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Jim
Jim is on page 68 of 304 of The Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam
"Most of the patrons looked at us as they would at whores in church. Just smelling our fatigues was about as close as many of them would ever get to the real war."
Aug 12, 2021 02:27AM Add a comment
The Only War We Had:  A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam

Jim
Jim is on page 150 of 304 of War
"They have a huge shoulder-fired rocket called a Javelin, for example, that can be steered into the window of a speeding car half a mile away. Each Javelin round costs $80,000, and the idea that it's fired by a guy who doesn't make that much in a year at a guy who doesn't make that much in a lifetime is somehow so outrageous it almost makes the war seem winnable."
Aug 22, 2020 05:43AM Add a comment
War

Jim
Jim is on page 25 of 320 of I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir
Good grief. This is going to be a tedious slog!
Jun 24, 2020 06:42PM 3 comments
I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir

Jim
Jim is on page 208 of 304 of American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
Civilization is a mechanism that allows us to avoid the necessary but ugly aspects of life; most of us do not euthanize our own pets, we don't unplug the life support on our own ailing grandparents, we don't repair our own cars, and we don't process our own raw sewage.
Apr 05, 2020 05:10PM Add a comment
American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon

Jim
Jim is on page 74 of 240 of Green-Eyed Boys : 3 Para and the Battle for Mount Longdon
“By 8 o’clock on the morning of 13 April, the ship was just south of Gibraltar,and the main problem to exercise the minds of the senior military personnel at their daily meeting was the men’s habit of waiting for the showers completely naked in the passageways. This was not deemed to be offensive to the women on board, but rather it was feared that it would be titillating for homosexuals amongst the P&O crew.
Jan 06, 2020 12:11PM Add a comment
Green-Eyed Boys : 3 Para and the Battle for Mount Longdon

Jim
Jim is on page 103 of 241 of Bosnia's Million Bones: Solving the World's Greatest Forensic Puzzle
"Postcards quickly appeared in Belgrade during the NATO bombing campaign with an illustration of the American Stealth bomber; supposedly invisible to radar, shot down by a Cold War-era piece of equipment. "Sorry, we didn;t know it was invisible," read the caption."
Dec 31, 2019 02:56AM Add a comment
Bosnia's Million Bones: Solving the World's Greatest Forensic Puzzle

Jim
Jim is on page 54 of 340 of Desert Fire: The Diary of a Gulf War Gunner
“Soldiers are by nature creatures of caution and their experience in the Army teaches them to play safe and not to fool with things they don’t understand. A soldier who believes he has been attacked by gas, having got his respirator on, is inclined to keep it on. The sight of an officer, regardless of seniority, with his respirator off does not impress, indeed it tends only to confirm his worst suspicions “
Oct 14, 2019 03:09PM Add a comment
Desert Fire: The Diary of a Gulf War Gunner

Jim
Jim is on page 2 of 340 of Desert Fire: The Diary of a Gulf War Gunner
Re: Joint Services Movements Staff:”This is home for the rejects, the socially disadvantaged and the psychopaths of the three services. Only here is the power to move, feed, transport and accommodate a division’s worth of troops vested in the hands of a RAF Corporal. Only here will you hear a Royal Navy Petty Officer address an Army Brigadier as “Luv”.
Oct 14, 2019 03:01PM Add a comment
Desert Fire: The Diary of a Gulf War Gunner

Jim
Jim is on page 17 of 191 of Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy
“This afternoon distraught American ack-ack gunners brought down their third Spitfire. This had just flown in from Sicily and, taking off in pursuit of FW 190s, was immediately shot down...”
Sep 03, 2019 12:28AM Add a comment
Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy

Jim
Jim is on page 13 of 191 of Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy
About green American troops: “Armed hillbillies were constantly jumping out from behind a hedge to point their rifles at us and scream a demand for a password that nobody had bothered to give us.”
Sep 03, 2019 12:12AM Add a comment
Naples '44: A World War II Diary of Occupied Italy

Jim
Jim is on page 109 of Happy Trails: Our Life Story
“We shook hands at the end of that lunch, and neither of us ever felt the need to put it in writing. Art remained my agent for forty-eight years on the strength of that handshake, with never a written contract between us. Nowadays, no one does business like that; but,then, Art Rush was one of a kind.”
Sep 02, 2019 08:39PM Add a comment
Happy Trails: Our Life Story

Jim
Jim is on page 93 of 219 of Korea : Canada's Forgotten War
"Dr Earl Russell recalls that the first case of syphilis he ever treated was contracted by a soldier who "managed to acquire the disease through the wire at Pusan. This was obviously a highly skilled feat and said something for the abilities of the Canadians who went to the Far East.""
Mar 15, 2019 02:04PM Add a comment
Korea : Canada's Forgotten War

Jim
Jim is on page 53 of 219 of Korea : Canada's Forgotten War
"The whole battalion was on parade, over nine hundred of us. Then the major got up in front of us and yelled, "You are going into Korea tomorrow. I hope to hell you die better than you live."
Mar 12, 2019 08:26PM Add a comment
Korea : Canada's Forgotten War

Jim
Jim is on page 197 of 253 of Long Shot: the inside story of the snipers who broke ISIS
"War is often imagined like a great battle scene in a movie where dozens of extras are wiped out at once. In real life, there are no extras in war. Everyone gets to play a central character."
Mar 08, 2019 04:39PM Add a comment
Long Shot: the inside story of the snipers who broke ISIS

Jim
Jim is on page 19 of 253 of Long Shot: the inside story of the snipers who broke ISIS
"War is the darkness in humankind's nature and the profanity in our imagination. It is a violation and an abomination. Only the malevolent or deranged would seek a war."
Mar 06, 2019 06:12PM Add a comment
Long Shot: the inside story of the snipers who broke ISIS

Jim
Jim is starting Long Shot: the inside story of the snipers who broke ISIS
"During the war, my name would remind me of a Kurdish saying: that the tree of freedom is watered with blood."
Mar 05, 2019 09:08PM Add a comment
Long Shot: the inside story of the snipers who broke ISIS

Jim
Jim is on page 10 of 210 of The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
I might have to break my rule about finishing every book I start. This guy is coming off as a flaming lefty, so his objectivity is in question, at least in the early stages.
Jan 28, 2019 10:05PM Add a comment
The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things

Jim
Jim is on page 58 of 240 of A Moveable Feast
”You should only read what is truly good or what is frankly bad.” (quoting Gertrude Stein)
Jan 20, 2019 03:28AM Add a comment
A Moveable Feast

Jim
Jim is on page 110 of 255 of Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)
"Giger had been fired from four positions as batman, and after a session with red and white wines had told a kindly member of the military police he should be inflicted with an inferiority complex, or words to that effect. The net result had been seven days in the clink, and on Giger's return to the company he had been placed in Old Bill's charge and was occupied in looking after the latrines."
Dec 02, 2018 02:43AM Add a comment
Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)

Jim
Jim is on page 94 of 255 of Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)
Captain Arthur was kind to us. He stood and gazed at our pitiful ranks, gazed without speaking, and I saw in his eyes things of which no man speaks - the things that words would kill.
Dec 01, 2018 07:44PM Add a comment
Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)

Jim
Jim is on page 94 of 255 of Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)
Captain Arthur was kind to us. He stood and gazed at our pitiful ranks, gazed without speaking, and I saw in his eyes things of which no man speaks - the things that words would kill.
Dec 01, 2018 07:42PM Add a comment
Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)

Jim
Jim is on page 45 of 255 of Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)
Old Bill's feet shot from under him. His kilt flew up. He sat down hard on the greasy plank and skidded to the far end, bringing up heavily with the drums of ammunition crossed so that the strap was strangling him. As soon as he got air he denounced all wars, the Great War in particular, all battalions, the 42nd especially, all officers and present company not excepted.
Nov 29, 2018 11:09PM Add a comment
Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)

Jim
Jim is on page 45 of 255 of Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)
Old Bill's feet shot from under him. His kilt flew up. He sat down hard on the greasy plank and skidded to the far end, bringing up heavily with the drums of ammunition crossed so that the strap was strangling him. As soon as he got air he denounced allwars, the Great War in particular, all battalions, the 42nd especially, all officers and present company not excepted.
Nov 29, 2018 11:08PM Add a comment
Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)

Jim
Jim is on page 45 of 255 of Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)
Old Bill's feet shot from under him. His kilt flew up. He sat down hard on the greasy plank and skidded to the far end, bringing up heavily with the drums of ammunition crossed s that the strap was strangling him. As soon as he got air he denounced allwars, the Great War in particular, all battalions, the 42nd especially, all officers and present company not excepted.
Nov 29, 2018 11:07PM Add a comment
Ghosts have warm hands: A memoir of the Great War, 1916-1919 (CEF classics)

Jim
Jim is on page 37 of 408 of Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond
"Commercial motion pictures were developed as a visual form of storytelling. Many of the films made during the silent and early sound periods are more pleasant to watch because the filmmakers were concerned with photography, rather than jerking a hand-held camera in all directions and cutting every half-second to hold the gaze of audiences who have developed mass attention-deficit disorder."
Nov 26, 2018 05:21AM Add a comment
Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond

Jim
Jim is starting Renegade Westerns: Movies That Shot Down Frontier Myths
What a beauty! Just got my copy today and all other reading is now on hold!
Sep 28, 2018 04:49PM Add a comment
Renegade Westerns: Movies That Shot Down Frontier Myths

Jim
Jim is on page 242 of 352 of The Searchers
”They didn’t like it. Like most prairie men, they had great belief in their abilities, but a total faith in their bad luck.”
Jul 30, 2018 03:06PM Add a comment
The Searchers

Jim
Jim is on page 132 of 273 of Marlene
“The acting profession,moreover, is not worthy of a man. This life of false appearance and of illusion is only for those with great talent, for those who, moreover, are determined to endow this calling, formerly compared to the antics of circus people, with a loftier reputation. For a man this is a demeaning occupation.”
Jul 25, 2018 07:14PM Add a comment
Marlene

Jim
Jim is on page 311 of 397 of The Truth About Trudeau [Hardcover]
"The philosophy of the Liberal party", Trudeau once said,"is very simple - say anything, think anything, or better still, do not think at all, but put us in power because it is we who can govern you best."
Mar 19, 2018 12:23AM Add a comment
The Truth About Trudeau [Hardcover]

Jim
Jim is on page 163 of 320 of The Glass Castle
"While I was sitting there talking with Ginnie Sue, I'd even forgotten she was a whore. One thing about whoring: It put a chicken on the table."
Mar 14, 2018 04:59AM Add a comment
The Glass Castle

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