Bourbon and Bullets: True Stories of Whiskey, War, and Military Service

by John C. Tramazzo, Fred Minnick (Foreword)

American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines carried whiskey at Yorktown, Gettysburg, Manila, and Da Nang. It bolstered their courage, calmed their nerves, and treated their maladies. As a serious American whiskey drinker, John C. Tramazzo noticed how military service and whiskey went hand in hand during his service as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. In Bourbon and Bullets Tramazzo reveals the rich and dramatic connection between bourbon and military service in America.
              
Although others have discussed whiskey’s place in military history, Bourbon and Bullets explores the relationship between military service and some of the most notable whiskey distillers and executives working today. American servicemen Weller, Handy, Stagg, Van Winkle, and Bulleit all experienced combat before they became household names for American whiskey enthusiasts. In small towns and big cities across America, veterans of armed conflict in Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan cook mash, operate stills, and push the booming industry to new heights. Bourbon and Bullets delves into the lives and military careers of these whiskey distillers and tells the story of whiskey’s role on the battlefield and in the American military community.
 

Genres: History, Booze, American History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2018

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bourbon and Bullets is chocked full of so many great stories. After reading, you can’t help but feel admiration for the people involved once you've read about their military service. I want to go to each of these distilleries to shake hands and thank these men and woman for their service. It was very thought provoking to realize how strong the connections of bourbon and whiskey have been to military service through history. Most of today’s whiskey and bourbon have some connections to military service by the makers themselves or history of the brand names. Whiskey won the Revolutionary War, helped fight in the War of 1812. Rum rations eventually became a ration of whiskey. The Civil War had numerous battles won and lost over whiskey sometimes because soldiers were too drunk to be in the place they were expected or drunkenly falling off their horses. Both World Wars saw whiskey make a remarkable difference; sometimes it was a little extra bit of courage or helping to forget the horrors that the soldiers had experienced. The distilleries took an active role in the war effort by sending many of their employees into the service and producing industrial alcohol. The industrial alcohol was used in the production of war material, even grenades, artillery rounds, and bullets. The Korean War saw whiskey in camps and foxholes providing a relief from the fighting around them. The war in Vietnam experienced a decline in whiskey and bourbon but, interestingly enough, some distillers of today fought as young men. Whiskey and bourbon have seen action around the world largely thanks to the troops of the United States. Some of todays new craft distillers even found inspiration in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Overall, I learned a lot and enjoyed this book quite a bit. Thanks to Netgalley, John C. Tramazzo and University of Nebraska Press for this advanced copy.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bourbon and Bullets: True Stories of Whiskey, War, and Military Service by John C. Tramazzo is a history of whiskey and the American military. Tramazzo is an active duty Army officer and veteran of several deployments in support of the Global War on Terror. He is also an American whiskey enthusiast, Kentucky Colonel, and the founder of the popular blog bourbonscout.com.

For all the Puritan roots of America, it certainly has ties to vice. Tobacco funded the revolution and whiskey help the soldiers keep up the fight. Rum was America's first drink. America's ports, Africa, and the Caribean made a self-feeding triangle. America bought the molasses for rum, which paid for the slaves, who worked the sugar plantations. English pressure on American ports caused America to look inward for its fermentable materials -- corn and rye. America made whiskey and whiskey was the reason that a sitting president led American troops into battle-- Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion. The Whiskey Tax was a large source of revenue for the new government and when distillers refused to pay the tax it created a financial crisis.

Whiskey was carried into every battle from the Revolution War to Vietnam. Middle East Wars had to rely on the cleverness of military members to sneak whiskey into that theater. Tramazzo presents the history of whiskey and its relation to the American military. There were times when food for troops was scarce but whiskey was still available. It was the one ration that no one wanted to lose. World War I troops returning from were one of the biggest groups and vocal groups against Prohibition. Marines in WWII strained hair tonic through bread to make their own battlefield whiskey.

Whiskey, Bourbon, was America's drink; its roots were a tribute to France who was ruled by the House of Bourbon. Louisville, Kentucky was named after the king. Bourbon is a whiskey made from a minimum of 51% corn. Other whiskey's use rye and wheat (Maker's Mark) as primary ingredients. Whiskey was America's liquor of choice from the revolution to Vietnam. Rebellion against the establishment turned many away from whiskey and to light liquors. Ironically in 1976 vodka sales exceded whiskey sales in the US. America's celebration of 200 years of independence was marked by the embrace of our Cold War enemy's drink. Whiskey made a comeback in the early 1980s with single barrel whiskeys.

Many popular brands have their ties back to veterans. Jack Daniels fought in the Civil War. Bulleitt, Van Winkle, and Stagg all experienced combat before becoming whiskeys. Civil War veteran Paul Jones is credited with Four Roses Whiskey. Veteran and American President Harry Truman began each day with a power walk and a shot of bourbon. His choice was Old Grand Dad. Navy veteran and President Jimmy Carter was visited by a wild turkey that just happened to fly into the White House grounds. The turkey was most likely from Dick Newman the marketing director for Wild Turkey.

In addition to the history of whiskey in the United States,  Tramazzo concentrates on the veterans who continue and continued the whiskey tradition. The US military purchases more Jack Daniels single barrel whiskey than any other group.  The tie between the men in uniform, and those who have served, and whiskey is undeniable. 

[Skip Unger · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK so the topic for this book is great - I love military history and tradition and I love bourbon. And the intersection of the two over the course of U.S. history should make for fascinating reading. And this book does provide an overview of the role of whisky in U.S. civil and military history. However, writing style matters. The style is just too disjointed and felt like the author was simply adding sentences together without regard for syntax, flow or continuity in the arc of the story. The lack of smoothness and progression of the story made it hard to concentrate at times and easy to lose track of overall themes. And the last chapter was simply a recitation of current craft bourbon operations and their military managers/owners. However, the role of whisky in U.S. military tradition is a rich one starting all the way back with our first prominent distiller, George Washington. And the book does hammer home the theme of heavy veteran involvement in almost every major distillery established in this country. As well as continuing veteran investment in new craft bourbon distilleries currently in vogue. I would probably give this book 2 1/2 stars and still recommend it for those interested in bourbon history. But I also think a better treatment of this rich subject is waiting to be written.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that was nice to read while drinking bourbon! I found the first several chapters very interesting but the second half seemed to get into too many historical details. Regardless, a fun book to read enabling me to think about how Kentucky's bourbon tradition developed.

- Colonial distilleries were "a link in a chain that dispatched ships freighted with rum to Africa to trade for slaves who were transported to the West Indies to grow sugar to make molasses to ship to New England to make rum... and so forth." PJK: shows that the North had complicity in slavery's economics... not just the South. The factories of the North needed the raw materials grown or imported from elsewhere.
- Instead of paying the tax on British molasses or risking their lives to smuggle it from other sources, frustrated colonists turned to local grains like rye and Indian corn.
- The response to the so-called Whiskey Rebellion solidified the authority of the new federal government, and it pushed many frontier distillers further west toward the corn-rich commonwealth of Kentucky...

[Terry R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bourbon and Bullets - completed 10/23/2022
To my children, B.J.M.; A.N.C.; T.L.L.
This book is a great history of how the bourbon was involved with every major military conflict since America was formed. Many great war stories in the book, all linking to whiskey. Veterans have returned from conflicts and started distilleries to produce whiskey all over the country. While I enjoy whiskey today, I never paid it much attention during my time in the military. I do recall once in Korea, I had to go and purchase a couple of bottles of liquor for my Chief Warrant Officer who had already gone through his monthly rations. Only get 2 a month. The Koreans would jump at a bottle of Johnny Walker (any color) from the Class VI store. The soldiers would sell them on the Blackmarket for triple the price. At the time I was working to arrest soldiers selling products on the blackmarket. Please Drink Responsibly.
Love Dad, T.M.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doesn't surprise me in the least! I would think one would need to have a couple to bolster bravery in a fight. To say nothing of needing a few at the end of the day to kick back and relax (Back when wars ended at sunset, many opposing troops gathered at the local tavern for a nightcap! I remember this from Civil War history!) I love watching M.A.S.H. reruns with the still set up in the officers tent! You can make alcohol as illegal as you want, it never stopped anyone from getting their hands on it! Loved this story of alcohol and war and the beverages that grew out of the various wars! Fun read for both war and whiskey readers.

I received a Kindle ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

[Robert Enzenauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, readable history. As a military medical veteran who served from 1971-2015, I remember one veteran from the Spanish American War, several World War I vets, and of course hundreds of World War 2 vets, Korean war vets, Vietnam vets, and my colleagues from Afghanistan and Iraq. And ALL had stories of illicit alcohol. And this veteran-turned author Tramazzo has produced a well-researched book describes the military careers of whiskey distillers over three centuries, and also recounts the story of whiskey in the American military community. I personally work hard to support the veteran-owned distillers in Colorado, including 10th Mountain Whiskey (C)), Soldier Valley Bourbon (NE), and, 300 Days of Shine (Monument, CO)

[Bob O'G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book five stars for its research and fact giving. However, I never thought that a book about the barrel aged nectar of the gods could be so...dry. While conceptually Bourbon and Bullets is quite cool, it reads like a text book. It is so extremely laden with facts in every paragraph and every sentence that I found myself lost in the dates and names and places. Such an incessant heavy pouring of data rendered it difficult to ever be fully engaged. Again, props to the research. Some folks might salivate over the information overload. Not me though.

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing read! The author combined his military service and love of whiskey to write about the long history between soldiers and whiskey. I never knew that barrels of whiskey were carried by soldiers to have it handy to assist with nervousness or injuries. The stories that the author was able to share about the history of the strong ties between military personnel and whiskey were extremely interesting.

[Daniel Burch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather typical “history” book in that it is very dry, factual, and chapter oriented. It is very cool information to read about but at the end of it, I did not come away being blown away by it.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this non-stop in an afternoon. So interesting. Some typos but the stories are great. The relationship between bourbon and the military is interesting.

[Stephen Jordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history lesson on how strongly the military and military service played in the creation of the bourbon industry right back to Revolutionary times.

[Jordan Cornell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book had good information and was fun to learn about, but the writing style bounced everywhere and was difficult to follow.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Below is the text of my review I published on BourbonBanter.com:

I am comfortable admitting that I likely wouldn’t have read Bourbon & Bullets: True Stores of Whiskey, War and Military Service if John Tramazzo hadn’t sent me a copy of it. I follow Tramazzo (Bourbonscout) on Instagram, but I wasn’t all that interested in a collection of stories where soldiers drank together. When I saw that Fred Minnick wrote the foreword, I knew this book wasn’t what I thought it would be. A celebrated author and military veteran himself, if Fred’s name is on something you can bet it’s meaningful to him. Tramazzo has not only done his fellow servicemen proud, he has provided all of us with an original and valuable piece of work. This book doesn’t simply connect bourbon to our military- It literally connects bourbon to the course of American history.

The book is divided into sections: the first 64 pages a historical overview, the next 100 pages broken into chapters on key figures, and the final 20 pages focusing on craft distillers. Each section on individuals begins with a short overview, so it can be flipped through magazine-style if you choose. The real substance is in the details, however, so be sure and make time to return to these sections.

Tramazzo details the handful of elements following the Revolutionary War that revved the engine of Kentucky’s golden commodity. From land grants to veterans to the violent conflict over the whiskey tax which further cemented the shift from east coast rye to Kentucky corn. Along the way, you’ll learn several interesting facts. Did you know the current 53-gallon barrel was a direct result of conservation for the war effort? Did you know that names such as Bourbon, Louisville, Belle Meade and Versailles were a testament to our French allies who helped us forge our nation?

Alcohol’s impact on the Civil War cannot be overstated. Rampant alcohol abuses and soldiers fighting while seeing double lead the reader to question whether key battles were decided as a result. The subsequent national temperance movement leading to Prohibition was influenced largely by the demons these Civil War veterans lived with in the following years. Carrie Nation, one of the heroes of the temperance movement, lost her own husband, a Civil War veteran, to alcoholism.

Tramazzo brings to light the crucial role soldiers played both in Prohibition and Repeal. Many soldiers were convinced that the Volstead Act outlawing alcohol only passed because they were serving overseas and unavailable to oppose it. Following their return home from WWI, the four million veterans were a driving force in bringing about the Repeal.

In today’s luxury whiskey era, Jim Beam bourbon may sit on the bottom shelf, but you will gain a newfound and meaningful respect for that bottle when you read what it meant to our soldiers in Vietnam. Then we see how the dispersion of our soldiers around the globe during the Cold War sparked the international love for American Whiskey that continues growing today.

The true gift of the book arrives in the section on key industry figures who distinguished themselves in the military. Whiskey legends like W.L Weller, Jim Beam, Thomas Handy, EH Taylor, George T. Stagg, Paul Jones, Jr., Julian Van Winkle, Elmer T. Lee and Tom Bulleit were military legends first. Tramazzo balances the material between each person’s military service and their subsequent whiskey careers. You may find yourself skipping ahead at times, but I suspect that will depend primarily on your appetite for war details. On a sad note, one of the last profiles of that section is of the great Dave Pickerell, who passed away soon after this book was published.

A solid photo section is included, as well as an appendix of drink recipes which Tramazzo presents with military context and suggestions for each. This was an enjoyable book to read. I’m glad I was lucky enough to receive a copy and I heartily recommend it.

[Tyler Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, not what I was expecting, a little to much on the military history and less on the actual whiskery side.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book that traces not only the history of American bourbon, but also its ties the military. The connections that intertwine with the bourbon business and all branches of the United States military are amazing. The author has done a wonderful job of connecting the dots of events in history and the way the affected the bourbon industry. This book is a must read for anyone interested in military history, or the history of the bourbon industry. There are so many little unknown facts that the author has included in the book is fascinating. Bourbon and Bullets is a great read and a great way to learn some fascinating history.