Stories of Service, Volume 2

Book excerpt: Perfectly blending a vast historical scope with intensely individual viewpoints, this stirring collection of stories brings a man-on-the-ground perspective to a huge range of military history, with stories of a quarter-century of war from nearly every corner of the earth, including Europe; the Pacific; mainland Asia; a tense confrontation in Guantanamo Bay during the Cuban Missile Crisis; POW camps in Germany, Japan, and California; and the San Joaquin Valley home front from the 1940s through the 1960s. These 72 highly individualized narratives of combat, military service, and the personal sacrifices of war--penned by ordinary San Joaquin Valley residents and buttressed with more than 100 personal photographs--bring commentaries from soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, nurses, ambulance drivers, and civilians. In simple, direct, and authentic language, with stories both horrific and touching, ""Stories of Service: Volume 2"" perfectly illustrates the personal side of war.