Leading the Way

August 30, 1993
Santoli ( Everything We Had ) traveled to military bases and headquarters around the country interviewing career personnel who served during the troubled Vietnam years and the postwar period when morale plummeted in all branches of the service. The first half of the book makes for disturbing reading as veterans recall the racial tensions, drug abuse and antiauthoritarianism that crippled the spirit of the U.S. military establishment in the '60s and '70s; but the second half, dealing with the mechanics of reenergizing the forces and the successful operations in Grenada, Panama and the Persian Gulf, is upbeat. Participants in this oral history that will primarily interest advocates of maintaining a strong military include the present Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Colin Powell; the former commandant of the Marine Corps, Al Gray; Navy SEAL commander Timothy Holden; Colonel Barbara Smith, chief nurse of Central Command; and Marine tanker Gunnery Sergeant James Graham. Photos.

September 15, 1993
The observations of 56 military leaders from sergeants to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff comprise the raw material for an understanding of how the Vietnam experience has radically changed the current state of our military. Compiled by Santoli ( Everything We Had, LJ 4/15/81), they tell us how the echoes of Vietnam made the operations in Grenada, Panama, and, finally (in a sizable section of vivid recollections), the Gulf War so clearly effective. These perceptive observations produce a look into the modern U.S. military's adaptable and result-driven philosophy, which is a couple of decades late in coming. This book is good both for its insight into current thinking in the command sector and for its descriptions of what the Gulf War was like, in the air and on the ground. Recommended for public libraries.-- Mel D. Lane, Sacra mento, Cal.

Copyright 1993 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 1993
%% This is a multi-book review: SEE also the title "Voices of the Vietnam POWS." %% Every new account of what grunts went through in Vietnam, whether personal narrative or scholarly history, claims that the story of the infantryman is finally being told--when, in fact, it has been told many times.Ebert's beautifully titled "A Life in a Year," then, simply captures old ground, but, even so, no one has ever treated the infantryman's role in Vietnam with more sympathy or thoroughness. Mixing a scholarly reserve with extensive quotations from soldiers, Ebert explores the stateside mood the draft inspired; what went on in basic training and advanced infantry training; what it was like to go in-country and face combat for the first time; what the jungle--or "triple canopy"--was like; the major offenses of the seven years (the years of heaviest fighting) he covers; how grunts dealt with Vietnamese nationals; and, finally, the nervous life of short-timers. Again, it has all been covered before, but never with such organization and authority. A fine effort.Though Howes' work on POWs is also a synthesis, it's rather an unusual one, commenting on the "only heroes" of the Vietnam War, its POWs, and on their own narratives--one of which, James N. Rowe's account of jungle captivity, "Five Years to Freedom" (1971), has become a sort of classic. Howes is a sympathetic chronicler--How could one not be?--but also ably reports on the media event the POWs of Operation Homecoming became. In the process, the ordinary enlisted man or woman (the POWs were almost all aviators and commissioned) was inadvertently assigned a nonheroic, even dishonorable role--underscoring once again the difficulties the average Vietnam veteran encountered. There's an interesting chapter here on James Stockdale (of the Perot campaign), and Howes' writing on hapless, court-martialed Robert Garwood is valuable, too. His is clearly the most original of the three titles discussed here.The superpatriotism that characterizes most POWs is really the stuff of "Leading the Way," in which Santoli sought out Vietnam vets whose experiences contributed to the turnaround of morale and prestige in the U.S. military. Santoli's book is a collection of oral histories, and he has edited them well, though the relentlessly positive, no-nonsense tone of many of these professionals can grow tedious. Colonel Kenneth Bowra's description of what it was like to serve in Somalia will be a treat for the military enthusiast, however, and so--particularly--will be Chief Warrant Officer 4 Lou Hall's riveting account of Desert Storm: "I was the flight lead of Red Team on the first combat mission of the air war. Our objective was to open a hole in Iraq's forward defense radar." "Leading the Way" waxes and wanes in interest, but accounts like Hall's are invaluable. ((Reviewed Oct. 1, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)