"Integrating the US Military is an edited collection that examines the US Army's role and place in progressive social change through the lens of the military experience of African Americans, women, and gays since World War II. By making this long overdue comparison, the editors argue this anthology demonstrates how the challenges launched against the racial, gender, and sexual status quo in the years after World War II transformed overarching ideas about power, citizenship, and America's role in the world. This anthology's major contribution is synthesizing recent scholarly work on the history of minorities and women in the US military. It does so by examining connections between GIs and civilian society in the context of ideologies of race, gender, and sexuality. Given the militarization of American society since World War II, revealing the links between these legally marginalized groups within the Armed Services is historically significant in its own right. At the same time, this comparison also sheds new light on a broad range of issues that affected civilian society, such as affirmative action, integration, marriage laws, and sexual harassment. Integrating the US Military is a book designed for college students, military professionals, policy makers, and general readers. Allowing readers to view the history of several civil rights movements within the Armed Forces will prompt them to rethink the way they understand the history of social movements. It will also help them to better understand the relationship between the military and American society. Finally, readers will gain a historical perspective on recent debates about the rights of gays in the military and the implications of deploying women in combat."--Provided by publisher.

In A People's History of the U.S. Military, historian Michael A. Bellesiles draws from three centuries of soldiers' personal encounters with combat—through fascinating excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, as well as audio recordings, film, and blogs—to capture the essence of the American military experience firsthand, from the American Revolution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military service can shatter and give meaning to lives; it is rarely a neutral encounter, and has contributed to a rich outpouring of personal testimony from the men and women who have literally placed their lives on the line. The often dramatic and always richly textured first-person accounts collected in this book cover a wide range of perspectives, from ardent patriots to disillusioned cynics; barely literate farm boys to urbane college graduates; scions of founding families to recent immigrants, enthusiasts, and dissenters; women disguising themselves as men in order to serve their country to African Americans fighting for their freedom through military service. A work of great relevance and immediacy—as the nation grapples with the return of thousands of men and women from active military duty—A People's History of the U.S. Military will become a major new touchstone for our understanding of American military service.

In 1951, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, hero of the liberation of Europe, returned to Paris to command NATO forces. The US Army built a huge infrastructure across France to provide logistical support to the US Seventh Army in Germany during the Cold War. The US Air Force also sent aircraft to France to provide a nuclear deterrent to Soviet aggression. By 1962, the US military had 100,000 troops and family members living in France, and employed 22,000 French civilians. This monumental book is built on research in 50 international archives and more than 400 interviews. It is the definitive work on the postwar American military occupation of France and contains authoritative text along with original, professionally made maps, diagrams, and illustrations.

Attention! Learn more about your military now! Does a corporal have to salute a lieutenant or is it the other way around? What are forward-deployed units? Is an "armored cow" a type of tank or something soldiers eat? Are Polaris missiles dropped from the air or launched from a submarine? If someone calls you a "Cat 4" should you be honored or offended? Do you feel lost when it comes to all things military? Sure, you hear things on the news and maybe you know someone who is in the military, but you probably have a hard time fully grasping the acronyms, equipment, and protocol they discuss. That's where A Civilian's Guide to the U.S. Military can help. Author Barbara Schading decodes all things military for you. She discusses each branch—Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and the Coast Guard—in simple terms you can understand. You'll get the background information, an easy-to-read chart showing rank and insignia, and an explanation of the organization of each branch. In addition, the book has extensive glossaries that cover terms, acronyms, slang, and equipment. You'll find an entire chapter that covers special operations forces like the Green Berets, Force Recons, Army Rangers, and more. You'll learn about their specific training, missions, and history. The book also covers other important aspects of the military like: • flag and saluting etiquette • military funerals • the Tombs of the Unknown • the American Legion, USO, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and other groups • military law • military academies • medals and decorations • official military music • an explanation of the Geneva Convention • and a list of resources to help you find more information So the next time you read the paper or talk with a new recruit, you don't have to feel lost. Become a knowledgeable civilian with the help of A Civilian's Guide to the U.S. Military.

Out of the Crucible: How the U.S. Military Transformed Combat Casualty Care in Iraq and Afghanistan edited by Arthur L. Kellermann, MD and MPH, and Eric Elster, MD is now available by the US Army, Borden Institute. This comprehensive resource, part of the renowned Textbooks of Military Medicine series, documents one of the most extraordinary achievements in the history of American medicine - the dramatic advances in combat casualty care developed during Operations Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Each chapter is written by one or more military health professionals who played an important role in bringing the advancement to America's military health system. Written in plain English and amply illustrated with informative figures and photographs, Out of the Crucible engages and informs the American public and policy makers about how America's military health system, devised, tested and widely adopted numerous inventions, innovations, technologies that collectively produced the highest survival rate from battlefield trauma in the history of warfare.

Americans eat more processed foods than anyone else in the world. We also spend more on military research. These two seemingly unrelated facts are inextricably linked. If you ever wondered how ready-to-eat foods infiltrated your kitchen, you’ll love this entertaining romp through the secret military history of practically everything you buy at the supermarket. In a nondescript Boston suburb, in a handful of low buildings buffered by trees and a lake, a group of men and women spend their days researching, testing, tasting, and producing the foods that form the bedrock of the American diet. If you stumbled into the facility, you might think the technicians dressed in lab coats and the shiny kitchen equipment belonged to one of the giant food conglomerates responsible for your favorite brand of frozen pizza or microwavable breakfast burritos. So you’d be surprised to learn that you’ve just entered the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, ground zero for the processed food industry. Ever since Napoleon, armies have sought better ways to preserve, store, and transport food for battle. As part of this quest, although most people don’t realize it, the U.S. military spearheaded the invention of energy bars, restructured meat, extended-life bread, instant coffee, and much more. But there’s been an insidious mission creep: because the military enlisted industry—huge corporations such as ADM, ConAgra, General Mills, Hershey, Hormel, Mars, Nabisco, Reynolds, Smithfield, Swift, Tyson, and Unilever—to help develop and manufacture food for soldiers on the front line, over the years combat rations, or the key technologies used in engineering them, have ended up dominating grocery store shelves and refrigerator cases. TV dinners, the cheese powder in snack foods, cling wrap . . . The list is almost endless. Now food writer Anastacia Marx de Salcedo scrutinizes the world of processed food and its long relationship with the military—unveiling the twists, turns, successes, failures, and products that have found their way from the armed forces’ and contractors’ laboratories into our kitchens. In developing these rations, the army was looking for some of the very same qualities as we do in our hectic, fast-paced twenty-first-century lives: portability, ease of preparation, extended shelf life at room temperature, affordability, and appeal to even the least adventurous eaters. In other words, the military has us chowing down like special ops. What is the effect of such a diet, eaten—as it is by soldiers and most consumers—day in and day out, year after year? We don’t really know. We’re the guinea pigs in a giant public health experiment, one in which science and technology, at the beck and call of the military, have taken over our kitchens.

"Though the priorities of senior military leaders inevitably change over time, the pressing need for American Service personnel to accommodate the human dimension for success in their ongoing military operations has not diminished. That capability now may be even more important than ever. Almost inevitably, the requirement will reach a critical stage in some future crisis. This book compiles the insights and findings of some of the most determined and resourceful scientists, scholars, and practitioners engaged in the military's culture programs to inculcate the new capabilities in the early twenty-first century. The authors do not gloss over failures and dead ends. Rather, their expectation is that by presenting the bad with the good, they can help future generations engaged in the same task avoid their pitfalls and build on their work. More importantly, the authors hope that their writing might reach those who are still engaged in building cultural capabilities and that they will find encouragement to continue this essential work"--

The U.S. military can be thought of as a microcosm of American society, bringing in people from diverse backgrounds and history to defend one nation. Military leaders must address the same issues and concerns as those found in the civilian world, including exclusion, segregation, and discrimination. In some cases, the military has led the nation by creating policies of inclusion before civilian laws required them to do so. In other causes, the military has lagged behind the larger society. The goal of this book is to provide an overview of the ways in which diversity has been addressed in the military by providing information about particular forms of diversity including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexuality. Subject matter experts provide their insights into the roles that each of these groups have played in the U.S. armed services as well as the laws, rules, and regulations regarding their participation. Ultimately, the authors utilize this information as a way to better understand military diversity and the unique ways that individuals incorporate the military into their sense identity.

Essays explore the social impact of Americas global network of military bases by examining interactions between U.S. soldiers and members of host communities in South Korea, Japan/Okinawa, and West Germany.

The definitive book on lesbians and gay men in the US military. Randy Shilts, author of the classic documentary history of the AIDS epidemic And The Band Played On, was acclaimed for his ability to take epic histories and molding them into gripping, intimate narratives. Conduct Unbecoming, his groundbreaking exploration of lesbians and gays in the military, came out of hundreds of interviews conducted with servicepeople at all levels of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps and intense research uncovering thousands of documents resulting in a unique history of gays in the military as well as the persecution of gays in the military. Conduct Unbecoming will leave readers moved and imbued with a better understanding of the pressing situation in our nation's military. "A sober, thoroughly researched and engrossingly readable history on the subject. [Shilts's] chronicle is excellent military history, closely woven with an enthralling analysis of the changing definitions of sexuality and personal relationships in American society....[A] landmark book....Remarkable." --New York Times Book Review "A masterpiece of investigative reporting...Shilts has shown us the honor homosexuals have brought, and continue to bring, to the uniforms they wear and the country they serve." - Boston Globe "Gays, we are told, would damage morale in the military. Shilts documents the fact that morale has already been eaten away by hypocrisy, contradictions, and favoritism...This book will be to gay and lesbian liberation what Betty Friedan's was to early feminism or Rachel Carson's to ecological consciousness. No fair-minded person can read Conduct Unbecoming and consider the present system defensible. - USA Today "Gripping reading....the history of homosexual people and the movement for gay/lesbian equality in the United States can nowhere be more clearly told." - Los Angeles Times