Of war and peace: novels for Veterans Day
E Company, 506th Infantry Regiment “Easy Company” at Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. U.S. Department of Defense photo
According to surveys and government data cited in the online article “The Changing Face of America’s Veteran Population,” 40 years ago about 18% of Americans were veterans. Today that number stands at 6%.
In 1975, 81% of our U.S. senators had once worn the uniform. Today only 17% can make that claim. As for the House of Representatives, in 1967 75% of the members of our House of Representatives had served in the military, while in 2024 that number has dropped to 18%.
For years now, news reports and commentaries have commented on the growing gap between those in American who have military experience versus those who have never served. Some Americans may no longer even know someone in military. Whereas from my boyhood and youth I can dredge up from memory several dozen names and faces of men who had fought fascism in World War II or who had gone off to the war in Vietnam, today I know of only two young men currently in our armed forces, one in the Army and one in the Marines.
And now it’s Veterans Day.
As we celebrate our veterans this November 11, thanking them and taking a day off from work courtesy of their service, we might make some effort to learn more about the lives of all of those Americans, past and present, who have defended our republic and our way of life. We could read more about the history of our country, particularly about its soldiers, sailors and airmen. We could open books based on oral histories like “Band of Brothers” by Stephen Ambrose. We could turn to memoirs, like Eugene Sledge’s “With the Old Breed,” Michael Herr’s “Dispatches” or Marcus Luttrell’s “Lone Survivor.”
Our literature is also rich in novels about war, excellent books that feature not only training and combat scenes, but also cultural commentary and insights into a soldier’s life away from the parade ground and gunnery range.
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Anton Myrer’s 1968 “Once an Eagle” often tops the reading lists of our military officers and service academies. Myrer, a Marine Corps veteran who saw action in the Pacific during World War II, centers his novel on Sam Damon, an Army enlisted man who rises through the ranks of command from World War I right up to the fighting in Southeast Asia. Myrer’s book is an excellent study of leadership and command both in war and peace. Despite the half-century that has passed since its appearance, “Once an Eagle” remains perhaps the best fictional depiction of the sacrifice, honor and sense of duty that define a good soldier.
Jim Webb’s “Fields of Fire” takes readers to the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam, where a platoon of American Marines fights in a hellish war opposed by many of their contemporaries. To this novel Webb, a graduate of the Naval Academy, brings his own experiences from his time in the Corps and in Vietnam, where he won the Silver Star and the Navy Cross for heroism in battle. In addition to its fine writing and well-drawn characters, “Fields of Fire” gives readers a real feel for the cultural tensions between the young men fighting in this war and the war protestors back home.
Mark Helprin’s “The Ocean and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story” is set squarely in our own time. Navy Captain Stephen Rensselaer has a run-in with the president about the cancellation of a certain type of ship, and is then assigned as an act of spite and vengeance the command of the “Athena,” the only one of the ships already built. While overseeing the outfitting of the “Athena” in New Orleans, Rensselaer falls in love with attorney Katy Farrar. When war breaks out in the Middle East, Rensselaer, his crew and the “Athena” find themselves in continual action.
Like Myrer’s “Once an Eagle,” Helprin’s novel acts as a manual on honor, duty, principled leadership and the sacrifices these virtues require. Readers can only hope that among all the branches of our armed forces there are men and women who yet possess these ideals and have the strength to act on them.
This list is only a blip on the spectrum of military fiction, poetry, histories and biographies. To possess an understanding of how our country is defended, from foreign policy to the latest weapons to the social and cultural background of our military personnel, is important, especially with the wars around the world in which the United States, in one or another, is engaged.
While Veterans Day gives us the opportunity to thank our vets and those who are currently in service, now is also a good time to learn more about them, about warfare, and about our foreign involvements and what they entail.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum” is the old Roman adage for “If you wish peace, prepare for war.” Like many other observations from the Ancients, that pithy saying is packed with wisdom, and it doesn’t just refer to our military.
It applies to the rest of us as well.
(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
