Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Hardcover – October 12, 2010

General Shelton does a great job painting a portrait of what it's like to be in the Chairman's shoes. More importantly, he does wonders outlining the different jobs, duties, and requirements it takes to reach such a tough job after decades of hard work.

This is a good read for any up-and-coming career military leader. However, I was disappointed that the General very rarely spoke of his own mistakes along the way - but he's quick to take pot shots at his former peers who did make mistakes (to his credit, the names are obviously changed in most cases). For example, a chapter titled "Never Belly Dance Drunk With Your Boss's Wife" is ultimately about another officer who lives out the scenario the title teases rather than the General himself. What a let down!

In Hugh Shelton's eyes, he was the perfect company-grade officer coming up and never made a mistake ever as a lieutenant or captain. Not a great point of inspiration for all us regular guys who had to learn a few lessons the hard way, but this is a common sin in most autobiographies for famous leaders. Still, the later portions regarding his time as a general officer were rich with detail and ooze with the political intrigue of that era. Recommended.

Anybody else feel that a bio written by an army general is the height of ego? Having met GEN Shelton many times at Bragg, I was interested to read about his career, but can't say that I found many insights in his memories, other than 'don't prune trees alone'. Seems like a decent guy but not really much different than any other army O I worked with, and probably not really deserving of having his memoirs published.

I'd have preferred if he'd gotten down to brass tacks and told us the whole truth, spilled the beans and left the army with a blueprint of a better way forward, instead of giving himself a pat on the back. Decent read but not what we need to see.

I served under General Shelton, as at the time he was my battalion commander in the 9th Infantry Division. What had a profound impact on me as a soldier was his dedication, fairness and absolute integrity. He lead by example and as the book pointed out turned 3rd BN 60th Infantry (one of the last straight leg battalions in the Army) into a cohesive fighting unit. I still remember at the change of command when he left; I was a young CPL time; telling one of my men that we would see him again one day. Never did I imagine he would become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This is a must read for any leader in the military. His example as a leader and a man I have made every effort to try to live up too throughout my life. Few people will come into our lives that will have that kind of impact upon us.

Without Hesitation by Gen. Hugh Shelton
Without Hesitation gets a five-star rating but there are concerns below.
I am rating it at max five stars because it is an important autobiography that is, for the most part, told well. His is an important life that spanned a wide range of significant experiences throughout his military career. Moreover, his character is worthy to know and to learn of his values and strongly held views on critical issues that are impacting our nation now. The most critical arose during the pinnacle of his career as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. In a sense he was present at the beginning of a new military, political and strategic era. His perspectives are important because of the experiences that he survived in his military career.
Because of my concerns, I considered down-rating the book but decided against it because of its overall significance. One major concern is the penchant for score-settling takedowns of this or that person. Even if it is deserving--and I wouldn't know--it distracted from the flow of the narrative, was unnecessary in the sense of being invariably petty, and it diminished Gen. Shelton more than it placed the target in a more accurate light historically. It became unrelenting and therefore excessive.
It is a wonder to me why he chose to pursue that technique or why he accepted advice to persist in going after so many persons whom he wanted to take down a few pegs. Gen. Shelton could have made his points just as effectively by straightforward narrative and let history place his account in its deserved place among others. It became unseemly and it contradicted his character. While he devoted too much effort to the petty skirmishes against selected targets, in my opinion he failed to address several aspects that deserved at least to be acknowledged. For me, those issues were racial relations and what, if any, attitude he had about the Viet Nam War as a geopolitical decision point by the USA.
Despite the span of years of his career from the early 60s commissioning after ROTC, Gen. Shelton has virtually nothing to say or to offer in terms of a perspective about racial relations in society and/or the military. He comments that Gov. George Wallace's campaign was "nonsense" given its segregationist views in the early 70s Alabama as Gen. Shelton and his family arrived for one of his career schools in the military, having been assigned to an Air Force school. Another mention is somewhat indirect, a glancing remark, as he comments about his admiration for one of his commanding officers who became the first Hispanic four star general.
But Gen. Shelton has little to offer about race relations despite what history tells us about the difficulties in Viet Nam and even stateside and in European bases during the Viet Nam era. His lack of comment contrasts with Gen. Wesley Clark, for example, one of Shelton's frequent targets for take downs. Clark admits his regret for having fallen under the influence of his environment in the Little Rock of his youth at the time of the forced integration that was ordered by Pres. Eisenhower. From his retrospective position upon finishing his career, Gen. Clark returned to that theme to express regret about his early views--he could hardly be blamed given his youthful lack of maturity and the strength of antipathy by adults of his culture--and to emphasize how he had been changed by society's changes and his opportunities to interact with broader segments of society. While Gen. Shelton offers only the brief criticism, "nonsense", to condemn Gov. Wallace's early 1970's segregationist political campaign, he offers nothing at all about his own environment in college at NC State when, in 1960, the gubernatorial campaign featured the rabidly segregationist I. Beverly Lake, Sr., who lost to eventual winner Terry Sanford, who strove for what was then regarded as moderate positions.
Gen. Shelton also offers nothing about our military's efforts during the 1970s to impact the re-shaping of the officer corps by what some refer to as affirmative action. We know from Colin Powell's writings (and others) that this was going on, and Powell comments about how his own career advancement benefitted. Shelton was in officer assignment positions in the Pentagon during that era, but says nothing about it. Other writers have commented about the efforts of our military, which is regarded as in the forefront of societal efforts to break old patterns of racial superiority.
Shelton offers little insight in terms of criticism of the Viet Nam war. He sought assignment there or at least fully accepted that he would be sent there, given his positions and training at the time. He seems to have seen it purely in career advancement terms and without regard to its geopolitical controversy. In contrast, Gen. Wesley Clark describes his efforts while at Oxford to debate others about the legitimacy of the US position in the "containment" doctrine of that era. Clark clearly was persuaded by containment theory at that time. We don't get that type of perspective from Gen. Shelton, and one wonders why, as a young officer, it was so important to go to Viet Nam twice and to leave his wife to fend for herself stateside. From a career retrospective and considering Gen. Shelton at the pinnacle as he affected decision points about whether and how to get involved, we see someone who had uppermost in mind the troops at the small unit level who would be put at risk. But he doesn't reveal himself in the Viet Nam era as someone who was giving critical thought to why Viet Nam was worth fighting. It's understandable that he wanted to be the best officer and to perform to the best of his ability in all assignments, but that outlook does not offer a perspective about Viet Nam and its impact on this nation and the world.

Very well written and engaging book. I served under General Shelton while in the 82nd Airborne and was curious to hear his story. I was pleasantly surprised that his character and views were every bit as strong as I had imagined. His candor and unique perspective on supremely important world events was riveting to read. I couldn't put it down. And spoiler alert: I'm proud to see he was just as strong a man to walk away from his accident. Most mere mortals would have succumbed, in my opinion.

Although an interesting story of General Shelton's life, and organized well around his unfortunate accident and recovery efforts, the most striking theme of the book is that this man never made a wrong decision, never encountered a situation that his superior leadership did not correct, and how many incompetent leaders he had to endure, and figure a way to work around.

Being a student of military history, I found this off-putting and unrealistic. Everyone makes mistakes. I had more respect for General Shelton before I read this book.