Suggested books for Company Level Leaders

[Cavguy]

All,

I am taking up one of the facilitator slots over at Company Command (https://companycommand.army.mil) for their professional reading program. The program helps Platoon Leaders and Company Commanders develop professional reading programs. It even pays for the books they select to use! The point is to help improve some or all of the following items - leadership performance, teamwork, task management, morale, general military knowledge, history, leadership tips, and tricks, and OIF/OEF understanding.

To that end, I'd like to poll the council for the following:

1) The best military leadership/management/teambuilding book you know of (ex Lead On! (http://www.amazon.com/Lead-Dave-Oliver/dp/0891414274/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249008154&sr=1-1), Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach (http://www.amazon.com/Small-Unit-Leadership-Commonsense-Approach/dp/0891411739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249008124&sr=1-1), Taking the Guidon (http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Guidon-Exceptional-Leadership-Company/dp/0967829216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249008074&sr=8-1), Three Meter Zone (http://www.amazon.com/Three-Meter-Zone-Common-Leadership/dp/0891417281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249008624&sr=1-1))

2) The best civilian leadership/management/teambuilding book you would recommend. (ex. Good to Great (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/0066620996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249008187&sr=1-1), Made to Stick (http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249008206&sr=1-1), Winning (http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Jack-Welch/dp/B001S366AG/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249008247&sr=1-10))

3) The best single book on Iraq you would recommend for company level leaders.

4) The best single book on Afghanistan you would recommend for company level leaders.

5) Any other book that doesn't fit in the categories above that should be a "must read"

Please also include the "why".

Again, this is a high payoff list for Company Commanders and their Platoon Leaders, Platoon Sergeants, and Squad Leaders.. Clausewitz is probably not going to make the cut. Think direct, practical, and good for group discussion. Looking forward to the input!

[slapout9]

On Systems Thinking... I would recomend Meaning The Secret To Being Alive by Cliff Havener. One of the easiest and most informative books on Systems Thinking I ever read. You can download the first 3 chapters for free at the site below.


http://www.forseekers.com/book.htm

[Shek]

Neil,

This doesn't answer the mail directly, but it's a list I came up with for the cadets I taught as an intro into professional reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Sheks-Professional-Reading-List/lm/R2GBQLF54YTD9L

Best,
Shek

[patmc]

Sir, as a long time user of Platoonleader.com and Companycommand.com (7+ years, I think), the sites are great resources and thank you for compiling this info. I received a copy of Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife from the sites while deployed to OIF IV. Here are my humble recommendations. None are overly scholarly, and are entertaining and interesting reads.

1) The best military leadership/management/teambuilding book you know of:
Not your usual leadership guide book, but my Battery Commander made all his LTs read Ambrose's Pegasus Bridge about the airborne/glider assault into D-Day. The book showed the value of training and rehearsals. It also showed what was expected of us as PLs in combat.

2) The best civilian leadership/management/teambuilding book you would recommend:
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Great primer into working and living with others, and how to build relationships. His other books on speaking and management are good too.

3) The best single book on Iraq you would recommend for company level leaders:
Ricks' The Gamble. or Bellavia's House to House. Ricks is a higher level overview of where the Iraq war was in 2006 and the shift it took in 2007-2008 leading us to where we are today. Veterans and scholars can debate his details and evidence, but as a convoy security PL in 2006, most things I saw were not going well. Bellavia's is just an emotional and powerful depiction of the battle of Fallujah by an Army Infantry Squad Leader. SSG Bellavia writes clearly, but doesn't hold back, just as you would expect. Good depiction of how bad it can get.

4) The best single book on Afghanistan you would recommend for company level leaders:
Have not been to A-stan, but Kaplan's Soldiers of God is a great overview of the mujahideen during the Soviet War and the sacrifices they were willing to make. Very readable, and great stories.

5) Any other book that doesn't fit in the categories above that should be a "must read":
West's The Village. This book is COIN/FID/SFA/whatever you want to call it. Great description of what really living with and for the people means, and the risks/gains involved.

[Entropy]

For Afghanistan, there is this list (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121521370808729391.html), which I am (slowly) working on finishing.

[Red Rat]

General: It does not quite fit into any of your categories, but 'The Manoeuvre Warfare Handbook' by William S Lind. I issued this to all my platoon leaders and platoon sergeants. I found it an invaluable plain english guide to the (conceptual) how I expected missions to be accomplished.

Arabs: Again, not quite in your categories, but 'Arabs' by Mark Allen is a short, concise and very perceptive look at Arabs; their history and culture. To my mind the best value book on the market for trying to understand arabs.

Iraq: Although not up to date (it does not cover the surge) 'Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq' by Ahmed Hashim I found the best for painting the Iraq picture, in particular the concept of the 'complex insurgency'.

Afghanistan: 'The Afghanistan Wars' by William Maley is a good general Afghanistan book. The second edition was due out July this year and should accordingly be up to date.

Military Leadership and Team-building: 'Defeat into Victory' by Field Marshal Slim. Although this deals with his command of 14th Army and the Burma Campaign 1942-45 and you may think it is pitched too high I would make three points:


It is very very readable; Field Marshal Slim was a published popular author in the 1920s and 30s
It deals with leadership under stress; the retreat from Burma in 1942; soldiers will generally follow a winner - much harder in adversity...
It deals with the fundamentals of training. Field Marshal Slim re-built a shattered 14th Army to fight and beat the Japanese in the jungle, he then transformed it again mid-campaign to ensure that it could fight combined arms manoeuvre when they broke out of the jungle and onto the Burmese plains.


At the least it is worth cherry picking some chapters from the book, there are some real gems.

RR

[jcustis]

Under the "must read" category I enjoyed Leadership And Training For The Fight by MSG (ret) Paul Howe so much that when I gave it away to a scout section leader I enjoyed working with, I picked up another copy. Although Howe writes from a heavier-hitting perspective as a former Delta member who went on to teach gunfighting and SWAT tactics, he writes on a lot of things relative to team-building, combatives, and raw leadership the likes of which don't have to do with parade field maneuvers.

For both Afghanistan and Iraq, I think The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa: With E. D. Swinton's "The Defence of Duffer's Drift" bears relevance for a primer in basic tactics and focusing on the people, when dealing with insurgent foes. It is an easy read, and a good companion to the Duffer's Drift

[William F. Owen]

Clausewitz is probably not going to make the cut. Think direct, practical, and good for group discussion. Looking forward to the input!

Nor should he. CvC is a reading list in and of himself and his work.
I think reading lists are great, but I would just add a word of caution, about them as a device.

a.) The fewer books the better, and they don't have to be books - any written source, including manuals - which folks usually don't read.

b.) Books have to pass a pretty big "so what test," of imparting relevant, and practical, within a useable context. - reading lists often just list books, and don't say "read this because..."

c.) Reading should only be one part of it. Discussing it is critical.

Just my opinion and I hope it helps.

[jcustis]

b.) Books have to pass a pretty big "so what test," of imparting relevant, and practical, within a useable context. - reading lists often just list books, and don't say "read this because..."

Hence the vetting we should be doing for Niel.

[Schmedlap]

In the Iraq section of the "doesn't fit" category: The Arab Mind (http://www.amazon.com/Arab-Mind-Raphael-Patai/dp/1578261171), by Raphael Patai.

I understand that there are criticisms of the book. I would quote Wilf's tagline:

"Pedants will be able to cite exceptions, and thus undermine useful (insightful) theory. Their depredations must be firmly resisted by one simple test: does the theory generally aid understanding of useful military problems? If so, then exceptions are permissible."
J.P. Storr “Human Aspects of Command”

The LTs will quickly learn what applies and what does not after a few days in country. I found it helpful.

[Cavguy]

Great suggestions so far, but I am hearing crickets chirp from a lot of our normally vocal members.

I am particularly interested in additional suggestions for team/organizational leadership and management, military or civilian. OIF and OEF are fairly well covered in multiple lists, but I'm always trolling for a gem there too.

Suggestions of books and articles on how to build effective organizational culture while experiencing a great deal of temp-related stress (read deployment) would help a lot.

[Hacksaw]

Best book I read in grad school and a very easy read...

The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Rather than my review... I found the following that states the arguement better than i might...

Let me describe some of the many levels on which this novel is valuable.

First, the book explains how to see businesses (or any endeavor) as systems as well as any other book on this subject. It compares favorably in this area to such important works as The Fifth Discipline and the Fifth Discipline Handbook. The metaphor of how to speed up a slow-moving group of boy scouts will be visceral to anyone who has done any hiking with a group.

Second, the book helps you learn how to improve the performance of a system by providing you with a replicable process that you can apply to analyzing any human or engineering system. The primary metaphor is improving a manufacturing process, but the same principles apply more broadly to other circumstances.

Third, you will experience the power of the Socratic method as a way to stimulate your mind to learn, and to use Socratic questions to stimulate the minds of others to become better thinkers and doers.

Fourth, the authors also use problem simulation as a practical way to help you experience the learning process they are advocating.

Fifth, the book is unusually good in bringing home the consequences of letting your business process run in a vicious cycle: Your family life may also.

The pacing of the book is especially good. You are given time to stew with issues and come up with your own ideas before sample answers are provided by Alex and his staff in the novel.

Then again, I had already told you to read the book...

Live well and row

[Entropy]

One book I continually turn to is, "The Thinker's Tookit. (http://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-Toolkit-Powerful-Techniques-Problem/dp/0812928083)" It's not a leadership book, but it's a great aid for general analysis and problem solving. I'd also consider it a bit of a "self-help" book because I believe it aids instrospection.

[Kiwigrunt]

I’m not sure if this is the sort of material you’re after. This (http://prodsol.co.nz/slaverytomastery.html) article I think is quite interesting. It’s about how to get from a 30% solution to an 80 % solution rather than focussing on achieving an 80 % solution from the outset and never getting there.

Who moved my cheese could be an interesting read. It does not directly pertain to what you asked for but it may still be insightful with regards to identifying what may be blocking processes at a personal level.
Dr. Spencer Johnson
2000 Vermilion UK, Random House Group Ltd.
ISBN 0 09 181 697 1
96 pages
Here’s a little write-up:

Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life – whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, or spiritual peace of mind. Cheese is what we think will make us happy, and when circumstances take it away, different people deal with change in different ways. Four characters in this delightful parable represent parts of ourselves whenever we are confronted with change. Discover how you can let change work to your advantage and let it lead you to success!

Then there are ‘The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Montgomery’ and ‘The path to leadership’ by Montgomery. I bought the latter at a market for a few bucks. It is signed by Monty with the following words (can’t resist sharing it):


It is not the countries which lack the atom bombs or the big battalions which should be called “second-rate” powers, but the countries which lack the big ideals.
Our young people must be taught to make their country mean something more than just a welfare state. They must learn that the privileges and benefits conferred upon them involve complementary obligations.
Montgomery of Alamein F.M.

[Schmedlap]

I am particularly interested in additional suggestions for team/organizational leadership and management, military or civilian.

The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Decision-Jefferson-Marshall-Supreme/dp/1586484265). This is a pretty quick read. The takeaway for a junior officer would be to observe how Chief Justice Marshall walked the fine line between a confrontation with President Jefferson that could undermine the Court's power and issuing a ruling that could appear to bow to the President's power and thus undermine the rule of law by making it malleable to the prevaling political winds. He took a very awkward and controversial case (Marbury v. Madison) at a time when the Court was politically very weak and most people could not even agree on the role of the Court. Despite the position of weakness, he delivered a decision that was revolutionary at the time, but that we now take as an obvious given: the Court's power of judicial review. In doing so, he avoided a significant confrontation with the President and also expanded the power of the judicial branch.

It is a good lesson in how someone in a position of weakness can prevail and influence significant change if he focuses upon creatively using the tools available rather than just griping about not having enough money or firepower or whining about overly restrictive ROE.

[Brandon Friedman]

How come no one has mentioned Heinlein's Starship Troopers? Every junior NCO and officer should read that.

[jmm99]

Marshall's military career, captain and deputy judge advocate on GW's staff, is well-known enough; but this little snippet (http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:g08cdTwdz-kJ:www.caxtonclub.org/reading/2002/Oct/marshall.htm+%22john+marshall%22+%22military+caree r%22&cd=41&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) came as a surprise:


Physically, he was gifted. Evidence of this physical prowess became obvious during the war years. As he traveled from the battle sites of the Revolution around Philadelphia, to his home in Richmond, VA, it was customary for him to walk the 250 miles, usually taking three weeks for the journey.8 As a competitor in camp contests, Smith says, Marshall was outstanding: “He excelled as a runner and according to numerous accounts he was the only man in the Continental Army who could high jump over six feet — a remarkable achievement in any era.”9 Standing six-feet-three-inches tall, he could have been, according to Marshall house docent E.L. Butterworth, an Olympic athlete in two sports.10

8 Smith, p. 68. [Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall — Definer of a Nation, New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1996]

9 Smith, p. 74.

10 E.L. Butterworth, in a tour lecture at the Marshall home, June 28, 2002.

Walking was probably a good way to decompress.

[Spud]

Probably hard to get now but a fantastic 'issues as a company commander' book is a fiction based on fact book concerning an Apache Company in the lead up to, during and after the first Gulf War.

Desert Skies (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738824356/qid=1023677248/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7980685-0136640)

Pretty much covers off on every conceivable issue including some that I'd never seen (what happens when those pics of you dressed in drag at a function come out later in your career etc.)

Disclaimer: The author is someone I've known for a long time. I consider Mike one of the reasons I got into this whole IO business in the first place.

[slapout9]

Courtesy of Colonel John Warden this is the full Prometheus Process Training Manual in a PDF file. It is a slightly older version (but not much). It is copyrighted so give appropriate credit where due. This is the whole enchilada from start to finish on how to get Strategic all over them Bad Guys:D Don't just read it....use it...it works ask Pepe Escobar:D


http://publications.campaignroom.com/Shared%20Documents/Training%20Manual-Updated%20Final%20w-Cover.pdf

[davidbfpo]

(From Niel's original post)
2) The best civilian leadership/management/teambuilding book you would recommend..

From a non-SWC member friend who is into these issues:

1) Not Bosses but Leaders, John Adair http://www.amazon.com/Not-Bosses-but-Leaders-Leadership/dp/0749454814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249128874&sr=1-1
2) The Art of Problem Solving, Russell Ackoff http://www.amazon.com/Art-Problem-Solving-Accompanied-Ackoffs/dp/0471858080/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249129165&sr=1-3

davidbfpo

[davidbfpo]

(from Niel's original post)
1) The best military leadership / management / teambuilding book you know of..

'They Live By The Sword: 32 'Buffalo' Battalion - South Africa's Foreign Legion' by Col. Jan Breytenbach (Pub. Lemur 1990). A unit formed in 1975 from black Angolans, with South African (white) officers and NCOs. Formidable reputation as mainly COIN fighters and suggested as a non-US / non-Western example. Note Eben Barlow (Executive Outcomes) was an officer in them.

Few copies about if Amazon is correct: http://www.amazon.com/They-live-sword-Jan-Breytenbach/dp/0620148705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249129763&sr=1-1 . Republished in 2003 as The Buffalo Soldiers: The Story of South Africa's 32 Battalion 1975-1993.

The unit's website; http://www.32battalion.net/index.htm

davidbfpo

[EmmetM]

An evergreen oldie (2,400 years give or take) that emerging leaders have read for centuries is Xenophon's Anabasis often also titled The Persian Expedition. The work is an account of an ill-fated expedition by a small Greek army, the legendary Ten Thousand, to Persia to assist Cyrus claim the Persian throne. Cyrus is killed, the Greeks loose all their senior commanders, and they have no choice but to march all the way back home, through VERY hostile territory, with the Persian armies always at their heels!! The book features many very memorable lessons in leadership and styles of leadership. A cracking, accessable read, that is still very very relevant, as it is essentially about the human spirit. I have the Rex Warner translation published by Penguin and well worn it is! There are editions online but they feature older, less accessable translations.

[RTK]

Concur with MSG Howe's leadership book. A great book written by a great warrior.

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson. The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. Also, Nate Self's "Two Wars."

[slapout9]

Concur with MSG Howe's leadership book. A great book written by a great warrior.

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson. The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. Also, Nate Self's "Two Wars."

Just caught the by line. Hi RTK,how you doin?

[carl]

I would suggest The Jolly Rogers by Tom Blackburn. It is his story about how he organized, trained and led VF-17 during WWII. Not only did he have to do that but the unit also introduced a sometimes difficult aircraft, the Corsair, to carrier use. He outlines all of his problems, personnel, material and Japanese and how solved them; not only how he solved them but how he harnessed the talents of his men to solve them. Whenever leadership books are mentioned, this one pops into my head. It isn't all that long either.

Another longer book that very well illustrates how an organization recognized, thought about and solved a very difficult problem is The First Team by Lundstrom. The problem the Navy fighter squadrons had to solve was how to beat Zero fighters flown by brilliant pilots while flying an inferior airplane. It was a fascinating story.

The 3rd suggestion would have been The Last Place on Earth by Huntford. When I read it I thought it was the best study of comparative leadership in extremely stressful circumstances that I ever read. Some of the reviews at Amazon state it is biased toward Amundson at the expense of Scott. I am not qualified to judge. But I thought it was a great example of how two different people approached an identical problem, getting to the South Pole, at exactly the same time with exactly the same level of technology. One succeeded and lived, one failed and died, along with his men.

[carl]

A book I forgot to mention that is direct, practical and good for discussion was written by Woody Hayes, the former Ohio State football coach. I read it long ago and forgot the name of it unfortunately.

It told of his first college football coaching experience at Denison. He took a program that wasn't established with a mixed group of players who were mostly WWII vets who hadn't been recruited. He tells how he formed them into a cohesive group, trained them and created a game strategy that took advantage of the men he had and the skills they happened to bring with them. It tells of personalities, group dynamics and imaginative thinking in making the best of what he had.

Hayes wasn't a polished author but he wrote the book all by himself and it was easy to read. He was an extremely insightful man when it came to leading and teaching young men. I was extremely impressed by this book when I read it. I just don't remember what the name of it was.

[jcustis]

Another longer book that very well illustrates how an organization recognized, thought about and solved a very difficult problem is The First Team by Lundstrom. The problem the Navy fighter squadrons had to solve was how to beat Zero fighters flown by brilliant pilots while flying an inferior airplane. It was a fascinating story.

I just read an interesting Amazon review of that book, and it sounds like exactly the good read you mention.

[Mark O'Neill]

How come no one has mentioned Heinlein's Starship Troopers? Every junior NCO and officer should read that.

One of the criterion was to explain why.....

[pjmunson]

My two cents:

-I have to disagree with Schmedlap's suggestion of "The Arab Mind." Even with his caveat, I still think that the book is garbage for several reasons. The book is old, stereotypical, poorly supported, and biased. Yes, there are a lot of instances where people live up to Patai's stereotypes, but it throws people on the wrong track in trying to figure the Arabs out. Instead of Patai's virtual craniology approach, talking about swaddling, breastfeeding, etc, based on very old anthropological research of villages that have changed drastically since the 20s, we should be teaching military leaders to look for more concrete reasons to understand current behaviors. Why? Because if I can link the behaviors to concrete reasons, you can better figure out how to affect them. In its stead, I'd suggest Nydell's "Understanding Arabs" which covers a lot of the same ground with much more reasonable support for the conclusions. Furthermore, I'd challenge you to find many Lts who would actually get all the way through "The Arab Mind." It is a long and painful read, even if you buy into it completely. I wrote an article for the Jan 2006 Marine Corps Gazette that goes into more details on this topic if anyone is interested ("Cultural Education and the Reading Program").

-Afghanistan: I liked Rashid's "Descent into Chaos." It does a good job, I thought, of putting recent events in Afghanistan into a broader regional context that shows the complexity of the interests there, especially WRT Pakistan. I am not as well read on Afghanistan as the Arab world, though, so I may be missing a lot here.

-"The Goal": The book makes valid points, but I'd skim through it to find them. There is a lot of extraneous stuff in it. Naval aviation has based an effort to lean 6 sigma its ops on the Goldratt Institutes philosophies, so my CO had key officers in the squadron read it. (Goldratt is the author of "The Goal")

-For non-military leadership, anyone have comments on "The Powers to Lead" by Nye? I started reading it and it seemed decent, but didn't get far as I had to shift to some other projects.

-And for the Iraq suggestion: Here's the plug, so break out the daggers. I wrote a book, "Iraq in Transition: The Legacy of Dictatorship and the Prospect for Democracy" when I found that there was nothing out there as a single source read on what I thought I wanted to know about Iraq. In it, I tried to boil down all of the best sources on Iraq (with extensive citations) and cover what I thought was important for military officers, policymakers, etc, to know about the country's recent history and current events there. Someone recommended Hashim's book, which is a very useful source and was cited in my book. He also endorsed my book, which covers up to the beginning of 2009. There's only been one independent review of my book so far, as it is pretty new, but you can take a look at it on Amazon and decide for yourself. It may not be perfect for company grade, as it doesn't get into local specifics as much as national politics, but it does cover a lot of ground generally about Shi'a politcs, Sunni tribes, Sadr, the constitution, etc.

(Added by moderator) Link to book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-Transition-Dictatorship-Prospects-Democracy/dp/1597973009

[Schmedlap]

-I have to disagree with Schmedlap's suggestion of "The Arab Mind." Even with his caveat, I still think that the book is garbage for several reasons. The book is old, stereotypical, poorly supported, and biased. Yes, there are a lot of instances where people live up to Patai's stereotypes, but it throws people on the wrong track in trying to figure the Arabs out... In its stead, I'd suggest Nydell's "Understanding Arabs" which covers a lot of the same ground with much more reasonable support for the conclusions. Furthermore, I'd challenge you to find many Lts who would actually get all the way through "The Arab Mind." It is a long and painful read, even if you buy into it completely.

I guess my only additional comments would be that we weren't aware of any other books at the time and this one was being floated in online forums as a recommendation. Agree that much of it was a bit dated and odd - but that is in part what I referred to when I insisted that one can figure out what to dismiss after a few days in country. Perhaps it should not be recommended for the list, but rather put forth as "better than nothing." We did find it helpful, in the absence of anything else.

But I think your critique is good and fair. I haven't read the others that you recommended (or heard of them until now). When we deployed, we simply weren't aware of anything else. But to the last point - I didn't find it all that painful. All of us (me, as an XO, and all of the platoon leaders) plowed through it pretty quick - perhaps because we were hungry for some information. Up until that point our only information was a 30-minute slideshow on "cultural awareness" by some CPT who was on a soft-shoe profile and couldn't answer any of our questions.

[pjmunson]

Schmedlap-
Fair enough. Nydell's book, "Understanding Arabs" is much shorter and more user friendly, but it certainly does not have the publicity that "The Arab Mind" did and still does. Despite its flaws, Arab Mind does give some idea of what Arabs on average can be like if you throw out the most insulting bits. It still fails, in my opinion, to give operators what they need to understand Arab culture.

Arab Mind is almost universally reviled by Middle East specialists, but the problem is that the academic PC versus operator "they live up to the stereotype so why do we have to be PC" arguments that many make for the Arab Mind overlook what is most important to operators. Half the battle is understanding how a group of people act on average. The other half of the battle (at least) is understanding why, because that gives you insight into how to shape actions and interact with people. For instance, "face." I don't remember all of Patai's arguments behind face and hot-headedness, but I know they were pretty obscure (literally swaddling, breastfeeding, and father-son upbringing were part of this). What can I do about this? Nothing. How can I relate to this? I can't. Now, if I relate Arab social groups in a lot of areas to gangs, we can start to get a frame of reference. Why do gangs worry about "street cred"? Why won't a banger let a slight go unanswered? They can't turn to the police to protect them, so they have to keep up the impression that they aren't weak and they won't stand for being messed with. Arab tribes lived in the same sort of lawless environment until recently (or still in some areas) and so similar social traits follow. I agree with the academics in that Patai's approach is insulting and deciedly not-PC, but I can live with that if it gives me information I can act on. My argument is that, due to his bias, he fails in giving actionable analysis.

[MikeF]

Concur with MSG Howe's leadership book. A great book written by a great warrior.

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson. The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. Also, Nate Self's "Two Wars."

Has anyone seen a comprehensive review of Nate Self's Two Wars? It's a book that I've meant to read for a while. I vaguely remember when it came out, but it did not receive nearly the coverage of other memoirs like Craig Mullaney.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Nate, he is a class-act. At USMA, he was one of the upperclassmen that I always looked up to. I remember reading that he was awarded a Silver Star for his actions in the Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan. I was not suprised.

I googled the book today and found the website. Here is the trailer (http://www.twowarsthebook.com/trailer.asp)for the book on his website for those interested. I guess I gotta go pick up a copy of the book and check it out now.


v/r

Mike

[RTK]

Just caught the by line. Hi RTK,how you doin?

Doing very well.

Nate's book helped catalyze my decision to seek help and counsel for my own issues and PTSD in June. I spent a month at Landstuhl in outpatient treatment with a great doctor and a great support network with the USO and Fisher House. It's the second best decision I ever made, right behind marrying my wife.

I've decided to race the Leadville 100 mountain bike race next August to raise awareness of PTSD and wounded warriors with a few friends I've invited. Working on sponsorship and building the team right now. Will keep you all informed.

RTK

[Ken White]

Though I'm amazed to find out you read actual books and stuff... ;)

On that Bike Race, I think that's taking this Cavalry/ mobile warfare thing to an extreme but I will certainly cheer you on from my L.L.Bean folding camp chair as I contemplate all the ergs you're expending!!! :D

Hang tough, stay outa the midday sun -- and be careful.

[RTK]

Though I'm amazed to find out you read actual books and stuff... ;)

On that Bike Race, I think that's taking this Cavalry/ mobile warfare thing to an extreme but I will certainly cheer you on from my L.L.Bean folding camp chair as I contemplate all the ergs you're expending!!! :D

Hang tough, stay outa the midday sun -- and be careful.

I was drawn in by the pictures....:D

[Ken White]

Better the pictures, better the book...:D

[Backwards Observer]

Probably familiar to many, Lima 6: A Marine Company Commander In Vietnam, by Colonel R.D. Camp with Eric Hammel. This was a standout book describing then Captain Camp's assumption of command of Lima Company, 3d Battalion, 26th Marines, at Khe Sanh, 1967. As a civilian reader, I found the clarity of the writing allowed a good narrative insight into elements of the military mindset at this level of engagement.

Lima 6 Amazon Link (http://www.amazon.com/Lima-6-Camp-Hammel/dp/0935553363)

Perhaps everyone and their laundryman has a copy of the Sun Tzu stashed somewhere, but the Denma Translation is particularly good in its articulation of a "Taking Whole" approach. The three essays in this translation: Taking Whole, The Sage Commander, and Joining The Tradition, are quite instructive and really opened up different areas of understanding in the text.

Denma Art Of War Homepage (http://www.suchns.com/)

Denma Interview At Sonshi.com (http://www.sonshi.com/denma.html)

[OfTheTroops]

Jim Collins is on most of our reading lists around here. Hot stuff easy simple great http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/0066620996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255555864&sr=8-1