Prayer at Rumayla selected as book of the month
The Podler Book Review today selected Prayer at Rumayla as the book of the month! Thank you!
Military increases restrictions on online communication
It’s unfortunate that as al-Qaeda and the iraqi insurgency have gone full swing into using youtube and other online networks to get their message out, the U.S. military is going into full retrenchment. The best…
Prayer at Rumayla earns spectacular review
A few weeks ago I submitted Prayer at Rumayla: A Novel of the Gulf War for review to the Podler, a book review blog. Last night the review came back, and it was far better than I…
What Does it Feel Like to Kill?
What does it feel like to kill? For some reason, that question’s been on my mind a lot lately. With Chris going off into the Marine Corps later this year, it came up at my…
Charles on the Diane Rehm Show: Mental Health and Iraq
10:00 Mental Health and Military Service in Iraq A new study shows more than one in three members of the U.S. armed forces serving in Iraq seeks help for mental health problems. We talk about the…
I believe I’ve found the correct camp
I think I’ve found the correct camp. According to this website, Hakodate Camp 2-B changed its name first to Tokyo-6, then Sendai-4 (Ohashi). Which means two things, first, that I’ve been looking in the wrong places, and…
Too Late
I just discovered that following up with George Stoddard won’t be possible — he passed away on July 10. More on George Stoddard and the U.S.S. Houston here: http://usshouston.blogspot.com/ (this is in followup to…
Got the cable
I went back to the archives this afternoon, to get the next box they’d pulled — the POW related cables. Here is the cable, which says it is from the Hokadate camp, listing my grandfather.…
A trip to the archives
So, the next step was the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. I called and talked at length with one of the military archivists, then went to visit. The bad news — no unit records…
A call from Texas
So, I needed to know: was Fred Miles actually assigned to 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery? And if so, what camp did he end up with in Japan? It looks like most of the battalion…