Welcome to July everyone and while we are at it, Happy Birthday to our great country (preserving another year from the onslaught of socialists trying to destroy it). Just got back from spending some time down in Southern Illinois at Rend Lake. This is just south of Mt. Vernon and for you Chicagolites it is basically in South America. It ended up raining buckets but I managed to pull off a +1 which we will definitely get to this month. However, we are here today to discuss the latest cross off the reading list. Truthfully, this book really wasn’t on the list per-se, a friend of mine from work lent me this book thinking I might like it – and like it I did! This book was mostly written by Chris Kyle of American Sniper fame (link here). Unfortunately he and his friend were gunned down by a sickness they were trying to cure. Thanks to his wife and friends they were able to put the finishing touches on the book and publish it for all of us to enjoy. It is a bit macabre to be reading the thoughts of a recently deceased individual, but if you can get past that you will definitely find this an interesting read if you are into the history of rifles and pistols – gun control advocates can pass right by this work and go straight for the government aisle and learn what unalienable rights are.
The premise of this book is Kyle took a look back in history and identified 10 firearms that had a significant impact on the shaping of the United States (I can imagine the deafening Liberal gasp). Those 10 weapons of protection and war are: Kentucky Rifle, Spencer Repeater, Colt 45, Winchester 1873, 1903 Springfield, M1911, Thompson Machine Gun, M1 Garand, .38 Special and the M16. All of these were very recognizable by me and I’ve even had the pleasure of firing the Colt, the 1911, the M1 Grand, .38 Specials and the M16 based AR15. My favorite was the Garand by far – fire it, and you will never ever forget it. The power that rifle brought to the battlefield was incredible. This is one of those books that falls in the category of a quick read. Chris’ style is very conversational and clear. The entire book was read cover to cover on our trip back from Denver back in May (when I wasn’t driving ha). Don’t let how quick the read was give the wrong impression it wasn’t entertaining. On the contrary, I loved this book. It isn’t often I get to learn so much history in such a short time. It became pretty apparent that my early education was significantly lacking when it comes to American history. Woefully insufficient to the point it was news to me that Truman was even involved in an assassination attempt – successfully defended by individuals who willingly put themselves in harm’s way including Coffelt who gave the ultimate price. Another surprise was that the Americans lost 200 at the battle of Kettle Hill and San Juan Heights charges – always thought this was a complete slaughter rained down from the superior positions of the Spanish. Don’t get me wrong, 200 is an absolute tragedy, but given the situation I thought the numbers were in the thousands (there were 1200 wounded). There are way to many other gaps in my education that were filled to go into in this summary, so jumping to the recommendation – Get this book!
Check out the jump to see my many takeaways.