A Few Good Men [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Ronald J. Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2001

The Fighting Fifth Marines is the USMC’s most decorated regiment. Its list of honors is long and memorable, encompassing France in World War I, Nicaragua during the Banana Wars, the Pacific theater in World War II, the Korean War, and every campaign since, including five years of combat in Vietnam and the liberation of Kuwait. 5th Marine veteran and Marine Corps historian Ronald J. Brown has written a sweeping, engaging history of this dedicated and distinguished American regiment.

Notable engagements in Okinawa, the Pusan Perimeter, Chosin, and the Persian Gulf dot the heroic lineage of the Fifth Marines. Fighting Fifth alumnus Red Mike Edson won the Medal of Honor at Guadalcanal. Lew Walt earned three Navy Crosses over the course of three wars with the 5th Marines. James Webb became one of the Vietnam War’s most decorated junior officers as a 5th Marine platoon commander and later became secretary of the navy. The regiment fought and won hundreds of unknown battles—anonymous warriors toiling without praise in peacetime and silently sacrificing their personal well-being in far-flung lands during war. These men of the Fifth Marine Regiment are owed an immense debt of gratitude by the nation. A Few Good Men is a fitting tribute to their patriotic service.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Throughout its history, the United States Marine Corps in particular, the 5th Marines has been the "first to fight." Brown, a lieutenant colonel, USMCR (Ret.), Marine historian, and veteran of the 5th, offers a fascinating and detailed account of this highly decorated unit. From its activation in 1914 (provisional) to the present, the 5th has fought in every U.S. conflict. Campaigns from Belleau Wood in World War I to the "Banana Wars," from Guadalcanal in World War II to Chosin in Korea, from Hue in Vietnam to Kuwait City are all inexorably linked to the "Fighting Fifth." Brown effectively places the story of this unit in the greater context of the development of the Marines and modern warfare. While the text occasionally becomes mired in the minutiae typical of regimental histories, it provides glimpses of those whom the regiment made famous and those who made the regiment famous. The one drawback is the lack of an index. Recommended for academic and public libraries with military history collections. Mike Miller, Dallas P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“A book to treasure, along with the memories of courage and sacrifice that span several generations of the Corps.”
—JAMES WEBB
Author of Fields of Fire

“The Fifth Marines is the only regiment to fight in all Marine Corps campaigns since World War I. Ron Brown knows the story because he lived it and wrote it in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. This book honors all fighting Marines.”
—ALLEN R. MILLETT
Author of Semper Fidelis



From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (July 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891417362
• ISBN-13: 978-0891417361
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,460,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Information Correction, November 28, 2001

By 

Motown (MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Few Good Men (Hardcover)

The Library Journal review of A Few Good Men incorrectly cites the lack of an index. There is, in fact, a twenty-eight page index that lists more than one thousand entries to include all names, units, and significant battle sites mentioned in the text. Aircraft,equipment,named operations, and weapons are also categorized.

4.0 out of 5 stars Focused, comprehensive, but dry, May 11, 2010

By 

Metallurgist (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Few Good Men (Hardcover)

This book details the history of the Fifth Marine Regiment, from its formation in 1914 to 1991. In spite of the iconic cover photograph of a Marine in WWII (the book actually describes who this is a photograph of and where it was taken), the book devotes a roughly an equal number of pages to WWI, WWII, Korea and Viet Nam, with a lesser amount of the book devoted to the period between world wars and the period after Viet Nam (including the first Gulf War). This is a regimental history that details all of the engagements that the regiment participated in. It is a very comprehensive history, with an index, list of sources and an appendix that lists all of the regiment's battle honors. The text mentions all or the regiments commanders, many lower level officers, and all of its Medal of Honor winners. Being a regimental history, it is focused on the accomplishments of the Fifth Marines and thus leaves out material about other outfits fighting alongside of them as well as much of the bigger picture of what was going on, and why.

I found that the highly focused and comprehensive nature of the book was actually, from my viewpoint, somewhat of a distraction. There is scarcely a paragraph that does not mention the names of those involved in a particular action, and in places virtually all of the sentences contain these names. At times I felt as is I were reading a Christmas letter describing the activities of a family that I was not familiar with. Personally, I did not need to know the names of all those involved in a particular operation, but someone more intimately involved with the regiment might find this level of detail very important. Also, as mentioned, one is getting a very focused view of events, with a lot of the big picture missing. This is OK if you familiar with the events being discussed and then the focus on this level of detail can even be very illuminating, but if you are less familiar with the events being covered greats gaps appear in the narrative. For instance, there is no mention of why, all of a sudden, the Fifth was fighting the Chinese and not the North Koreans.

This is definitely not an exciting personal history, such as Sledge's "With the Old Breed", which covers his experiences in the Fifth Regiment during WWII. In fact, I found the book being reviewed here to be rather dry - focused, factual, comprehensive, but dry. There is, however, a level of detail not found in books such as Sledge's. For instance, both books tell of the death of a much respected company commander, A.A. "Ack-AcK" Haldane, but in this book there is a follow up telling that after the war Fifth Marine officers purchased a trophy in Haldane's memory, to be give annually to the senior of Bowdoin College, Haldane's alma mater, who demonstrated outstanding qualities of leadership. Haldane is also featured in the TV mini-series, "The Pacific", which is based in part on Sledge's book.

I recommend this book to those who served in the Fifth Marines, those very interested in the history of the Marines and those very interested in US military history. However, I would not recommend it to someone who only wants a more "popular" and exciting history.