RMS Media Center Recognizes October as Veterans' Voices Month

Minnesota is the first state to designate an entire month to honoring Veterans. The Minnesota Humanities Center worked with Minnesota Veterans,and State Representatives to write a bill designating October as Veterans’ Voices Month. After passing both Houses by unanimous vote, Governor Mark Dayton signed Veterans’ Voices Month into law on May 16, 2014. This law will not only honor and celebrate the accomplishments of Minnesota Veterans, but will also educate all Minnesotans by sharing and studying Veterans’ experiences. 

In honor of Veterans’ Voices Month,
 Robbinsdale Middle School has compiled some
great books sharing the experience of our Veterans.

Non-Fiction Books:

I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior: Memoirs of an American Soldier
By Howards Wasdin with Stephen Templin

When the Navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs.  When the SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team Six - a secret unit made up of the finest soldiers in the country, if not the world. This is the dramatic tale of how Howard Wasdin overcame a tough childhood to live his dream and enter the exciting and dangerous world of U.S. Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers.

Battle Heroes: Voices From Afghanistan
By Allan Zullo

In a remote Afghan village, Marine Lieutenant Stephen Boada picks up a chilling Taliban message on his radio scanner: "The Americans will never make it out alive." Can the outnumbered Marines fight their way out? Medic Mark DeCorte jumps from a chopper on a nighttime rescue mission. Can he save the life of a badly wounded soldier -- and escape from a deadly enemy? These and other American heroes risk their lives daily while serving their country in Afghanistan, and now readers can read their unforgettable true stories firsthand.

Basher Five-Two: The Story of F-16 Fighter Pilot Captain Scott O’GradyBy Captain Scott O’Grady

U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady was shot down in his F-16 over Bosnia while helping to keep the peace. The plane exploded, and Captain O'Grady fell 5 miles to the ground below. In exciting detail, Captain O'Grady tells how he evaded capture and how, with little water and no food, he was able to survive on his own in enemy territory.

War Heroes: Voices From IraqBy Allan Zullo

Ten True Tales from the combat heroes themselves. War Heroes :Voices from Iraq is a collection of ten short stories that really demonstrate the courage, honor and valor our armed forces are showing in Iraq.

Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year Old GI
By Ryan Smithson

Ryan Smithson joined the Army Resaerve when he was just out of highschool. At age nineteen he was deployed to Iraq. His year in combat changed his life. This is his story. It will change the way you feel about what it means to be an American.

Navy SEAL Dogs: My Tale of Training Canines for Combat
By Mike Ritland

Navy SEAL Mike Ritland discusses how he started his own company to train working and protection dogs, and shares the inside story of the elite K9 warriors.

Angels of Mercy: The Army nurses of WWII
By Betsy Kuhn

Relates the experiences of World War II Army nurses, who brought medical skills, courage, and cheer to hospitals throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific.

Flags of Our Fathers : Heroes of Iwo Jima
By James Bradley

This book examines the lives of the six young men who raised the American flag over Iwo Jima in February 1945 and were immortalized by a famous photograph--one of whom was the author's father.

Ghosts in the fog : the untold story of Alaska's WWII invasionBy Samantha Seiple

A narrative, nonfiction account of the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Aleutian Islands during World War II, told from the perspectives of an American civilian and soldiers from both sides of the conflict. Includes more than eighty photographs.

Yankee Doodle Gals: Women Pilots of World War II
By Amy Nathan

The story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II focusing on their training and test flight functions.

Navajo Code TalkersBy Nathan Aaseng

Describes how the American military in World War II used a group of Navajo Indians to create an indecipherable code based on their native language.

The War to End All Wars: World War IBy Russell Freedman

Drawn from eyewitness accounts and archival photographs to paint a picture of World War I.

Behind Enemy Lines: True Stories of Amazing CourageBy Bill Doyle

Eight stories of real-life heroes who took risks for their country and others behind enemy lines.

The Tuskegee Airmenby Sarah E. De Capua

Describes the emergence of African American pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Focuses on the first group of black fighter pilots in 1941 who became known as the Tuskegee Airmen and led the way to full integration of African Americans in the armed forces.

Non-Fiction Books:

The Things They Carried
By Tim O’Brien

A collection of painful short stories on the Vietnam conflict, and focuses on malaria, loss, mine detectors, drugs, Bibles, and horrible war images.

Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam
By Walter Dean Myers

A frightened American soldier faces combat in the lush forests of Vietnam.

Sunrise Over Fallujah
By Walter Dean Myers

Robin "Birdy" Perry is sent to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but he soon learns that "winning" this war means little more than simply surviving.

The Last Mission
By Harry Mazer

In 1944 a fifteen-year-old Jewish boy tells his family he will travel in the West but instead, enlists in the United States Air Corps and is subsequently taken prisoner by the Germans.

Fallen Angels
By Walter Dean Myers

Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Phantoms in the SnowBy Walter Dean Myers

Fifteen-year-old Noah Garrett, sent to live with his uncle in Camp Hale, Colorado, following the death of his parents in 1944, finds himself struggling between his upbringing as a pacifist, and life on a military base in the middle of World War II.

Free-Fire ZoneBy Chris Lynch

Rudi is a newly drafted United States Marine in Vietnam, and he likes being part of a squad--but the way some of his fellow soldiers behave toward their officers, the Vietnamese, and the war itself, is starting to trouble him.

I Pledge AllegianceBy Chris Lynch

Four best friends serving in the Vietnam War make a pledge to one another that they will do all they can to return home safely together.

Purple HeartBy Patricia McCormick

While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.

Private PeacefulBy Michael Morpurgo

When Thomas Peaceful's older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love, Molly, and himself.

On Enemy Soil : The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier

By Jim Murphy

James Edmond, a sixteen-year-old orphan, keeps a journal of his experiences and those of "G" Company which he joined as a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Bloodlines: Fighting PhantomsBy Zachary Sherman

Shot down over Vietnam in 1968, Marine Lieutenant "Candy Man" Donovan must leave his seriously injured best friend behind in enemy territory while he tries to reach their rendezvous point.