From the Horse's Mouth: Selected Thoughts on Small-Unit Leadership

Capt McKeldin's book is divided into three sections: "Wisdom from Every Clime and Place"; "Wisdom from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam"; and "Wisdom-Eight Unique Perspectives." Each chapter in these sections is either the subject of personal interviews with former small unit leaders, or is the reprinted version of past interviews or articles. The men represented within these pages are all veterans of conflict from the rank of corporal through general. None of these "most important lessons I've learned" are earth-shattering or keys-to-always-winning, but all of these lessons are reinforced by the terror and tension of an opposed landing in the Pacific, by rounds in Korea or Vietnam, or by modern-day battles in Beirut, Iraq, and Somalia. It is the battle, the cost, the struggle to win, the mistakes made that allows us to transform what has sometimes become a cliche into the battlefield common sense that today's small unit leaders must possess. An incredible desktop reference of battlefield leadership, written in the style of men speaking around a bonfire, old leaders to young leaders who say, "listen and learn and don't make these mistakes."