Customer Reviews

A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces

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Living in Washington, D.C., the events of 9.11 made it clear that the U.S. needed a strong military, but I soon realized that I had no understanding of tthe men and women in our armed forces.. Even when news starting coming out of Iraq, I wanted to know more . . .just who were they?

The cover of the May 12th issue of USNEWS alerted me to the fact that on October, 2002. 125 of "the worlds best photographers" (the magazine's words) fanned out around the world to photograph the military for the latest book in the "Day in the Life" series .

The photographs are a surprising and dazzling portrait of America's armed forces. During that 24 hour period, photographers seemed to follow the sun around the world. They shot Navy seals in Guam, women fighter pilots in Turkey, women marines at Paris Island, and ordinary military families at home cooking pancakes.

I realized these men and women in the uniforms of the five services could be my neighbors, friends, relatives or co-workers. Thank you authors for this book. I now know the perfect Father's Day present for my father-in-law, a combat vet from Viet Nam (1st Air Cav).

What a great theme to choose to revive the "A Day In the Life Of..." series! The predictably excellent photos (except for one field portrait where the camera's autofocus missed the subject) are a wonderful documentary of a single day in the globe-spanning mission of America's military.

Familiar images inevitably occur: Drill sergeants bawling out rattled recruits; wide-angle nose shots of fighter jets, flight deck sailors giving "launch" hand signals to carrier pilots; mud-slathered soldiers crawling through training courses, anonymity-suggesting group photos; and individual portraits showing the full range of humanity that calls America home.

There are also plenty of pleasing novelties, at least to me. A soldier in Hawaii snaps a salute while carrying a surfboard. Soldiers run station drills around a golf green, the only one on the one-hole course, in the Korean DMZ. A SEAL emerges, like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, from the water. A seemingly prosaic picture of a cadet eating upon closer inspection reveals a meal of pancakes, cake, nachos, a pork chop, a hot dog, and other unharmonious victuals. Women and families are plentifully represented throughout.

We get representative shots of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield, a rear view of President Bush disembarking from Air Force One, a National Security Agency lab, and pictures of the troops in Afghanistan on the job. The closest thing to actual trouble that was going on on this day, that was allowed to be photographed, was a forensic investigator examining a Marine's sabotaged parachute. So, there are no pictures of military intelligence giving prisoners an interrogation, though there is a picture of Camp Gitmo.

This is a splendid album, technically and thematically, of America's best.

This book is filled with great moments and beautiful photographs, and shows a lot of the behind-the-scenes moments. It's a tribute to all the young men and women who have put their lives on the line and dedicated themselves to service to our country. I think it's a great gift for all American families to remind them of the sacrifices that the military service makes.

As the wife of an active duty servicemember, I am so happy to see a book that shows the amount of work each and every soldier/sailor/airman/marine does on a day to day basis...and throughout all parts of the world. We have had the pleasure of living overseas during much of his time. We miss living in the US but we are proud to be over here while he serves his country.
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe for the Senses - A Photographic Journal"

Everyone has been talking about the United States military in the recent past, thanks to the ongoing war against Iraq. Photos are sent back from the Middle East showing the soldiers in their military garb with weapons in hand and we constantly hear about how the war is going. We expect this during times of war, but what takes place in a normal day when there is no war to fight? What do the military personnell do in a typical day?

These questions can be quickly answered by reading this book. It's mostly a collection of photographs, with only a minimal amount of wording. It starts out in the early morning hours, showing photos of military men and women eating breakfast and engaging in physical workouts, then proceeds throughout the day, ending with pictures of night time security workers checking highly sensitive places to make sure all is clear.

This book is 256 pages in length, but it includes mostly pictures, so it doesn't take very long to read. It is well- organized, too, with an introduction by Walter Cronkite and a world map on each page, indicating the area of the world where a particular picture was taken. And the photos, like I mentioned above, are organized in order of the time of day they were taken, allowing the reader to follow along from sunrise to sunset and gain a better understanding of what life is like in the military.

This coffee table- size book makes contains many great pictures, showing men and women at work and at play with their families and friends. It's a nice addition to any home library and it proves to be a good educational guide, letting readers see and understand exactly what takes place during a normal day for the United States military personnel.

Just imagine this, some photographers traveled all over the world to United States Military bases and took pictures of all our Armed Forces.

Everything from far off distant islands and duty stations, to forts and bases back home.

If your looking for pictures of the war, then don't look here, it was published in 2003.

But, if your looking for outstanding pictures of our military from before the war then look no further. My parents owned a copy for years and I put it in my room so it wouldn't disappear. Then I got a used copy for 0.01... just as good as a brand new copy thats never been opened and all I paid was shipping. Somehow I managed to wind up with two... whether or not I paid 2 cents is beside the point, I only paid for shipping once. A very generous mistake, regardless if it was mine or theirs. I could have just as easily wound up with 2 in the quantity box.

Anyway its a really neat book, all the pictures are great quality, have captions telling about where they were taken and what they are, and often telling who's in it but not always.

If you going to buy it, be smart, buy from a good seller and only play shipping + $0.01, but buy used... I've only got 2 out of probably over 50 books that have torn covers over the years off of Amazon, the reason I started buying off of here. So I don't have to deal with book stores and you can find what your looking for faster, without making a 30minute drive. haha.

Like previous "day in the life," books...this one features 125 of the top photo jounalists capturing a slice of life of a given subject. These are photo jounalists...not to be confused with studio portrait photography...this is an amazing portrayal of the hard work, discipline, and tradition of the military. It tells the tale of new "greatest generation," those young men and women who sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy everyday. If you have doubts about the direction of this nation...one look at these pages and you can rest assured the future is well cared for.

This is a magnificent and well deserved tribute to the men,women and families that have made the United States Armed Forces the greatest force for Peace and Freedom, not only for America,but also for the rest of the world who want to live in in peace and freedom as well as those throughout the world who have the same aspirations. They have had a long history of defeating evil organizations and countries that have attempting to dominate others by force. America has worked with others in defending against oppressors;but has often taken on the task virtually alone. This has never been more true than we see today in her endeavors with The War on Terror.
The only successful defense of Liberty and Freedom is the maintenance of a Military equipped with the best equipment,the most honorable intentions,and most of all the best personnel. Today,as America stands almost alone,free people everywhere,have to thank their lucky stars,that the Armed Forces of America exists. If you doubt this,just think of the mess the world would be in today,if what we see represented in this book ,were not existing,prticularly throughout the 20th Century as well as now as we move into the 21st.
So often the media concentrates too much on the negative and only reluctently even only covers the positive.
This book may at first only appear to be another military
coffee -table book. It is much more than that.It is an excellent portrayal of the people who give up all to serve their country.Thank God ,for these people of the past,those in uniform today and the need for their services in the future. The hope of future Peace and Freedom in the world without them is impossible to imagine.
We all owe them our thanks.