God and Country

Chaplain Jeff Bryan
Ingram 2011

Memoirs from Babylon, A Combat Chaplain’s life in Iraq’s Triangle of Death, is the story of Chaplain (Capt) Jeff Bryan’s deployment to Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division from 2006 to 2007.

The book stands as one of the better examples of the “day to day” operations of a chaplain deployed to a US military war zone, both for his perspective on the combat itself but also for the duties to which he tended. He tells repeated stories of counseling soldiers who learn of family deaths back home, scrounging a Catholic chaplain to Read more…

Lee Ellis
FreedomStar Media

Leading with Honor, Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton, is a unique and outstanding book by former prisoner of war Lee Ellis, an F-4 pilot who spent nearly six years in POW camps in Vietnam. Its stated intent is to pass on “leadership” lessons from the “crucible of captivity.” In truth, it is much more than that: It teaches lessons that are applicable to all of life.

Ellis, who was a 1st Lt at the time, was on his 53rd mission over North Vietnam Read more…

Chaplain Emilio Marrero, Jr.
FaithWalk Publishing

A Quiet Reality, subtitled A Chaplain’s Journey into Babylon, Iraq, with the I Marine Expeditionary Force, is not just another war story.  A Quiet Reality is unique both for the perspective it lends — a chaplain to US Marines during the invasion of Iraq — and the story it tells — the interaction of the US military with the historic site of Babylon, Iraq.

Chaplain Marrero’s story isn’t told in pure narrative.  Rather, each chapter follows an almost sermon-like style, with a well-told narrative followed by a more deliberate explanation and analysis, with a concluding faith-based story or analogy.  In each case, no matter how dramatic the tale, Chaplain Marrero is able to articulate the “quiet reality” of his experiences. It is a formula that works very well.

The crux of the story is Chaplain Marrero’s work with local Iraqis and US Marines to protect and explore the historic site of Babylon, Read more…

Courageous, a movie about five men and the challenges of faith, family, and fatherhood, was the number one new movie in America when it hit theatres last fall.  This past week it came out on DVD, where it again hit the top of the charts.  The church-made film reportedly had a budget of around $2 million, a number that belies its nearly Hollywood-worthy production quality.  Box office numbers were in the $34M range.

Four of the men are Albany police Read more…

Louis Zamperini with David Rensin
Harper Collins, 2003 (2011)

Devil at My Heels is the updated autobiography of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete, B-24 bombardier, POW, and Christian. It seems most people come upon the book by first finding Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, the biography of the same man published around the same time.

Unsurprisingly, much of the text is the same.  It is, after all, the same man’s true story.  The stories are generally identical, though told in slightly different ways.  As noted in the review of Unbroken, Zamperini’s story there is a well told narrative but lacks Read more…

Laura Hillenbrand
Random House, 2010

Unbroken, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is the story of Louis Zamperini — an Olympic athlete, B-24 bombardier, POW, and Christian.

Zamperini is famous as the man who many believed “could have” beaten the 4-minute mile in the 1940s.  At 19, he qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, even getting to shake Hitler’s hand after a 7th place finish — in which he sprinted one of the fastest final laps ever and beat every American time by more than Read more…

Nancy Kennedy
Leafwood, 2011

Miracles and Moments of Grace, subtitled Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains, is a noble attempt at telling the stories of military Chaplains. Each of its 50 chapters is a story from a military Chaplain, most told in a first person narrative.  Almost all of the Chaplains are from a Christian faith tradition; a few Jewish Chaplains are included.

The stories cover the gamut of the modern Chaplaincy, with tales of Chaplains preventing troops’ suicide, notifying families of their Soldier’s death, or giving a first hand account of the bombings in Beirut or Khobar Towers. In that regard, it shows the wide array Read more…

HarperCollins, 2009.

Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters is the autobiography of the now-celebrity pilot who landed American Airlines Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on 15 January 2009.  Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is both an Air Force Academy graduate and a former Air Force fighter pilot.

From the perspective of a pilot, Highest Duty is a fascinating read.  The book is well written, managing to string the 3 minute ordeal through 330 pages of Sullenberger’s life without becoming slow or overly tedious.  While his celebrity status was cemented by the ordeal, the book covers not only the emergency landing but also his life story.

One of the more intriguing parts of that “life story” has been the element of faith, but not for the reason most might expect.  Read more…

Robin Olds
St Martin’s Press, 2010

Robin Olds is a legend in the fighter pilot community, though he may not be recognized outside of it.  Many people may remember, for example, the famous Operation BOLO during Vietnam, which used F-4s to impersonate F-105s and succeeded in destroying a third of the North Vietnamese MiG-21s in a single mission – but few know then-Col Robin Olds was responsible for it.  Fighter Pilot is his story, and it is explicitly delivered as a memoir, rather than an autobiography.  Thus, it is not a detailed birth-to-death retelling of his life, but a first-hand recounting of the things he wishes to convey.  (The book was completed after his 2007 death by his daughter, Christina Olds, and Ed Rasimus, himself a retired fighter pilot.)

The book starts off somewhat slowly, almost as if (despite its status as a “memoir”), Olds (or his co-authors) felt obligated to include some stories from the early parts of his life.  He mentions his early pilot training days and a few significant events briefly, but provides little detail or introspective.  For example, he casually mentions, without further insight, that he attended the Air Corps Tactical School, which would ultimately form the basis for all air doctrine in the Army Air Forces and eventually the independent Air Force.  He also covers his entire training, from his early wartime graduation from West Point through becoming a pilot, in a scant 20 pages.  Some of the lack of detail may be for a very understandable cause: he simply didn’t remember much from those early days.  Another may be more pragmatic: Olds is known for his time in Vietnam, not pilot training.

Unlike some other fighter pilot books, Read more…

CreateSpace Online Publishers, 2009.
Douglas Haig Jenkins, Jr.

The title of Refiner’s Fire makes it sound as if it is the perfect book for examining the integration of faith and the fighter pilot profession.  While it has potential, it regrettably falls short.

Refiner’s Fire is Jenkins’ autobiography.  It is literally written chronologically, with the first chapter talking about childhood dreams of flying and Read more…

When Faith Takes Flight was written by Jim Walters, a Pastor, civilian flight instructor, and former US Air Force fighter pilot. Walters became a Christian in a military chapel in Vietnam, and was quickly taken under the wing of a Christian in a local military Bible study.

When Faith Takes Flight isn’t an autobiography or memoir, however; it is an instructional book on Christian doctrine. The author is both a faith instructor and a flight instructor, and both perspectives are evident throughout the book.

Each of the 10 chapters covers a basic Christian doctrinal element (the existence of God, sin, grace, the Bible, etc.). The chapters (or “lessons”) begin with a flight related story, draw an analogy to a Biblical concept, and then relate a Biblical lesson — complete with a “quiz” and questions for group discussion. Each lesson is, in many ways, a miniature sermon.

The book’s primary objective is to teach theological concepts using Read more…

Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag is a documentary originally produced for IMAX.  It has a nominal plot, following a single F-15 fighter pilot as he participates in Red Flag at Nellis AFB, Nevada.  The primary officer is Captain John Stratton, who also narrates as he plans, flies, and acts as a simulated evader during combat exercises in the Nevada desert.

The film has some almost comical flaws (or theatrical necessities, depending on how you view them).  For example, Read more…

Though they may not recognize his name, virtually the entire world has been affected by the innovation of R.G. LeTourneau.  Mover of Men and Mountains documents both the faith and profession of one of the world’s most influential people.  Essentially an inventor of machines, LeTourneau (1888-1969) created many of the massive earth movers that miraculously accomplished what is now taken for granted.

LeTourneau’s inventions eventually measured movement of earth in thousands of tons, and made many modern marvels possible.  His company subcontracted on the Hoover Dam, creating the challenging road that allowed heavy equipment to build one of the modern wonders of the world.  In his book he recounts that thousands of heavy machines used by the Army in World War II were built by his company, including those that filled the bomb craters in Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor Read more…

Never Surrender is the memoir of Lt Gen (Ret) William G. “Jerry” Boykin, a name familiar to many even outside of military circles. It documents his military career and much of his personal life, in his “journey to the crossroads of faith and freedom”…

Never Surrender contains detailed accounts of many of the military operations in which General Boykin was involved. He also notes the times he called on God to see him through trials, and those times he felt abandoned by God because of them. He discusses the apparent contradictions in a Special Operations soldier being a Christian—not only dealing with the Christian in the military as a participant in war, but also with the unique challenges of Delta — like learning how to deceive, and do it well. Read more…

Captain Scott O’Grady is best known as the F-16 pilot shot down during Operation Deny Flight over the former Yugoslavia in 1995.  He survived for five and a half days — during which no one even knew he was alive — before being rescued.  Upon his return home he was declared a hero, a title he eschewed and passed on to the Marines who lifted him to safety.

The book details the mission from his arrival at work until the missile took his jet out from under him; it then describes the days he spent on the ground hoping for a rescue.  Interspersed are back stories of his life and his family back in the US as they learned of his shootdown.  The retelling of the organization of the rescue effort and its subsequent execution — which was completed about 5 hours after the initial radio contact — is well done.

Return with Honor is a quick and easy read, and is written at a level that people not familiar with the fighter pilot mission will understand.  O’Grady’s faith is also central to the book…

Read the full review.