EDITING TLC

Reviews Pg. 2: MWSA

(Military Writers Society of America)

Author Karl Boyd has stated that he doesn’t sleep a lot and he dreams up stories when he is asleep.  I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, that I am truly glad that Karl Boyd writes about his dreams and doesn’t act upon them.  From China with Love is built on the premise that China needs land for her millions of citizens, and the ministers of China formulate a plan to conquer all of North America as its “New China.” 

The main characters in this book could be you, your neighbors, or relatives; just “every-day folk” who managed to survive the attack.  How did China take over all of North America without an all-out war?  Well, Mr. Boyd came up with a plan that will make you think differently when you drink your cup of coffee and/or use any of your technological equipment.  Since reading From China with Love, I reflect on the story just about every time I pick up my cell phone.

It has been said that this book is not for the faint of heart, and I agree that if you cannot handle blood (and guts) you might want to read Mr. Boyd’s other novels and give this one to someone you know that will want to read every detail of the gruesome Chinese takeover.  This isn’t an easy read in that sense, but it truly will make the reader stop and think about our world situation.  It certainly relays a plan that I pray will always remain fiction.

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s booklet Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers is a wonderful resource for all writers and editors. It is actually an addendum to her book The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. As a writer and editor, I see this booklet as something that I will keep very handy. It seems that no matter how many times I research some words, they just won’t stick in this head of mine. This book is set up as a small dictionary of often-confused words and makes them easy to find. Warning:If readers come across this book first, they will most likely find themselves ordering The Frugal Editor.   Both books are excellent writing reference tools.

 

The audio book Lucky Enough by Cpl. Eddie R. Beesley is a book that should be heard by everyone that wants to listen to a memoir of a very courageous person, who served his country well, but also who was brave enough to tell the story of just how the Viet Nam War affected him, in more ways than the obvious physical loss.  If you have the opportunity to read this book or listen to the audio version consider yourself  “lucky enough” to have read a book that just may change your thinking about a time in history when there wasn’t the troop support that there is in today’s world. 

 Cpl. Eddie R. Beesley is a hero in my book.  The fact that he and his wife, Connie, did the narration for the CD makes it that much more special, in my opinion.  Mr. Beesley shares about his life from his early days, how he ventured into the Marine Corps, and life beyond.  He takes his listeners through his life, but intersperses the narration with chapters telling the story about his visit to The Wall in Washington, D.C, which took place thirty years after the day that changed his life forever.  Those of us who haven’t served and/or sacrificed for our country can only know through a hero’s story such as Lucky Enough the strength that it takes for a Viet Nam Veteran to face The Wall.  It is a reminder to us about how many men and women have suffered so much. 

 Mr. Beesley’s journey is one of many hills and valleys and readers will travel with him all along the way.  He is a Marine through and through and the comparison of who he is today to the young man who enlisted in the USMC at age seventeen reveals a lot about his inner strength.  Be sure to have your Kleenex close at hand when you are listening/reading.  It is a touching book about a man who wouldn’t let the loss of his legs keep him from moving forward.  One would think that was enough to be able to overcome, but other struggles faced Eddie Beesley.  Listen along and ask yourself where your inner strength comes from and learn from a man who is a true hero. 

 

Tom McGraham is very proud to have served his country and the Marine Corps, but he humbly tells his story in The Road to Iwo Jima.  I see him as a hero, but I doubt that he would call himself one. I appreciate the quote that Jerry Yellin (Iwo Jima survivor and author) has put on the back of Mr. McGraham’s book: “Tom thought about home every day of the twelve days he was on Iwo before he was wounded and he has thought about Iwo Jima nearly every day of his life since the war ended.”  This book is Tom’s story about those twelve days, and quick glimpses of where life’s journey has taken him beyond Iwo Jima to the year 2010 when he attended a 65^th anniversary of the landing on Iwo Jima in Washington, DC. Mr. McGraham states: “I felt an overwhelming sense of closure at last.  However, I will always respect and honor all the Marines who died for our country.”

This book is a tribute to all who have served our country, and we should be grateful to people like Mr. Graham who took the time and effort to put their stories into print for us.  Many of us can not even begin to imagine what our fellow countrymen have experienced and how they have had to carry that with them the rest of their lives. The first half of The Road to Iwo Jima tells us the brutal story of the twelve days Mr. McGraham spent on the island and the last half of the book he calls “The Return from Iwo Jima.”

This book is a quick read but gives us a window on the days of Iwo Jima, not a window that we all would want to see through, but I feel it is honoring to “see into” this time and realize how this history has impacted so many lives.  We don’t have a lot of time left with these heroes so people like Tom McGraham have given us a gift by taking the time and going through the pain of writing their stories and sharing them with others. For those readers like me who are not history buffs, the footnotes that Mr. McGraham added are very helpful in that he doesn’t assume that all of his readers will have that background knowledge. Readers who enjoy learning more about our history through memoirs and/or appreciate the real-life journeys of American heroes would want to read The Road to Iwo Jima.

 

Did you know that there were only fifty Blackbirds ever produced? Tony Landis tells us “In a fitting tribute to this remarkable vehicle, the Blackbird family remains the only operational aircraft to have had all surviving airframes still in existence after retirement, either placed in storage or put proudly on display in a museum. Not one single airframe was ever scrapped.”  I found that very interesting.  You know what else was interesting?  The fact that this was the first book that appeared at our home that I couldn’t get back from my husband so that I could read it in order to write a review!  So I let him know that he was going to have to participate in giving me feedback for this review.

This book includes more than 100 “never-before-published” photos and even recently declassified images from the CIA.  That really impressed us along with the technical information being enjoyable to read and was also very understandable to someone like me that has little background knowledge on the Blackbirds.  I appreciated the engineering sketches that were included which were very helpful in learning about more aspects of these planes.

This book is great for both the expert and novice when it comes to learning about the Blackbird.  It is very impressive and well-worth adding to your book collection, especially for readers who love photo journals with lots of information.  Tony Landis did a superb job of putting together this photo scrapbook Lockheed Blackbird Family.  To sum it up, my husband was thrilled to find out he was going to get to keep the book! 

 

The Final Salute by Kathleen M. Rodgers has received over twenty reviews to date (on Amazon.com), the majority of which were written by military folks, many of which are connected with the Air Force.  This reviewer is going to come from the perspective of someone who has not served in the military, and has not had any connection to the Air Force.

The Final Salute takes readers into the world of Air Force fighter pilots.  This is a life where the pilots don’t know from day to day whether they will make it home to be with their families.  They are haunted by the memories of dead friends, lost in war or in air mishaps, and must go on living their daily lives with all that comes their way.

 The story is compelling and pulls the reader into the life of Tuck Westerfield and his family.  He is a Vietnam vet serving at a small air base in Louisiana.  The author does a superb job of creating the characters all around Tuck to make a very believable story, one that creates tension between people, which makes for a great read.  Tuck, along with the other pilots in his squadron are called into battle again when Iraq invades Kuwait.  Tragedy strikes, the final salute is offered, and this is when they again realize that they “must pull together and live on or forever be consumed with grief.”

Kathleen Rodgers has lived her life being the wife of a fighter pilot.  She dedicated this book to her husband, Tom (“whose ghosts first inspired this story”), and “in memory of fallen friends, too numerous to mention here”).  Be sure to read the poem “TAPS” at the beginning of the book, for it will make this story a reality, as it was written by the late Mrs. Maryellen Husson after her first husband, Captain Roy Westerfield, was killed in a plane crash in 1980. After reading the poem, readers will see that The Final Salute is a very meaningful title for Kathleen Rodger’s book. This is a well-written book and readers beyond the Air Force will appreciate the story.  This reviewer is looking forward to more books written by Ms. Rodgers.

 

Edward Cox needed to do a lot of research to accomplish writing Grey Eminence. I really respect him for that.  He shares this in the book: “The dearth of information about Conner is not accidental.  After a career that spanned four decades, this master strategist ordered all of his papers and journals burned.  Because of this, most of what is known about Conner is oblique, as a passing reference in the memoirs of other great men.”  Mr. Cox did a wonderful job of putting together this book based on Fox Conner’s mentorship of three famous men: George C. Marshall, Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower, and George Patton.  We’ve all heard of these three men, but have we heard of Major General Fox Conner?  I hadn’t, but I now know about this great soldier and leader and how he impacted the U.S. Army, WWII, and beyond.

Even though each of these three men (Marshall, Eisenhower, and Patton) had many influences on their military careers, they all attribute a lot of their success to their relationship with Fox Conner.  He provided them with friendship and a father figure.  He also was there to “provide advice, lend assistance, or call in a favor.” Marshall stated that he “owed his greatest debts to Conner.” Eisenhower felt that Conner “was the person who most shaped his career.” And Patton felt that Conner had a grasp of the art of war that was superior to his own. 

As a reader, I appreciated the fact that Mr. Cox let us in on glimpses of the family lives of these men.  That helped me to maintain my interest in the book.  I’ve never been one to read a lot of history books, but this one is well-balanced and wants to share with us that mentorship is critical, and the lives of those who have gone before us should be looked upon as models, just as Fox Conner was a model for developing strategic leaders.  “Each of his protégés developed subordinates of their own who would go on to face new challenges during the Cold War, fighting once again in distant lands like Korea and Vietnam.”  Edward Cox’s reason for writing this book seems to be that which he states in the last sentence of the book: “Today it is time for a new generation of leaders to learn from and follow Conner’s example, and to mentor future members of the profession of arms to lead the Army in the twenty-first century.”

 

War Remains by Jeffrey Miller is an excellent read.  Never having been a history buff due to teachers and professors who made it less than enjoyable for me, I am truly grateful for authors like Mr. Miller who can take me through the Korean War days in a way that attaches it to people and emotions and the reality of how it affected families.

When I think about the title War Remains I asked myself as I was reading it, just what the author had in mind. The title can certainly have multiple meanings. The obvious seems to be that many of our military were left behind in Korea and families were told they were MIA and unless their remains were to be found and identified, that would continue to be their classification. From my research, it appears that we have MIA status for approximately 10,000 of our military. One fifth of those are from Vietnam, and the other four-fifths from the Korean War. Have I ever once given thought about the family members that have been affected in this way? I’m ashamed to say that I don’t think so.  War Remains has touched me in a very special way.

This book led me to research what has been happening for these families. Hence, to me, the title can also mean that this war remains in the hearts of the survivors. Jeffrey Miller’s book will open the hearts and the eyes of those who have lived their lives unaffected by the Korean War. I thank him for that gift. It should also prove as a source of hope for families still waiting to have closure.

Mr. Miller begins his book with the discovery of a footlocker in an attic.  This footlocker then finds its way to the son of Sgt. First Class Robert (Bobby) Francis Washkowiak, Ronnie Washkowiak. It contains many letters from Bobby to his wife, Mary, and their infant son, Ronnie. When Bobby heads off to war, it is his small beloved family that keeps him going through his time in Korea. The book uses his many letters, which are then read by Ronnie, and his son, Michael to take us to the time and place when Bobby is writing the letters to his beloved wife. In this way, we see the side of war from the Korean War happenings which the author does a superb job of writing, telling readers about what the GIs in Korea were facing and about the many battles and the fact that the Korean War is called a “forgotten war.” Then we move back to present day, when Bobby’s family is always wondering what happened to their father, grandfather, and husband. Just how long should a young woman with a young son hold out hope for her loved one to return?  How long should one wait to accept that your husband has probably been killed? Mr. Miller does a superb job of transitioning back and forth between time frames.

Mr. Miller has very successfully written a story that shines light onto what many American families have experienced. It is a beautiful love story, shown through the many letters from Bobby to Mary. It is a war story, in that we see the Korean War up close and personal, through Bobby and his GI buddies. We see our military heroes returning to the States never knowing what happened to buddies that they had gotten close to during their service to our country.  It is not always easy reading when you encounter the Chinese in the rice paddies in the deep of night. But it is encouraging to know that some families have received closure when DNA has been matched to the remains of their loved one. 

I highly recommend War Remains to readers…this book has touched me deeply and is sticking with me both in my mind and my heart days after completing it. War Remains is a very impressive first novel for Jeffrey Miller.

 

Donna Mull, in her book Prayer Journey Through Deployment, has shared from her heart through the prayers that she wrote and shared with others while she experienced the deployment of her son.  I love this quote from her prologue: “Nothing motivates us more in life than love and pain. When my son received his orders for deployment to Iraq, I was motivated by both. I had heard stories about mothers whose faithful prayers had changed lives. I wanted to be one of those mothers.”

I believe that Donna Mull is one of those mothers who is helping to change lives by this prayer journal. I particularly like the way that she sets up the book with each entry beginning with one word such as loneliness, mission, fear, deployed, resilience, etc. For each prayer, she gives the reader one or more scripture verses to cling to, and then she shares her prayer for that day. I learned years ago, that there are times in our life when we just don’t seem to have the words to pray, and at these times, especially, to have a book like this is truly what is needed to keep us connected in our prayer life. I pray that this book will be able to get into the hands, hearts, and lives of those people who are facing deployment of a loved one.

 

Klinger: A Story of Honor and Hope written by Betsy Beard and illustrated by Shelley Johannes is beautiful in both the story and the pictures. Klinger was born on a farm and told from the beginning that he was a special horse. He dreamed of becoming a famous racehorse. The problem came when at the age of three, Klinger was told he wasn’t fast enough to be a racehorse. Klinger then ended up going to Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia to be trained as one of the horses in the Caisson Platoon, which pulls the wagons that take our nation’s fallen heroes to their final resting place. Klinger discovers that there is more than one way to be special. This book was published by TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) which is the “leading organization providing emotional support to the children of Armed Forces members who have died while serving our country, regardless of the circumstances of the death.” Readers will also learn about Good Grief Camps. This truly is a book of honor and hope.