Customer Reviews

Guardians of the Eagle

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Author John Messer does a wonderful job for all those military people out there who have worked hard and have served gallantly in the shadows of others. Those men he represents are really the vast percentage of our military forces. They honor their uniform and country everyday through the most simple and humble of tasks at times but always with pride. The men he represents were not those big heroes that got all the medals or who were an officer in charge of anything. However, when duty calls and they must face the dangers of being in combat they do so without complaint. He paints a portrait of his own career as an enlisted man in the US Navy in his insightful book about his own life called "Guardians of the Eagle". But as we learn from reading his personal life story he was much more then he humbly claims to be.

John's opening chapters of his childhood on a farm give you some insight into his character and perhaps even why he chose to stay and serve in the Navy. There is sensitivity in the story telling as it unfolds across his life. He gives us his life with warts and all at times but it comes across as an honest attempt at understanding what he went through and why things happened to him.

His experiences in the Vietnam War as a medic attached to the Marines shows you the kind of man he was then and why he is who he is today. He shares with us the horror and senselessness of that time and place. You can almost feel his heart beating when he is under attack and huddled in a bunker and sense the outrage at seeing the brutality and insanity all around him. Some of the things he saw he still carries with him after all these years. He tells us of young men in battle who change and not necessarily always for the best. He survived his "tour of duty" but he was changed forever by that war in ways that may not be evident to others or even himself.

It is easy to like the author as he takes the reader through his ups and downs of his life and career in the navy including his time in Nam. You will find yourself truly interested in his life as you begin to feel a kinship for him. This man has no pretenses and no delusions as to who he is and what he has done but I think he understates the importance of his own contributions to others and the Navy. In my book, he is one of those unsung heroes that the makes the military function. He did what was asked and did so even at risk to his own life at times.

I recommend this book for all career and former career military. They will find that it has many pearls of wisdom and some common observations on life in the service regardless of which branch they served in. It is an easy read and makes for good entertainment.