Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts, The American Military in the Air, at Sea and on the Ground by Robert D. Kaplan; 2007; 428 pages; Random House, New York, NY; 978-1-4000-6133-4; 8/26-8/31

This is a follow up to Imperial Grunts in which the author is embedded amongst a submarine crew, a Navy destroyer crew and with an Air Force squadron.  He visits Korea, Colombia, Alaska, Guam, The Phillipines, Iraq, Nepal and several other places to get to know the American troops.  He looks at how they work with the sometimes unworkable rules that are passed down from high, (which doesn’t usually have any idea of what is really going on on the ground).  He shows how they make it work in an culture that has different values than they do, he introduces us to a culture that is as foreign to many as if they were from another planet.  It is interesting to note where geographically, economically and socially the largest majority of our active duty military is from.  I would recommend these to anyone who wants to know who our military is and what they are actually doing.  There seems at times to be a disconnect between the generals and admirals at the Pentagon and those actually on the ground.  RRRR