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Father's Day is right around the corner—have you been wondering what to give your favorite military Dad this year? Here's an idea: give him something that's easy to deliver, won't break the bank, and he's sure to enjoy: digital books!
Whether he's stateside, deployed, or retired, our round-up of inspirational and educational ebooks, promises something for every military enthusiast on your list. For instance:
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The powerful story of an unlikely friendship and a doctor’s re-education on the battlefields of the Vietnam War
Fresh out of medical school and planning to enter academia, David pragmatically applies to serve in the U.S. Army, thinking he would rather work in a stateside military hospital than get drafted. But when he gets reassigned to Southeast Asia, he suddenly finds himself on a base in Vietnam. He joins a civilian aid mission on a supposedly secure plateau, and spends his days dispensing pills to villagers. As David comes to terms with the unexpected factors that brought him to Vietnam, he must adjust to many more twists and turns—among them his relationship with his driver, Tom, a young, rough-hewn Southerner whose reticence feels unnervingly like indifference.
Gradually, however, David sees that there’s far more to Tom than he initially thought. As their friendship grows, David also realizes that his fellow doctors and the troops on base hold widely diverging opinions about the war and its objectives. As it becomes clear that their base is located on a key strategic route—the notorious Ho Chi Minh Trail—and thus a vulnerable target, it’s only a matter of time before battles break out . . .
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James Jones’s epic story of army life in the calm before Pearl Harbor—now with previously censored scenes and dialogue restored
At the Pearl Harbor army base in 1941, Robert E. Lee Prewitt is Uncle Sam’s finest bugler. A career soldier with no patience for army politics, Prewitt becomes incensed when a commander’s favorite wins the title of First Bugler. His indignation results in a transfer to an infantry unit whose commander is less interested in preparing for war than he is in boxing. But when Prewitt refuses to join the company team, the commander and his sergeant decide to make the bugler’s life hell.
An American classic now available with scenes and dialogue considered unfit for publication in the 1950s, From Here to Eternity is a stirring picture of army life in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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In this gripping memoir, a former marine returns to Vietnam to try to make sense of the war. Previously published as Brothers in Arms—and the inspiration for the award-winning television series China Beach—this edition includes a new preface by the author.
When William Broyles Jr. was drafted, he was a twenty-four-year-old student at Oxford University in England, hoping to avoid military service. During his physical exam, however, he realized that he couldn’t let social class or education give him special privileges. He joined the marines, and soon commanded an infantry platoon in the foothills near Da Nang. More than a decade later, Broyles found himself flooded with emotion during the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. He decided to return to Vietnam and confront what he’d been through.
Broyles was one of the very first combat veterans to return to the battlefields. No American before or since has gone so deeply into the other side of the war: the enemy side. Broyles interviews dozens of Vietnamese, from the generals who ran the war to the men and women who fought it. He moves from the corridors of power in Hanoi—so low-tech that the plumbing didn’t work—to the jungles and rice paddies where he’d fought. He meets survivors of American B-52 strikes and My Lai, and grieves with a woman whose son was killed by his own platoon. Along the way, Broyles also explores the deep bonds he shared with his own comrades, and the mystery of why men love war even as they hate it. Amidst the landscape of death, his formerly faceless enemies come to life. They had once tried to kill each other, but they are all brothers now.
Explore more military-inspired titles. Learn how to easily gift an ebook.