On Combat

Average customer rating:

"On Combat" - A Must Read For ALL Police Offices

Required Reading for all Warriors

Excellent Book About The Psychology Of Combat.

A Compendium of Wisdom and Practical Advice - Part I of a Review of "On Combat" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman with Loren W. Christen

A layman's eyes are openned

On Combat
Dave Grossman , and Loren W. Christensen
Manufacturer: PPCT Research Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

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ASIN: 0964920514

Book Description

"This new book is what our young warriors need. At one of David's last briefings a Senior NCO approached me and said, "Sir, the army spent 18 years and thousands of dollars teaching me to kill. This is the first time I have been taught how to deal with it." This book will allow those not fortunate enough to hear David do their own preparation for the ultimate test." Lt. Col. Hal McNair Professor at the Joint Spec Ops University

Customer Reviews:

"On Combat" - A Must Read For ALL Police Offices.......2007-09-21

"ON COMBAT" is a MUST-READ for anyone in law enforcement, jailers, corrections, etc., as well as for anyone serving in our military!

Required Reading for all Warriors.......2007-09-06

I am very greatful that I have gotten to read such an amazing book at the start of my career instead of at the end. This book has put many pieces of the COMBAT puzzle together for me. It offers great insight into what goes on inside a warrior when crap hits the fan. It is most important piece in my collection and I guarantee it will be at the top of yours.

I highly recommend this piece to anyone who runs to a battle instead of away from one or anyone who is in the support system of our modern day warriors. I can understand why this is required reading material for several law enforcement groups.

The real life stories make the book very interesting and well worth the price and time. Thanks to all who made this book possible. It will be read several more times.

Excellent Book About The Psychology Of Combat........2007-08-21

The title says it all. This is a good second book after Grossman's "On Killing" as not everyone that's been through combat may have killed someone, but they may still be having problems with their time in the service, as a cop or some other profession that requires that they be around death or extremely stressful situations.

If you know someone that's having problems with that kind of thing, this book may help them out and it may get them to seek the help they need if they read it. Then again it may be a waste of their time and your money as not everyone wants help, but it's worth a shot. Even if they don't want help after something traumatic, maybe you'll read it and kind of understand what they're going through.

A Compendium of Wisdom and Practical Advice - Part I of a Review of "On Combat" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman with Loren W. Christen.......2007-08-15

With this review of "On Combat," I am departing from past practices in The White Rhino Report. This is the first review of a book that I will offer as a multi-part discussion of the book. The reason is simple. There is simply so much meat in "On Combat" that I cannot adequately respond to it all within the confines of one Blog posting.

Last week, when I review Lt. Col. Grossman's first book, "On Killing," I mentioned my friend, Kevin, who flies helicopters as part of the Army's elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. In an e-mail conversation I had earlier today with Kevin, he talked about his anticipation of reading my reaction to the book he told me I must read next - "On Combat":

"It will be interesting to see what you think about `On Combat' (my personal Bible)."

Kevin is a West Point graduate who is the veteran of two deployments to Iraq. He knows a great deal about combat - from a historical, theoretical and experiential perspective. For someone like Kevin to call "On Combat" his "Bible" speaks to the fact that there is a mother lode of gold-plated wisdom and practical guidance for warriors contained within the almost 400 pages of this book.

The full title of this sequel to "On Killing" is: "On Combat - The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace." Collaborating with Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman on the writing of this book is Loren W. Christensen, a veteran of 29 years in law enforcement, including time served as a military police officer in Vietnam. In this book, Grossman has expanded his focus from a study of killing to the broader study of combat. The expansion takes on additional dimension, because he now addresses a broader audience of warriors. In this book, the term "combat" refers not only to armed conflict on traditional fields of battle, but also to the deadly force situation that police officers often find themselves confronting. As further expansion of the concept of "combat," the book also offers chilling evidence that hyper-realistic violent video games and certain other violence-filled entertainment vehicles are turning our children into pseudo-warriors - yet without the discipline and restraints that true warriors learn as part of their training and socialization.

In a sense, "On Combat" is really four books in one. It is a handbook for warriors to use on the battlefield and upon their return home. It offers a cornucopia of insights into how best to think about and process in a healthy way the complex experiences and emotions of being in combat. At a second level, it serves as a similar kind of manual for police officers faced with the need to use deadly force, or to respond to assailants who use deadly force. At a third level, the book serves as a briefing tool for those who would aspire to be what Grossman calls "Peace Warriors" - those dedicated to making the world as safe and healthy a place as possible for ourselves and our children. Finally, in its emphasis on the deleterious effects of violent media on the minds of children and teenagers, it serves as a manual for parents and educators who need to understand the depth of the problem and the seriousness of the danger.

What makes Grossman's writing so compelling for me is the fact that he constructs his arguments and offers his case studies laid upon a solid foundation of experience, education and erudition. He quotes liberally - or, perhaps I should say "judiciously" - from the received wisdom of those who have gone before us. There are dozens of quotations from the Greek classics, from Scripture, from Shakespeare, from traditional hymnody and from a wide variety of wide writers and thinkers from the past. Such attributions add validity and texture to the contemporary examples that the authors offer to tell their stories and make their well-considered points.

Let me offer an excerpts from the fourth "handbook" I mentioned above - the guidebook for parents and educators in addressing issues of children's exposure to violent media:

"Until children are six or seven years old, they have great difficulty differentiating between fantasy and reality. That is why we do not use them as witnesses in court. We do not send people to prison on the word of a five-ear-old, since kids at that age are so malleable and suggestible. When children between two and six years of age see someone on television getting shot, stabbed, brutalized, degraded, and murdered, those images are real to them, as real as anything in their young lives." (Page 230)

In further explaining the impact of violent media upon children, the author invokes Socrates' words in Plato's "The Republic." As I read these words - first penned over 2,000 years ago - I was struck by their immediate relevance to the issues we struggle with today in dealing with violence in our media:

"What is this education to be then? Perhaps we shall hardly invent a system better than the one which long experience has worked out, with its two branches for the cultivation of the mind and the body. And I suppose we shall begin with the mind, before we start physical training.

And the beginning, as you know, is always the most important part, especially in dealing with anything young and tender. That is the time when character is being molded and easily takes any impression one may wish to stamp on it.

Then shall we simply allow our children to listen to any stories that anyone happens to make up, and so receive into their minds ideas often the very opposite of those we shall think they ought to have when they grow up?

No, certainly not.

It seems, then, our first business will be to supervise the making of fables and legends, rejecting all which are unsatisfactory; and we shall induce nurses and mothers to tell their children only those which we have approved, and to think more of molding their souls with these stories . . . Most of the stories now is use must be discarded.

The worst of all faults, especially if the story is ugly and immoral as well as false - misrepresenting the nature of gods and heroes.

A child cannot distinguish between the allegorical sense from the literal, and the ideas he takes in at that age are likely to become indelibly fixed; hence the great importance of seeing that the first stories he hears shall be designed to produce the best possible effect on his character." (Page 230)

Grossman takes this cogent argument into the 21st century with these follow-up comments:

"Think of the impact of violent media as a boot camp for kids, their own little basic training. As they sit before the tube, hour after hour, they learn that violence is good and violence is needed. They see it, experience it - and they believe it. The are inundated with the violence factor, but they never get the discipline. Now, if it troubles you that young soldiers have to go through a process of traumatization and brutalization, you should be infinitely more troubled that we are doing the same thing indiscriminately to our children without the safeguard of discipline . . . Our job is to protect our children, not rape their innocence when they are six. We can no more share our favorite violent movie (or TV show or video game) with our kids than we can share sex with them" (Pages 231)

My four sons range in age from 25 to 33. When they were being raised, we tried to be careful about these issues, but that was before the dramatic escalation in the level of realistic violence now available in high definition. As I read Grossman's words, I found myself saying a silent prayer of thanksgiving that my son and daughter-in-law show great wisdom, vigilance and restraint in monitoring the content of the media that their young daughter and son are exposed to.

In Part II of my review, I will discuss the author's tripartite depiction of the kinds of people that inhabit our world: sheep, wolves and sheepdogs.

Stay tuned.

Al

A layman's eyes are openned.......2007-08-13

I am not in the miltary, nor am I in law enforcement. My grandfather, my father, and my brother served in the Army; therefore, as a layman, I've been sympathetic towards the harsh life of the warrior. This book adds greater understanding to men who are hard to understand, unless you live in the toxic world they do.

I'll start with the only negative I could think of in my review of On Combat. I read, on average, twelve books a year; therefore, I like efficiency. On combat can be a little redundant, at times. It seems the book was created by a collection of essays Lt. Col. Grossman wrote. Now, the problem is minor and its the ONLY thing negative I found with the book.

I purchased the book because I am increasing my home protection methods. I learned that the book deals both in the psychology and the physiology of what happens in combat. Both prongs of the book add new information that goes well beyond to what pop culture or basic college coursework has taught on the subject. If you've found yourself in a combat situation. You'll know why you responded the way you did. You'll also be privelaged in reading many other accounts from men and women in either law enforcement or the military and the experiences they had.

For me, the most facsinating part of the book was the history lesson on the psychology of training soldiers to kill. Lt. Col. Grossman gives much detail here in a classic historic perspective but also adds great stories written by individuals to echo his points. Then, Lt. Col. Grossman compares how soldiers are trained to psychologically overcome killing a human to how video games (whether by design or accident) psychologically train children in the same way. In my strong opinion, this is the reason the media is silent on this very good book. Because, not only is Lt. Col. Grossman critical of violent video games but also violent movies.

If you've waxed and waned about getting this book, please let me persuade you to make the commitment. In light of VT shootings, I think you owe it to yourself to understand all of the roles we can potentially play in society. Are we sheep, are we the wolf that kills the sheep, or are we the sheepdog?

I hope this is someway helpful.

Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods

Average customer rating:

Understand what we're up against
After reading this book I sent it to my old ROTC school
A must read for those who leave the wire
Timely and practical
All warfighters should read this

Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods
H. John Poole
Manufacturer: Posterity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0963869574

Book Description

Tactics of the Crescent Moon comes none too soon for deployed U.S. service personnel. Little, if any, of their battlefield intelligence has been tactically interpreted. U.S. analysts are generally more interested in the enemy's strategic or technological capabilities. Even if those analysts did want to tactically assess the information, most lack the infantry and historical background to do so. This book fills that void. It reveals—for the first time in any detail—the most common small-unit maneuvers of the Iraqi and Afghan resistance fighters. Its author is a retired infantryman and recognized authority on guerrilla warfare. He has traveled the world extensively and still trains active-duty U.S. units.

Tactics of the Crescent Moon could save many lives (if not turn the tide of war) in the Middle East. It is a heavily researched, well-illustrated, and spell-binding account of how Muslim militants fight. While the book delves mainly into their tactical method, it also uncovers their cultural orientation. This nail-biting nonfiction covers events as recent as 15 September 2004.

Customer Reviews:

Understand what we're up against.......2007-02-27

If you want to truly understand how difficult it is to fight and win in the Middle East, then this book is required reading. Far too often we get watered-down information out of the press and on the Internet but the tactics of our Eastern adversaries go unmentioned. We know of suicide bombs, but where did this tactic originate? Which group in the Middle East is the most proficient at close-range combat? Where does Al Qaeda excel and what is the role of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard? Are Sunni and Shia groups always adversaries, or will they work together when faced with a common enemy?

This book gives countless examples of diffent tactics in different areas of the world from Afghanistan to Chechnya to the Levant. It illustrates the strengths of our adversaries and addresses our own weaknesses as a "Western" army. Finally, Poole makes recommendations on how we can win this fight through better light infantry tactics and restrained use of preparatory fire and air power.

It is in my opinion the best book yet on this "4th Generation" warfare. It is an outstanding read and will make you an expert amongst your friends when discussing the current state of military affairs in the Middle East.

After reading this book I sent it to my old ROTC school.......2006-11-28

I would highly encourage any person who is Battalion staff or lower to read this book. All Army and Marine personnel should read this book on the jet flying them to Iraq or Afghanistan. This book will give a typical soldier or marine a good snap shot of how the Eastern combat mind thinks. Also, unlike much propaganda to the contrary, the Islamic soldiers fight using Eastern techniques. There is more hand-to-hand fighting than in the past. American's just can't call in their massive fire support because the targets may not be easy to hit.

This book is great for privates, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains. I don't know if the advice will be taken if it's read at the level of battalion or above. That is where the "rubber no longer meets the road". The staff disconnect from the soldiers begins.

For all war fighters this book is a must read. All ROTC departments, Marine, and Army infantry should have this book as required reading.

A must read for those who leave the wire.......2006-11-21

During seven months in Falluja in 2005 I spent approximately 150 days in the city. The history alone in this book showed us just how much we may have been underestimating our enemies, and that if they followed their classical influences they could have done much more damage.

The history is priceless dating back to influences of the Samarai and how it came to bring the original Middle Eastern assassins, and how today's suicide bombers are like those in the past, only they have explosives instead of knives, and do not need as much skill.

John Poole had spent close to 30 years in the Marine Corps leading men as both a gunnery sergeant (when enlisted) and a Lt Colonel (when commissioned). He saw Vietnam first hand, and left feeling that he could have done more for the men he'd led. Although the officers that are in charge of teaching battle field skills are not fast to accept his methods the men on the ground who deal with the enemies in the streets of Iraqi cities know he is right.

Timely and practical.......2006-11-10

As a retired military officer, I think highly of Poole's books, including this one - he provides practical information that could save lives if they were required reading for our troops being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

All warfighters should read this.......2006-09-15

This book should be read by a variety of folks that desire to understand even a little bit more about what is happening and happening to US in the middle east. It is not a book that spends countless pages complaining about the state of union. This book will enable the tip of the spear as we are so fond of referring to our fighting forces, concise and credible information with regard to the mindset of their opposing forces. I have been told over and over, that you cannot defeat an opponent unless you understand how he/she thinks. It does shed some light on how the military-industrial complex is steering the people of many countries wrong by proposing extensive, expensive weapon systems that separate the men from the battle and advertise a zero loss of life war for our side. (Both sides should just throw rocks, it'll be simpler) And above all it mentions the one issue that is generating higher and higher turnover rates, ARMCHAIR war fighters, and the military personnel system, that rewards compliance and not innovation, that condones individualist and fails to properly reward teamwork. Battles should be fought from front to back and not the reverse as we are doing. I recommend this book to all, and not just to those in uniform.

WAR DOG: Fighting Other People's Wars -The Modern Mercenary in Combat

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First Hand Account of Mercs
Hind's First hand
PMCs, Diamond Fields & Hinds
Unique insight into military contracting; sobering tutorial on modern Africa
From one who was there and in the book...

WAR DOG: Fighting Other People's Wars -The Modern Mercenary in Combat
Al Venter
Manufacturer: Casemate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1932033092

Book Description

Mercenaries have been with us since the dawn of civilization, yet in the modern world they are little understood. While many of today's freelance fighters provide support for larger military establishments, others wage war where the great powers refuse to tread. In War Dog, Al Venter examines the latter world of mercenary fighters effecting decisions by themselves. In the process he unveils a remarkable array of close-quarters combat action.

Having personally visited every locale he describes throughout Africa and the Middle East, Venter is the rare correspondent who had to carry an AK-47 in his research along with his notebook and camera. To him, covering mercenary actions meant accompanying the men into the thick of combat. During Sierra Leone's civil war, he flew in the front bubble of the government's lone Hind gunship-piloted by the heroic chopper ace "Nellis"-as it flew daily missions to blast apart rebel positions. In this book the author not only describes the battles of the legendary South African mercenary company Executive Outcomes, he knew the founders personally and joined them on a number of actions. After stemming the tide of Jonas Savimbi's UNITA army in Angola (an outfit many of the SA operators had previously trained), Executive Outcomes headed north to hold back vicious rebels in West Africa.

This book is not only about triumph against adversity but also losses, as Venter relates the death and subsequent cannibalistic fate of his American friend, Bob MacKenzie, in Sierra Leone. Here we see the plight of thousands of civilians fleeing from homicidal jungle warriors, as well as the professionalism of the mercenaries who fought back with one hand and attempted to train government troops with the other, in hopes that they would someday be able to stand on their own.

The American public, as well as its military, largely sidestepped the horrific conflicts that embroiled Africa during the past two decades. But as Venter informs us, there were indeed small numbers of professional fighters on the ground, defending civilians and attempting to conjure order from chaos. In the process their heroism went unrecorded and their combat skill became known only to each other.

In this book we gain an intimate glimpse of this modern breed of warrior in combat. Not laden with medals, ribbons, civic parades, or even guaranteed income, they have nevertheless fought some of the toughest battles in the post- Cold War era. They simply are, and perhaps always will be, "War Dogs."

AL J. VENTER has been an international war correspondent for nearly thirty years, primarily for the Jane's Information Group. He has also produced documentary television films on subjects from the wars in Africa and Afghanistan to sharkhunting off the Cape of Good Hope. Among his previous works are The Iraqi War Debrief: Why Saddam Hussein Was Toppled and Iran's Nuclear Option: Tehran's Quest for the Atomic Bomb. A native of South Africa, he is currently resident in the United Kingdom.

Customer Reviews:

First Hand Account of Mercs.......2007-07-28

I waited and waited for this book to come out. I wasn't disappointed. It covers the modern mercenary world from a a first had account. The primary focus of the book is on mercs in Africa. The author spent a significant amount of his time with these mercenarys, occassionally even going on missions with them. The book is long, getting into details that other books have skimmed over for lack of information.
I only give this book 5 stars because he covers a subject to a depth I haven't seen since the 80s mercs books. I'm tempted to give it 4 stars though because the writer skips around, referencing future chapters and re telling the same story several times. However if you are into true mercenarys this is the one and only book to get. I collect books on African mercenarys but this is my reference and encyclopedia book on the subject.

Hind's First hand.......2006-08-22

I'm a "Hind-Nut" or a HUGE fan of the MI_24 Helicopter and all it's variants. (old & New) I get every book and read every thing on line I possibly can about this flying battle ship.
The only problem is that most all books on the hind are Technical manuals, discriptions and Histories of it, there is little or nothing written about actual combat in the hind. Not true anymore! The Authors stories of Neil Ellis' battles are very exciting and will be to any Hind Enthusiest.I knew little or nothing about the Bush wars in Africa (or even where Sieara Lione was)until I read this book and got a real education from it as well. NOT a light read though.

PMCs, Diamond Fields & Hinds.......2006-07-02

The main focus of "War Dog" is on mercenary pilots in Africa around the turn of the millennium. Flying 'outdated' planes and third hand Hind helicopters these pilots ruled the skies above the endless battles to control the diamond mines below. Land battles and treks in BMPs get their due too, but it's the helicopters and airplanes that get the most attention in this book.

The main thing I took away from "War Dog" is that as First World governments become more and more hesitant to have body bags full of -their- soldiers show up on the TV news Private Military Companies (PMCs) that run armies for hire have stepped up to do the dirty work. The rise of one such PMC "Executive Outcomes" is discussed at length.

A good book full of information, not a light read, but one people interested in current events will find useful.

Unique insight into military contracting; sobering tutorial on modern Africa.......2006-04-23

This is a remarkable book. It turns like a thriller, yet the reader also is being educated from a first-hand observer of the sorry state of modern, post-colonial (sometimes proto-colonial) African states. If hiring professional soldiers is what it takes to do something--anything--to ameliorate the "Wretched of the Earth" and the biblical suffering in underdeveloped basketcases, then let's by G-d do it.

From one who was there and in the book..........2006-03-28

All I can say is reading this was a very emotional experience as I relived some of those memories from Ventor's book, War Dog.

It is not only a work of truth but an amazing story of historical facts that should be read by anyone who truly wants to understand the nature of modern, post cold war conflict and how closely integrated international economy is with these small wars.

He also, speaks not only of the 'contrary to popular opinion' fact, that most modern mercs were former distinguished soldiers who left their service and continue to serve with more honor than many civilians will ever know or have. Mercs who also were smart enough to see a way to make some money doing what they were already good at from years of service. Mercs who risk their lives for causes, not just money, and that many of these causes, still actually serve the good of their own homelands through indirect means.

Also, they understand that many of their enemies are not out for anything other than pure greed and will stop at no inhumane horror to attempt achieving this. Using child soldiers, hacking off limbs of old people with dull machetes, taking bets and then cutting the babies out of pregnant women to see if it's a boy or girl that falls out...

These mercs understand what no politician or self professed peace lover will ever understand or be able to say, much less take action on...And that is that some people in this world are not kind, but ruthless and the only way to stop them is with force...

And that's what this book is all about, these men who choose to lay their lives on the line, sure for some money, if they live and when they get paid (if ever), but mostly for a cause they believe in, in places most can't even fathom and in ways, many will never understand, until they live it.

These men fall in love with a woman, or a country, or an ideal and often, money is the least of their motives. Read for yourself and form your own opinion. This is the closest to ground truth anyone can ever get without actually going there and living through it- if they live though it.

For me, my tour in Africa in some ways, was one of my quietest in terms of combat actually fought, as my wars were in other places. But, in terms of the blood shed and horrors of inhumanity, I've seen nothing like these wars.

And, I've seen nothing like the brave men I met there. The Russian crews I served with were some of the best ever and the South African men I met and worked with there, make many heros look small in comparison. To those men go the real honors and salutations.

And to Ventor for capturing it, so that their stories will be told, the truth will be know, people can understand and maybe, just maybe, someone somewhere, who is in a position to make a change, might just do so and in that, all our efforts combined, will make a difference.

A good read, a better book and a great story for everyone who seeks to understand where we are and where we're going.

Salute!
>>----->

Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior

Average customer rating:

Excellent!
Great!
book review
Good book, but needs a step back?
Great book, explains the challenges an SF canidate must endure.

Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior
Dick Couch
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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LEADERSHIP AND TRAINING FOR THE FIGHT: A FEW THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP AND TRAINING FROM A FORMER SPECIAL OPERATIONS SOLDIER

ASIN: 0307339386
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Book Description

IN combating terror, America can no longer depend on its conventional military superiority and the use of sophisticated technology. We are fighting guerrilla wars, against insurgents hidden in remote regions, often deep among the local population. In battles such as these, squadrons of billion-dollar bombers and naval fleets mean much less than on-the-ground intelligence and the ability to organize local forces. That’s why, more than ever before, we need men like those of the Army Special Forces—the legendary Green Berets.
In Chosen Soldier, Dick Couch—a former Navy SEAL widely admired for his books about SEAL training and operations—offers an unprecedented view of the training of the Army Special Forces warrior. Each year, several thousand enlisted men and several hundred officers volunteer for Special Forces training; less than a quarter of those who apply will complete the course. Chosen Soldier spells out in fascinating detail the arduous regimen these men undergo—the demanding selection process and grueling field exercises, the high-level technical training and intensive language courses, and the simulated battle problems that test everything from how well they gather operational intelligence to their skills at negotiating with volatile, often hostile, local leaders.
Green Berets are expected to be deadly in combat, yes, but their responsibilities go far beyond those of other Special Operations fighters; they’re taught to operate in foreign cultures, often behind enemy lines; to recruit, train, and lead local forces; to gather intelligence in hostile territory; to forge bonds across languages and cultures. They must not only be experts in such fields as explosives, communications, engineering, and field medicine, but also be able to teach those skills to others. Each and every Green Beret must function as tactical combat leader, negotiator, teacher, drill sergeant, and diplomat.
These tasks require more than just physical prowess; they require a unique mix of character, intelligence, language skills, and—most of all—adaptability. It’s no wonder that the Green Berets’ training regimen is known as the hardest in the world. Drawing on his unprecedented access to the closed world of Army Special Forces training, Dick Couch paints a vivid, intimate portrait of these extraordinary men and the process that forges America’s smartest, most versatile, and most valuable fighting force.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2007-09-20

Very well written and hard to put down. An excellent insight into SF traing from beginning to end. I've seen many books on the subject of SF traing but none as complete as this one. WOW, brings back a lot of memories! This is a MUST READ for anyone thinking of going SF.
Great job Mr. Couch!

Great!.......2007-08-31

This book is great! Of course, I am partial since it is from my son's training and all those with him. I believe anyone interested in finding out just what a special type of man it takes to become a Green Beret, you will thoroughly enjoy it. Throughout this book the author made it possible for me to go through each part of his training and feel even more proud of not only him, but all the men that would dedicate themselves to such unbelievable physical and mental training, dedication, and tasks to learn and become one of the strongest, smartest, educated and trained special forces for our country and for our freedom.

book review.......2007-08-23

One of the most interesting books about soldiers I've ever read - it certainly sheds quite a different light on SF training and the quality of our people.

Good book, but needs a step back?.......2007-08-14

No question Couch does a great job explaining the incredible training and selection of SF soldiers. He knows the ground and covers it well. But, the role of SF seems to have changed, and could be viewed with some thoughtful questions. Has the SF mission been changed and more emphasis placed on their being small scale Ranger units or substitute CIA para-military units? Has the Blackwater thought process taken over? The SF I knew was "the best and the brightest". True warriors who knew that sometimes having to shoot it out was the first sign of a failed mission. I'd love to see Couch explore what the role of these heros has evolved into.

Great book, explains the challenges an SF canidate must endure........2007-08-05

Overall great read! As an american soldier with a significant time in service,both stateside and overseas, I found this book to be very informative and motivating. It shares with the reader all phases that an SF canidate must endure to earn the sacred Special Forces tab and be able to call himself a special operator. I have been considering a life in SF and I think this book might have pushed me over the edge and motivated me enough to try out. As I said before, great read and very well written.

Specialist M
US Army

Average customer rating:

A Great Book!
A classic!
Easy to Read - Difficult to Apply
What many overlook
Hagakure

Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri
Tsunetomo Yamamoto
Manufacturer: Kodansha International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Bushido: The Way of the Samurai (Square One Classics)
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The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke

ASIN: 4770011067

Book Description

|Hagakure ("In the Shadow of Leaves"') is a manual for the samurai classes consisting of a series of short anecdotes and reflections that give both insight and instruction-in the philosophy and code of behavior that foster the true spirit of Bushido-the Way of the Warrior. It is not a book of
philosophy as most would understand the word: it is a collection of thoughts and sayings recorded over a period of seven years, and as such covers a wide variety of subjects, often in no particular sequence.

The work represents an attitude far removed from our modern pragmatism and materialism, and posesses an intuitive rather than rational appeal in its assertion that Bushido is a Way of Dying, and that only a samurai retainer prepared and willing to die at any moment can be totally true to his lord.
While Hagakure was for many years a secret text known only to the warrior vassals of the Hizen fief to which the author belonged, it later came to be recognized as a classic exposition of samurai thought and came to influence many subsequent generations, including Yukio Mishima.

This translation offers 300 selections that constitute the core texts of the 1,300 present in the original.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book!.......2007-09-30

I loved it. It's an enjoyable read, full of great stories and full of insights. When I first read this book back in 1998, it had a tremendous impact on my life. It allowed me to view things from a different perspective. I will continue to recommend it to everyone. I also highly recommend the modern day version Understanding: Train of Thought.

A classic!.......2007-09-26

This is one of the best historical texts available on the subject of Japanese warrior philosophy. While many of its practices seem alien to the 21st century reader, there is still much wisdom to be found here. I have read this book many times over the years. I will very likely continue to read it again and again.Bushido: A Modern Adaptation of the Ancient Code of the SamuraiMeditations (Penguin Classics)

Easy to Read - Difficult to Apply.......2007-07-19

Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri is a superb little book that makes some important points. However, it is all too easy to take what it has to say out of context. The time and place to which it was literally relevant has long since passed. What it has to say about the values one should live by and how one should carry out their mission in life are, on the other hand, timeless.

The same can be said of another important Japanese classic: The Book of Five Rings. Both of these books are important from a philosophical point of view, but difficult to really understand for those who are not immersed in Japanese culture. Both spring from the philosophy of Zen and both do a good job of showing its application is a time of constant warfare and personal danger.

A good choice to put the advice of the Zen warriors into perspective is the book Bushido, the Soul of Japan which gives a broader look at the philosophy and its roots. What Zen is all about and how it may be applied in everyday life - how compatible it is with other philosophies and religions - is well presented.

All three of these books have been bound together into one book: The Samurai Series: The Book of Five Rings, Hagakure -The Way of the Samurai & Bushido - The Soul of Japan, which I can recommend without reservation. Together, these three books add up to much more than the sum of the parts. They are truly synergistic.

What many overlook.......2007-06-07

Though I am here to review this book I must comment on previous editorials and reviews posted. As you may have just read, this book is about the mindset of the Samurai. And really, it isn't about the samurai as in a sense of all samurais lumped together as one group, or even a type of samurai, as it is more about just one samurai, the author. However, many of the reviewers here fail to make the connection with this book to today's trials and tribulations.

Much of what Hagakures writes is outdated - instructions and etiquette on murder, suicide, treatment of women, etc. However, there is much of this book that is applicable to today. Look through the absurd passages into the lesson behind the text. Portions of this book that discuss fighting enemies, too, are outdated. But one must make the connection of terms like `enemy' with struggle or test; etiquette on waking up from a nap doesn't necessarily refer to literally waking from slumber. There is so much in this book that many will never see if they read it without pondering its teachings. The references to specific situations may seem obsolete, but one must look deeper.

The Bible passage of not putting a stumbling block before a blind man does directly mean just that. However, a blind man does not necessarily refer to a man without his eyesight. And a stumbling block may not be a physical object. If one can truly read this book without paying so much attention to the writer, and more to translating the deeper meaning between each passage, then this book will change your life. Passages of awaking from sleep, the spirit of an age, tackling obstacles without complexity, form and emptiness, and (my absolute favorite) the lesson of a rainstorm, will undoubtedly bestow a new level of understanding life to any deep reader.

I recommend this book for all of the reasons others have previously listed; but I also recommend this book for so many more.

Hagakure.......2007-03-29

This book is a wonderful look into the hearts and minds of the Samauri. Anybody intrested in trying to comprehend the Samauri mindset should start here. The book gives you a clear point of view on basic life, from doing good versus bad, to manners, to raising children, and everything inbetween all from the ancient Samauri ways of life. The world today would be a much better place if more people were to live their lives in this manner.

Solo Training: The Martial Artist's Guide to Training Alone

Average customer rating:

A wealth of information and by a great author(s)
Blah!
Enlighting!
Not very useful for me
Excelent for beginers, and for Fitness

Solo Training: The Martial Artist's Guide to Training Alone
Loren Christensen
Manufacturer: Turtle Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Solo Training 2: The Martial Artist's Guide to Building the Core for Stronger, Faster and More Effective Grappling, Kicking and Punching
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ASIN: 1880336596

Book Description

Loren Christensen shows you over 300 ways you can add variety to your daily martial arts training routine. Whether you're a student looking for fun new solo drills to spice up your home training or an instructor in search of new ways to pump up your classes, you won't be disappointed. This incredible collection of drills, techniques and exercises will take your workouts to the next level. Learn to:

*Organize your solo workouts to the get maximum results from even the shortest training session
*Improve your speed and power with dozens of inside tips and tricks
*Beat boredom and get excited about your solo training sessions
*Become a well rounded fighter by adding essential skills that your instructor may not be teaching you
*Safely experiment with new techniques to find your ideal personal style of training
*Get an edge on your opponents with training methods that will make you unstoppable in the ring or on the street

Not only will you learn enough new training strategies and methods to keep you busy for years, but Loren Cristensen's no-nonsense writing style will get you up and moving even on the days you rather skip your solo workout. Packed with solid advice and kick-butt motivation, this book will become your favorite training partner.

Customer Reviews:

A wealth of information and by a great author(s).......2007-06-27

I first purchased "The Fighter's Body: An Owner's Manual: Your Guide to Diet, Nutrition, Exercise and Excellence in the Martial Arts" and found it to be very practical and focused on what I needed to focus on as a studying martial artists. I followed this book up with:
- Timing in the Fighting Arts: Your Guide to Winning in the Ring and Surviving on the Street
- Solo Training: The Martial Artist's Guide to Training Alone
- Fighter's Fact Book: Over 400 Concepts, Principles, and Drills to Make You a Better Fighter

All of these are great books and I look forward to selling my house (I had to hide Bob from perspective buyers... that face!) so that I can put Bob in my new garage and start abusing him with all of these new concepts... one by one... it will take a while!

Thanks!

David

Blah!.......2007-05-14

This book was everything you already knew, put into writing. I diagree with a few of the techniques, but that is because I prectice muay thai not tae kwon do. I also thought there was lots of stuff that was left out of the book. There are lots of things you can do at your house to train for martial arts that were not included in this book. I recoment you go get the Bas Rutten martial arts work out. You'll love it if you are serious.

Enlighting!.......2006-07-06

The ideas and training was really helpful, a good tool for training at home when you have no partner to train with.

Not very useful for me.......2006-06-28

I agree, solo practice is very important. If you have no clue what you could practice alone, are training karate / tkd / krav maga, and fairly novice, there might be some good drills for you.

If you train something "softer", or martial arts that emphasize body unity (Chinese MA, Judo, Aikido, systema etc), this is probably not your book.

A problem whith this book is that it has plenty of drills, but the detailed instructions on the techniques are lacking. This is OK if you assume the reader has trained longer, or atleast gets the details from their own teacher. But if you've trained longer, i doubt you'll get much new info from this book. And if you've trained less, IMO you need more detailed info. If you need to ask the details from your teacher, you'd be better off asking the drills from your teacher too.

Atleast one good option is "Attack proof" by Perkins / Ridenhour / Kovalsky. It's more a self-defence book, but had drills i found actually useful and new to me.

Excelent for beginers, and for Fitness.......2005-12-20

This is a very good book. Don't look into it though if your a black belt or higher, won't offer too much. This book offers great basic intruction, although it does detail on form, I'd listen to my instructor over this book. It comes from a karate point of view, but the drill are good for all martial art forms. No, there's no great training secrets or anything like that in this book. Any book or person that claims to know a secret of training is lying anyway. These bread and butter (basic) moves and drills will help you become faster and stronger when practiced regualrly. I increased my kicked height and speed, as well as my punching power and speed by using this book.

Unleash the Warrior Within: Develop the Focus, Discipline, Confidence and Courage You Need to Achieve Unlimited Goals

Average customer rating:

Great book to get yourself focused on achieving your goals
Good Read
Focus and direction in a cheap paperback!
MUST HAVE! MUST READ!
Fighting Your Demons

Unleash the Warrior Within: Develop the Focus, Discipline, Confidence and Courage You Need to Achieve Unlimited Goals
Richard J. Machowicz
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Unbeatable

ASIN: 1569244979

Amazon.com

War is hell, but if you prepare properly for war, there's not much about life that will take you by surprise. At least, that's the premise of Unleashing the Warrior Within, in which author Richard Machowicz takes the lessons he learned as a Navy SEAL and applies them to real-life situations.

For example, in war you learn that there are three dynamic elements of combat: target, weapons, and movement. The target dictates the weapons, and the weapons dictate movement. In real life, your target is what you want; your weapons are your skills; and movement is whatever you need to get in position to use your skills.

But, since deciding upon a target is the step that's most troubling to people, he adds another wartime analytical tool called the CARVER matrix. You lay out various targets you may have in life--a better job; getting in shape; buying a new house; and taking on a new business partner, say. Then you assess the criticality, accessibility, recognizability, and vulnerability of the target, plus its effect on your overall mission in life, and the potential return on your effort.

Machowicz calls his philosophy Bukido, and when you take his classes in Los Angeles, you learn self-defense along with these life-improvement skills. In this book, the object is to get you to choose a mission that is closest and most important to you, and then achieve your goals with military precision. By the time you're through learning the seven principles of combat, what you've really learned is how to think critically and focus your efforts. Machowicz uses his students as examples of how the enemy in life is really a lack of action, allowing life to take you along for a ride. So if your current target is a solid self-improvement course, Unleashing the Warrior Within could be your most effective weapon. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

Richard Machowicz knows first hand that life can be a lot like war. A ten-year veteran of the Navy SEALs, he was trained to complete whatever mission was handed to him, under any condition, because failure was not an option. Now, in Unleash the Warrior Within, Machowicz takes the winning attitude and mental skills he mastered in service and shows readers how to use combat mentality to reach their goals in everyday life. Using his seven principles of combat—which include Create an Action Mind-Set, The Critical Keys to Conquering Anything, and Guarantee the Win—Machowicz shows readers how to master the arts of focus, discipline, and determination under any circumstances, giving them the tools they need to conquer fear and turn their ambitions and dreams into reality. A new preface is included in this paperback edition of this inspiring guide. “Machowicz gives you the tools necessary to ensure that you win in the battle of life.”—Jim Rome, host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Jungle, and FOX television’s The Last Word

Customer Reviews:

Great book to get yourself focused on achieving your goals.......2007-06-28

On the surface this book may appear to be either similar to many of the other ex-military books describing the life of a member of the special forces or a self-help type book geared towards males. It actually falls somewhere in between. Unlike other books about Navy Seals that tell you what it took physically, this tells you what it took mentally and psychologically to persevere through BUD/S training. The anecdotes about Machowicz's life in the Seals is the backdrop to a mental discipline he describes in straight forward language. The book describes many mental techniques to keep you moving forward towards what you really want to do, as well as finding out what is holding you back. One of the more useful concepts in the book was a simple exercise that shows you where you should really be spending your time and effort. Like Sun Szu's Art of War being applied to the corporate world, this ex-Navy Seal's experience can be applied to your daily life. While many psychological based books tell you how you should run your life, this one simply provides you with psychological tools and leaves the rest to you. Anyone feeling like they are in a rut or find their goals just out of reach should read this book.

Good Read.......2007-05-09

I judge all books that I read by a simple parameter - If I can get at least 1 worthwhile thought, piece of knowledge, or idea from any book that I read - then it was well worth it. This book gave me a few great concepts - with the most notable for me being "You can ALWAYS do more than you THINK you can". I am sure Richard Machowicz attained this thought process from his Navy Seal days...but I have used the concept frequently since I have read the book to help me attain higher results in a variety of situations than I may have previously. For me - that's a winner.

Focus and direction in a cheap paperback!.......2007-04-11

I tend to be one of those people with a million ideas but never enough time to finish them all. This book offers a unique method to rank and prioritize goals that I found to be very helpful in deciding what is worth pursuing and what should be put off for later. I've found it much more useful than any other time-management system I've learned, including expensive corporate-sponsored Franklin Covey courses on focus and time management. And so cheap compared to a corporate seminar!

MUST HAVE! MUST READ!.......2007-03-15

This is not so much a "self help" book as it is more for "self worth!" In it, Mack teaches you how to tap into your potential, to make yourself a stronger, more confident person. Being in law enforcement, I must recommend this book to all my brothers and sisters in blue!

Fighting Your Demons.......2006-12-16

In this relatively short book, the author encourages civilains battling everyday problems to use the principles of combat to succeed. A former Navy SEAL, the author intersperses his techniques with anecdotes from his SEAL experience.

The writing is terse and the book ends abruptly but his adventures as a SEAL are both harrowing and fascinating. However, the weakness of the book is the heavy military vernacular and the paucity of examples where his system is applied to mundane struggles. His system is certainly time tested but resistance based (everything is a fight and involves knocking down targets). While his personal journey is impressive, his system is unwieldy particuarly when compared with some of the better Law of Attraction materials so popular today.

This book provides a tough, no nonsense approach to life and goal setting. The demanding SEAL regimen leaves no room for error or lack of committment. However, implementing the system may be too challenging for most.

If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

Average customer rating:

An informative memoir on the Vietnam War
The first step
A Good Time To Revisit the Vietnam Experience
Good, but not his best
A good book

If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home
Tim O'Brien
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0767904435
Release Date: 1999-09-01

Amazon.com

Over time, Tim O'Brien has used both art and artifice to shape his fictional accounts of Vietnam. Award-winning novels such as Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried offer up a surreal view of the war: a soldier who decides to walk to Paris, leaving only a trail of M&M's in his wake; a young man who imports his high-school girlfriend to his base camp high in the jungled mountains, only to lose her to a shadowy squad of Special Forces Green Berets and to "that mix of unnamed terror and unnamed pleasure" that was Vietnam. O'Brien's first account of the war, however, was written in the raw, unfiltered months following his return from Southeast Asia in 1969. If I Die in a Combat Zone has all of the eloquence and attention to language and detail that are a mark of the author's work; what is different about it is its straightforward, unembellished depiction of his personal experience of hell.

"When you are ordered to march through areas such as Pinkville--GI slang for Song My, parent village of My Lai ... you do some thinking. You hallucinate. You look ahead a few paces and wonder what your legs will resemble if there is more to the earth in that spot than silicates and nitrogen. Will the pain be unbearable? Will you scream or fall silent? Will you be afraid to look at your own body, afraid of the sight of your own red flesh and white bone? You wonder if the medic remembered his morphine."

O'Brien paints an unvarnished portrait of the infantry soldier's life that is at once mundane and terrifying--the endless days of patrolling punctuated by firefights that end as suddenly and inconclusively as they begin; the mind-numbing brutality of burned villages and trampled rice patties; the terror of tunnels, minefields, and the ever-present threat of death. Powerful as these scenes are, perhaps the most memorable chapter in the book concerns his decision to desert just a few weeks before he was sent to Vietnam. "The AWOL bag was ready to go, but I wasn't.... I burned the letters to my family. I read the others and burned them, too. It was over. I simply couldn't bring myself to flee. Family, the home town, friends, history, tradition, fear, confusion, exile: I could not run." Tim O'Brien went into the war opposing it and came out knowing exactly why. If I Die in a Combat Zone is more than just a memoir of a disastrous war; it is also a meditation on heroism and cowardice, on the mutability of truth and morality in a war zone and, most of all, on the simple, human capacity to endure the unendurable. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Before writing his award-winning Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien gave us this intensely personal account of his year as a foot soldier in Vietnam. The author takes us with him to experience combat from behind an infantryman's rifle, to walk the minefields of My Lai, to crawl into the ghostly tunnels, and to explore the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war gone terribly wrong. Beautifully written and searingly heartfelt, If I Die in a Combat Zone is a masterwork of its genre.

Customer Reviews:

An informative memoir on the Vietnam War.......2007-08-30

This memoir brought me closer than I had been before to the Vietnam War..it was interesting. Another perspective on the Vietnam War.

The first step.......2007-08-09

If I Die...is Tim O'Brien's first book, and his first of many inspired by his tour of duty as an infantryman in Vietnam, 1969-70. Later, more successful books, like Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, deliberately smudge the line between reportage and invented story (and, in GAC, he takes it all the way to outright fantasy) but this debut is intended as a soldier's field memoir, the facts as O'Brien saw and remembers them, although with much brooding personal commentary added.

More than 30 years after its publication, the book is still quite powerful, reviving the sights and sounds of a war that America decided a while ago not to forget, but rather to remember in a way it finds most convenient. There are still too many people who believe we could easily have "won" Vietnam if we hadn't been "stabbed in the back" by politicians and hippie protestors at home; that is nonsense, much of which O'Brien's book helps disprove. Indispensible works like The Best and the Brightest, and of course The Pentagon Papers, prove how various US administrations allowed themselves to be deluded about the progress the US military might make in solving the political problems of a small SE Asian country. By the time O'Brien arrived as a foot soldier in early 1969, the war had reached a high-level stalemate, was essentially over, and the Vietnamese simply had to wait us out. LBJ and Nixon knew this but they continued to send our soldiers over to be killed and mangled; too precipitous a withdrawal would have hurt their administrations politically.

What O'Brien does so well is dramatize this fatal stall at the personal level. His book is loaded with stories of ranking officers, brave men with Army careers, allowing their commands to ease off in the field, avoid pointless enemy engagements, even file fake patrol reports, especially at night. O'Brien's tour commenced a year after Tet and My Lai occurred, and in their aftermath, as O'Brien tells it, Army morale at even the officer level had sunk so low, and the failure of US goals was so evident, that few Americans wanted to get killed for a misadventure.

What lingers most in my mind is O'Brien's struggle with his own self-loathing: he believed even before being drafted that the war was wrong, and made serious plans to desert the Army, but found himself unable to make that great break, fearful of the reaction he would eventually encounter from parents and the small Minnesota town of his birth. He gave in to tradition, rather than do what he felt to be right, and it seems he has never forgiven himself.

A Good Time To Revisit the Vietnam Experience .......2007-08-02

Tim O'Brien is one of our more gifted, living writers in the genre of war literature, and although IF I DIE IN A COMBAT zone isn't his strongest book, it is certainly worthy reading, especially in the echoing din of George Bush's Iraqi adventure.

A straightforward account from a soldier's point of view, O'Brien's book includes the before, during, and after of his Vietnam experience -- especially the daily grind of soldiering (during) and the soul-searching and debate about fleeing (before) instead of answering the call of the draft. He had a rather quixotic escape plan to Sweden (of all places), but ultimately did his "duty," all along meditating on the nature of sanity, obligation, and patriotism. There are frequent excerpts from Plato, even, as O'Brien explores that ancient philosopher's take on "courage." As his fellow soldiers are killed, O'Brien details the nature of fate and chance, along with the more realistic details of the many ways "Charlie" (the VC) could arrange for you to die.

Here is a typical excerpt in which O'Brien compares Vietnam to the Trojan War:

"But losing [Captain Johansen] was like the Trojans losing Hector. He gave some amount of reason to fight. Certainly there were never any political reasons. The war, like Hector's own war, was silly and stupid. Troy was besieged for the sake of a pretty woman. And Helen, for God's sake, was a woman most of the grubby, warted Trojans could never have. Vietnam was under siege in pursuit of a pretty, tantalizing, promiscuous, particularly American brand of government and style. And most of Alpha Company would have preferred a likable whore to self-determination. So Captain Johansen helped to mitigate and melt the silliness, showing the grace and poise a man can have under the worst of circumstances, a wrong war. We clung to him." -- (p. 145)

Philosophical riffs like this are frequent -- as are accounts of the soldiers' lives (and deaths), their nicknames for killer devices, their fear and superstitions, and their ways of surviving in a strange land where even women and children could, and often did, mean death. The literary weave of abstractions on war and history with specifics on Vietnam itself make for a potent read. You will come out of it not only feeling better educated about what Vietnam was like, but sensing that many of the arguments of the American government and the officers in charge ring as familiarly hollow now (in Iraq) as they did then (in Vietnam). If I could, I'd buy a copy for the President. But I know he wouldn't read it or, if he did, seek meaning from it.

Pro or anti-war, Vietnam or Iraq, you, however, can glean something from this early effort of Tim O'Brien's. Check it out.

Good, but not his best.......2007-04-28

Having read O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" first, this book seemed a bit dry and journalistic in comparison. It started out slow, and never really pulled me in the way the other did. In this book there are flashes of O'Brien's lyrical, dream-like brilliance, but never as consistent or as seemingly tangible as in "The Things They Carried."

In this book, O'Brien brings the reader along with him from the moment he first learns that he is to be drafted until he is on a plane heading home from Viet Nam. He shares his fears, doubts and political views of the war. The book is mostly about O'Brien's experience in the war, and how it changed him and matured him.

Overall, a good book. Probably of particular interest to anyone interested in a personal, almost documentary-style account of O'Brien's experience in Viet Nam. In a purely literary sense, however, the stories in "The Things They Carried" are far better examples of Tim O'Brien's skill as a writer.

A good book.......2007-01-11

A little too in depth for me. But i do recommend that it be read. A good book.

Average customer rating:

Full of valuable information
Combat Medic Field Reference
Perfect for the new Corpsman or medic
Outstanding reference for todays combat medic.
A very informative book

Combat Medic Field Reference
Casey, Ed. Bond
Manufacturer: Jones & Bartlett Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

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ASIN: 0763735639
Release Date: 2005-05-27

Product Description

The ability to save lives in war, conflicts, and humanitarian interventions requires sophisticated skills above and beyond first aid. Todays Combat Medic must be an expert in emergency care, force health protection, limited primary care, and warrior skills. The Combat Medic Field Reference provides easy access to essential information on triage, treatment, and US Army procedures. This handy pocket-sized reference features waterproof pages for making temporary or permanent notes.

Customer Reviews:

Full of valuable information.......2007-03-14

Purchased for my husband... He said it is full of valuable information, a must have for any combat medic's library.

Combat Medic Field Reference.......2007-01-18

Well laid out. Has the information a 68W or other service medics/corpsmen will need after he/she leaves school. I wish I'd had this for my medics while I was in Iraq. Good reviews of trauma care and also a great section on sickcall complaints and basic treatments. Casey did a great job of putting this all together.

Perfect for the new Corpsman or medic.......2006-12-27

I cannot recommend this enough as the 1st book any junior Corpsman/medic purchase. The material is well written and easy to understand. I have spent 7+ years with Marine infantry battalions and have to say this is the best reference out there for the new guy. A good book.

Outstanding reference for todays combat medic. .......2006-03-11

I have always looked for a all inclusive reference and now i have found it in this book it is extremely up to date and very relavant and you can tell it was written for medics by medics

A very informative book.......2005-11-15

I just got the book this past week, but so far I'm impressed with it. It's small enough to place in a ALICE type back pack( and in your BDU trouser pockets). The water-proof pages is of course a plus to have in the field.

Hoo-ah!

Fighter's Fact Book: Over 400 Concepts, Principles, and Drills to Make You a Better Fighter

Average customer rating:

Great Book!
Don't think of it just for punches and kicks
A Martial Arts Must-Have
Great!
Fighter's Fact Book.........a great suppliment for today's martial arts teacher

Fighter's Fact Book: Over 400 Concepts, Principles, and Drills to Make You a Better Fighter
Loren W. Christensen
Manufacturer: Turtle Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1880336375

Book Description

With over 35 years experience in the ring, on the mat and in the street, Loren Christensen understands the daily challenges faced by martial artists. In Fighters Fact Book he has put together a collection of over 400 tips, drills, principles, concepts and exercises to give you the edge no matter what style of martial art you practice. Discover quick and innovative ways to improve your punching, kicking, sparring and self-defense skills plus dozens of tips to work those hard to improve areas like speed, power and flexibility.

If youre feeling stuck or bored in your martial arts routine, Lorens down-to-earth, in-your-face-style will get you up and training with a fire you havent felt in years. With hundreds of training methods drawn from his vast experience, research and interviews with top instructors around the country, Loren has put together an essential reference for every martial arts student and instructor.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book!.......2007-06-27

Don't think of it just for punches and kicks.......2007-05-07

I have no reason to fight people on the street however this book has some insights into how the body can be better trained for the fighting I do do. I fence and do Kendo and the chapters that focus on the fists have some excellent quickness and distance drills. Nearly all the other chapters have something that can be applied more generally to quite a few martial arts, even fencing. The philosophy behind the training ideals are in pretty good standing seeing as I have started to study Musashi and several other ancient martial philosophers. Mr. Cristensen has a very good look at the physical, mental, and philosophical side of the martial arts. I would recommend this book as a supplement to training and not to be taken by itself, although it is good and has many good ideas for those that have an idea of the terminology he is using.

A Martial Arts Must-Have.......2007-04-12

Any martial arts practitioner should have this important reference book in their library. This guide explains which techniques work, and which do not.

Great!.......2007-04-11

This book is awesome for both the novice and the advanced student. While I only picked up a few new things, it was a great reminder of all the things that I have learned over the years and most of which has slipped my mind. Highly recommended!

Fighter's Fact Book.........a great suppliment for today's martial arts teacher.......2007-01-13

Mr. Christensen has put together a fighter's manual that speaks volumes for the modern martial arts practitioner. Keeping to a basic, non-embellished vernacular, he lays out in plain english what works and doesn't work when training in fighting techniques. As an instructor myself, I found this manual to be invaluable as a tool for putting into words what most successful martial artists feel in their hearts and gut regarding the fighting instinct. The challenge for the instructor, daily, is how to convey these inherent and aquired insticts to the student in a manner that is easier to understand and absorb. This book helps the readers to better understand theirselves and allows the light to come on much more quickly. I highly recommend this work as an essential foundation to the library of any martial artist, student or teacher.

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