
U.S. Army Engineer School Commandant’s Reading List - tcopeland
http://militaryprofessionalreadinglists.com/reading_list/29-u-s-army-engineer-school
======
chrissnell
A strange story to make it to the front page. I'm a US Army Engineer officer
who went through this schoolhouse so this made me chuckle.
Commanders'/Commandants' reading lists are almost always excellent. It's
usually a mix of military history, area studies, professional development, and
leadership books. I think every young officer who likes to read dreams of
making up his or her own reading list someday.

~~~
briandear
I was an NBC officer and we had a similar list. Lots of WWI and Roman history.
I think the OCS reading list was pretty good too; despite not having any time
to read them all. I think the biography of Shackelton was the only one I
remember actually being able to complete other than the typical FMs.

~~~
tcopeland
I started the site about 8 years ago because 1) these lists have lots of great
selections that you might not come across otherwise (e.g., "The Cruel Sea" by
Nicholas Monsarrat) and 2) .mil web sites tend to get reorganized regularly
and older content seems to get swept away. So I hope this site helps to
preserve some things that might otherwise be lost.

FWIW, for an overview of all the lists, there's a "map" page:

[http://militaryprofessionalreadinglists.com/map](http://militaryprofessionalreadinglists.com/map)

~~~
arethuza
"The Cruel Sea" was also made into an excellent movie with some genuinely
shocking moments for a film made in 1953.

However, I am particularly fond of Nicholas Monsarrat's "Three Corvettes" his
non-fiction account of his wartime experiences, one of the few books that has
moved me to tears.

------
Rebelgecko
Interesting list. It's also interesting to see compare the lists for different
ranks and see how the focus changes.

e.g. Enlisted get a lot of books about courage and valor, higher up guys get
recommended books that seem more like cautionary tales.

~~~
aswanson
Seems a shame that the cautionary tale theme doesn't seem to have
reached/imprinted the highest levels of civilian government, at least during
the idiotic Bush administration era.

------
wtf_is_up
I love that the list includes GS grades for DoD civilians.

There's some really interesting books in these lists. I already had
Washington's Crossing queued up.

Seeing PowerPoint in the title of a GS-14/15 recommendation gave me a chuckle.

------
sxcurry
Useful list - I just added Cobra II to my Audible Wish List. My 6th grade
teacher read Captains Courageous to us - it made a lasting impression.

~~~
SocksCanClose
Probably also good (better even, perhaps) to add his "Endgame" \-- a truly
definitive study of the entire war.

~~~
sxcurry
Thanks - just added Endgame as well.

------
mabbo
"The Goal" is both wonderful as a teacher, and terrible as fiction. And I
don't think Goldratt cares about the latter.

------
hyperion2010
Glad to see Thucydides down there on the list.

~~~
mpyne
Truly proof that there is nothing new under the sun. Between Pericles's
justification for why Athens had to expand to the unexpected agony of the
plague, the decision to undertake the Sicilian expedition, the capture of the
Spartiates, etc. etc... war hasn't really changed in millenia, only the
technology has.

Even today, war in the end almost always devolves to questions of fear, honor
or interest, just as described by Thucydides.

------
jacquesm
Surprising to see so many books on ethics, foreign cultures and critical
thinking skills on that list.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Why? Those are core subjects for a military officer.

------
tobltobs
Maybe at least one book about what to do after you dropped tons of bombs and
killed thousand of civilians would help to prevent the usual collapse of
civilizations and rising of warlords. But of course I do understand that there
is more money to make with a collapsed nation.

~~~
snickerdoodles
that would be a job for the politicians, who directed the military to act.

~~~
tobltobs
Are soldiers replaced by politicans after the surrender of the enemy?

~~~
CapitalistCartr
Soldiers are directed by politicians at all stages. The decisions on what to
do after surrender is entirely made by politicians. Basically an army's job is
to break things and kill people. The politicians' job is to know what to do
with such a powerful tool as an army. In my experience, precious few of them
do.

~~~
tobltobs
The order from the politicans for the soldiers for e.g. Abu Ghraib was to
behave like some drunken animals?

~~~
mpyne
No, but what's your point? Should we require computer programmers to read
books explaining why murdering people is wrong in case there's another Hans
Reiser or Ross Ulbritch?

