Happy Veterans Day!

"..On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us consecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain."

-Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Veterans Day Proclamation, 1954

Thank you to all veterans for your dedication to our country. Here are some nonfiction reads in honor of Veterans Day. Stop by the library to see the full display!

War By Junger, Sebastian 2010-05 - Twelve 9780446556248 Check the Library The author of the gripping bestseller "The Perfect Storm" turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat. "War" follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan. …More

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage By Bradley, James 2003-09 - Little Brown and Company 0316105848 Check the Library A BookPage Notable Title From the author of the #1 bestselling "Flags of Our Fathers" comes a harrowing true story of World War II heroism and of a secret that has been held for nearly 60 years. of photos. …More

The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family By Raddatz, Martha 2007-03 - Putnam Publishing Group 9780399153822 Check the Library From ABC White House correspondent Raddatz comes the story of a brutal 48-hour firefight that conveys in harrowing detail the effects of war not just on the soldiers, but also on the families waiting back at home. …More

Flags of Our Fathers By Bradley, James With Powers, Ron Adapted by French, Michael 2000-05 - Bantam Books 0553111337 Check the Library In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima--and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. Following these men's paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island--an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. The men in the photo--three were killed during the battle--were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley's father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in hishome, telling his son only: "The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back." Few books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war. …More

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest By Ambrose, Stephen E. 2001-08 - Simon & Schuster 074322454X Check the Library As gripping as any novel, World War II historian Ambrose tells the horrifying, hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth circa 1941-45. Stephen Speilberg has produced the upcoming TV mini-series in the fall. …More

A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor By Canedy, Dana 2008-12 - Crown Publishing Group (NY) 9780307395795 Check the Library A searching, poignant memoir of love and loss, "A Journal for Jordon" is a father's letter to the son he will never see--wrenching accounts of losing men in battle mixed with advice on everything from how to withstand disappointment to how to behave on a date. 8-page full-color insert. …More