Veteran Memoirs

Memoirs written by veterans of wars
Updated September 19, 2022
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The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien
Paper Book
A classic, life-changing meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling, with more than two-million copies in print Depicting the men of Alpha Company--Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character...
Born on the Fourth of July /
Kovic, Ron.
Paper Book
Born on the Fourth of July, the New York Times bestseller (more than one million copies sold), details Ron Kovic's life story (portrayed by Tom Cruise in the Oliver Stone film version) - from a patriotic soldier in Vietnam, to his severe battlefield injury, to his role as the country's most...
Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him
Luis Carlos Montalvan
Paper Book
A heartwarming dog story like no other: Tuesday, a lovable golden retriever, changes a former soldier's life forever. A highly decorated captain in the U.S. Army, Luis Montalván never backed down from a challenge during his two tours of duty in Iraq. After returning home from...
One Soldier's Story
Bob Dole
Paper Book
"A poignant and inspiring memoir. . . . Dole's odyssey of courage and determination can be a guideline to us all."-- Philadelphia Inquirer In his own words, Bob Dole tells his legendary World War II story--a personal odyssey of tremendous courage, sacrifice, and faith In One...
What It Is Like to Go to War
Karl Marlantes
Paper Book
From the author of the award-winning, best-selling novel Matterhorn, comes a brilliant nonfiction book about war In 1968, at the age of twenty-three, Karl Marlantes was dropped into the highland jungle of Vietnam, an inexperienced lieutenant in command of a platoon of...
Chickenhawk
Robert Mason
Ebook
A true, bestselling story from the battlefield that faithfully portrays the horror, the madness, and the trauma of the Vietnam War   More than half a million copies of Chickenhawk have been sold since it was first published in 1983. Now with a new afterword by the...
I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years 1933-1941
Victor Klemperer
Ebook
The publication of Victor Klemperer's secret diaries brings to light one of the most extraordinary documents of the Nazi period. "In its cool, lucid style and power of observation," said The New York Times, "it is the best  written, most evocative, most observant record of daily life in...
Testament of Youth
Vera Brittain
Paper Book
Giving a voice to a lost generation, this edition features a new introduction by Brittain's biographer. Now a major motion picture starring Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Hayley Atwell, and Taron Egerton Much of what we know and feel about the First World War we owe to Vera...
Lone Survivor : The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
Marcus Luttrell
Paper Book
Follow along a Navy SEAL's firsthand account of American heroism during a secret military operation in Afghanistan in this true story of survival and difficult choices. On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the...
American Sniper
Chris Kyle
Paper Book
To the enemies he hunted he was al-Shaitan--"the devil." To his Navy SEAL brothers, he was  "the legend." From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was the deadliest American sniper in United States military history, recording the most confirmed...
Dispatches
Michael Herr
Paper Book
Written on the front lines in Vietnam, Dispatches became an immediate classic of war reportage when it was published in 1977. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor...
Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
Anthony Swofford
Paper Book
Anthony Swofford'sJarheadis the first Gulf War memoir by a frontline infantry marine, and it is a searing, unforgettable narrative.When the marines -- or "jarheads," as they call themselves -- were sent in 1990 to Saudi Arabia to fight the Iraqis, Swofford was there, with a hundred-pound pack on his...
Once a Warrior: How One Veteran Found a New Mission Closer to Home
Jake Wood
Paper Book
"The book that America needs right now." --Tom Brokaw, journalist and author of The Greatest Generation "Jake Wood offers one of the most soaring definitions of service I've ever seen." --Maria Shriver, award-winning journalist and author of I've Been Thinking<...
Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning
Elliot Ackerman
Paper Book
From a decorated Marine war veteran and National Book Award finalist, an astonishing reckoning with the nature of combat and the human cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. "War hath determined us..." - John Milton, Paradise Lost Toward the...
Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman's Firsthand Account of World War II
Philip Handleman
Paper Book
"This book is a masterpiece. It captures the essence of the Tuskegee Airmen's experience from the perspective of one who lived it. The action sequences make me feel I'm back in the cockpit of my P-51C 'Kitten'! If you want to know what it was like fighting German interceptors in European skies while...
Beyond the Call: Three Women on the Front Lines in Afghanistan
Eileen Rivers
Paper Book
A riveting account of three women who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with men and worked with local women to restore their lives and push back the Taliban They marched under the heat with 40-pound rucksacks on their backs. They fired weapons out of the windows of military vehicles,...
Fight Like a Girl: The Truth Behind How Female Marines Are Trained
Kate Germano
Paper Book
A Marine Corps combat veteran with twenty years of service describes her professional battle against gender bias in the Marines and the lessons it holds for other arenas. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano arrived at Parris Island convinced that if she expected more of...
Full Battle Rattle: My Story as the Longest-Serving Special Forces A-Team Soldier in American History
Changiz Lahidji
Paper Book
Over 100 combat missions, 24 years as a Green Beret--Full Battle Rattle tells the legend of a soldier who served America in every war since Vietnam. Master Sergeant Changiz Lahidji served on Special Forces A teams longer than anyone in history, completing over a hundred...
The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior
Robert O'Neill
Paper Book
This instant New York Times bestseller--"a jaw-dropping, fast-paced account" (New York Post) recounts SEAL Team Operator Robert O'Neill's incredible four-hundred-mission career, including the attempts to rescue "Lone Survivor" Marcus Luttrell and abducted-by-Somali-pirates Captain...
Civilianized: A Young Veteran's Memoir
Michael Anthony
Paper Book
After twelve months of military service in Iraq, Michael Anthony stepped off a plane, seemingly happy to be home--or at least back on US soil. He was twenty-one years old, a bit of a nerd, and carrying a pack of cigarettes that he thought would be his last. Two weeks later, Michael was stoned on...
God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War
Lieutenant Colonel Bill Russell Edmonds
Paper Book
A powerful and intimate look into torture and its effect on both the tortured and the torturer.   In May 2005, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Russell Edmonds of the U.S. Army Special Forces, a decorated counter-terrorism expert, was deployed to the Iraqi city of Mosul, which...
The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows
Brian Castner
Paper Book
In the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches and works by such masters of the memoir as Mary Karr and Tobias Wolff, a powerful account of war and homecoming. Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance...
Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII
Chester Nez
Ebook
The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII. His name wasn't Chester Nez. That was the English name he was assigned in kindergarten. And in boarding school at Fort Defiance, he was punished for speaking his native language, as the teachers sought...

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