Iraq/Global War on Terrorism. These men were called upon to do difficult tasks that resonate in American military history. William Tunner, who ran the Berlin Airlift 1948-49, leads off. Some figures will be familiar to readers, but others may not be. For instance, Bernard Shriever, John Paul Vann, and Edward Landsdale are not widely known outside of military circles but performed vital jobs in moments of crisis. Each entry describes the details of their tasks, and a scene-setting essay precedes each era. Photos, references, maps and bibliography are included. VERDICT: Recommended for all military history collections for breadth of coverage, its focus, and bringing some obscure but compelling readers to life.” – Library Journal.
“Excerpt:
“Recommended for all military history collections for its breadth of coverage, its focus, and bringing some obscure but compelling leaders to life.” – Library Journal
Wow, those are marvelous, surprising, ego-inflating words. They seemed too good to pass up. Hope you will indulge the ‘feel good’ epistle. I will try to refrain from doing that in the future.
Taking Command: America’s Unsung Military Leaders, Innovators, and Difference Makers Since World War II will be released worldwide on September 2nd. The invitation extended in my earlier note still applies: please join me in hoisting an extra cup of coffee (and maybe a cinnamon roll, donut, etc. – your choice) in celebration.
There is one small bit of quasi-related writing news to pass along. Time is no longer an ally of mine so we’re trying to begin the process of downsizing a bit. I had a dozen or so Air Force or Department of Defense publications that over the past several years I used in concert with courses I took or as references or background material for books I wrote or some courses I taught along the way. I offered them to the Heritage Program at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.** The Research Division has solicited three of them thus far. I am telling you about this because the next time you are at the Museum doing research on insurgency or counterinsurgency (as I’m sure many of you will be, it being a topic at the very peak of your bucket list of must do items) you might consider asking for the three items (below) as you settle in to your small but comfortable research carousel.
USAF Counterinsurgency Course Mini Manual of the Urban Guerrilla
Volume Six, June Special Operations Course, Selected Reading, June 1969, 67 pages
Introduction to Insurgency, Volume One
USAF Special Operations School Selected Reading, 83 pages
Introduction to Insurgency Volume One
USAF Counterinsurgency Course, Selected Reading, 56 pages
Dynamite reading – all of them – as you can tell. 😊
** The Museum is located at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio. If you are even a remotely interested airplane buff, please consider placing it on your must-see list. The museum displays include the world’s largest collection of military aircraft.
I am glad that September is upon us. (Not that it will last, but we have even been greeted by some decidedly cooler weather.) The baseball pennant races are heating up – looks like some interesting ones will go down to the wire – and football and volleyball seasons are underway. All things considered, it is a very nice time of year.
At this point, I know of only two writing-related events on tap for the rest of the year. Later this month there is an “authors fair” in a nearby city. In November, I’ll get to share a podium with friend and colleague Jeanne Kern at an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute-sponsored authors symposium here in Lincoln.
Okay, so here it is: A TRULY AWFUL PUN …
Who is in favor of bringing Roman numerals back into use?
I for one.
Note: My favorite daughters are the perpetrators of the puns that appeared in this month’s website and the earlier note that preceded it. Readers have begun questioning my parenting skills.
Have a great fall season. Best wishes,
Tom
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