Required reading - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

Required reading

Readers of the Military Times newspapers gave us their pick for the best book to read while on deployment. The service member with the best recommendation won a copy of “World War II: A Chronology of War,” a coffee table compendium of WWII history.

Winner

My favorite book to read on deployment is “Starship Troopers” by Robert Heinlein. It is short, easy to read and thought-provoking every time. I have read it several times over my military career and once again since deploying to Afghanistan this year. It is a great book about politics and military leadership. I try to read it regularly to remind myself to continuously seek to improve my leadership style and fight for the good of the body politic.

— Army 1st Lt. Jared Jensen, Camp Blackhorse, Afghanistan

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Other suggestions

Reading “Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001” explains why we are in Afghanistan and why we have to finish the war in Iraq.

— Army Sgt. 1st Class R.S. Allen, NATO Allied Land Component Command

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On deployment, away from my home, Camp Lejeune [N.C.], I’m surrounded by the colorless western Iraqi desert. “The Guardian,” by Nicholas Sparks, sat buried in a pile of books in the corner of a building we had recently occupied as a [combat operations center] inside Camp Fallujah. “The Guardian” took place right outside the gates of my base. Time spent reading was time — mentally — back home.

— Marine Capt. Kevin J. Stepp,Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego

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My favorite book to read on deployment is the Holy Bible. It has poetry, romance, songs, political intrigue, legends, letters, biographies, law, genealogy, classical history, philosophy. This book has it all for me; and no matter what my mood during deployment, I can find any story or passage in the book that will suit my literary (and spiritual) needs at that particular moment.

— Navy HM1 (FMF/SW) William A. White, Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Camp Lejuene, N.C.

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My favorite book that I read while deployed was the “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. One of the interesting facts about the book is that Mark David Chapman, the man who assassinated John Lennon, was carrying it when he was arrested immediately after the murder and referred to it in his statement to police shortly after.

— Army Sgt. Racheal L. Oliveira, Technician, Minnesota Army National Guard

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My entry is “Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest” by Stephen E. Ambrose. It’s one of my favorite books (as well as one of my favorite miniseries); and, as a bonus, it’s on the Marine Corps Professional Reading Program list.

— Marine Cpl. Robert Lemiszki, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, Cherry Point, N.C.

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An excellent book no leader on a deployment should be without is Col. Ralph Puckett’s “Words for Warriors.” It is an essential guide that eloquently mentors readers through the trials of difficult leadership in an unforgiving environment and makes clear the cost of mistakes. You cannot read this book without being changed for the better.

— Army Maj. Mark S. Leslie, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

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My favorite book to read on deployments is “Unintended Consequences” by John Ross. You do not have to be a gun lover or hater to appreciate this book. You will see how our Constitution and Bill of Rights have been changed, how we are losing our individual rights and how dangerous the repercussions are.

— Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeff Lassa, Grissom Air Reserve Base, Ind.

Staff recommendations

Military Times staff members who have deployed multiple times with U.S. troops recommend:

On my first trip to Iraq, I read Katharine Graham’s “Personal History,” and because it was so thick I tossed sections of it as I went. On my fourth trip, I took “The Secret Life of Bees,” a novel that I looked forward to reading each night because it was the perfect escape from the business of the day.

— Gina Cavallaro

Army Times staff writer

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Mary Roach’s “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” is about what happens after you donate your body to science. I found out I can serve my country even after I’m dead.

— Sheila Vemmer

Military Times photojournalist

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Any book in Lee Child’s series on Jack Reacher, a former Army MP who constantly finds himself in sticky situations, helps me pass the time. The most recent Jack Reacher tale I read, as I was leaving Afghanistan, was “Bad Luck and Trouble.”

— Michelle Tan

Army Times staff writer

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I read “Brave Men,” a collection of dispatches by famed World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, while I was in Iraq in 2005. Each of the entries captures a glimpse of life and death for infantrymen, engineers, medics and others.

— Matt Cox

Army Times staff writer