Customer Reviews

Leadership: Combat Leaders and Lessons

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This compendium of actual leadership lessons and leaders is a serious and excellent book. The variety of stories are generally short, poignant, and tautly written. Some of the combat situations will take your breath away while illustrating crucial leadership lessons applicable to more than just war. If you want to read about heroes and gritty combat, lessons learned vicariously, check out this book. Do not be put off by the historical introductions: for example, the article about MacArthur will dazzle you with what he actually did in the trenches. This book is for reading, studying, and teaching leadership at all levels.

The book contains twenty-five essays written by combat veterans recording their experiences and lessons learned. The book is invaluable. It contains original accounts of combat never before recorded for students of military leadership. The accounts of combat range from the experiences of a Viet Cong prisoner of war murdered by the communists to a detailed account of the Libyan Raid that brought an end to the crimes of libyan terrorists. All of the essays were written by members of the Class of 1959 of the United States Military Academy, who were asked to provide leadership lessons by the West Point Class that will graduate fifty years after the authors left the Academy. The accounts are well written and capture important insights into combat leadership. The book is highly recommended to all students of leadership, especially those who chose a career in the military.

OVERHYPED BOOK. THE CHAPTER ON THE OFFICER WHO WAS WITH THE UN WAS A COMPLETE WASTE OF INK. THE BEST PART OF THE BOOK WAS BY GEN FRANKS ON HIS EXPERIENCE IN THE GOLF WAR. HE IS DEFINITELY THE KIND OF OFFICER WHOM I WOULD WANT TO LEAD ME IN COMBAT.