I recently read American Soldier in a Kindle version. I bought it because it looked interesting and it was inexpensive. I only paid $2.14 for it.

I bought it in 2017 but didn’t start to read it until much later. Other stuff always gets in the way.

When I did start to read it, it was so interesting that I had trouble putting it away when it came time to do something else.

About the book

The book is an autobiography of Tommy R Franks a retired four star U S Army General. A man who got his start in this world as an adopted son in a middle-class family living in Oklahoma just after WWII.

The hardback book is 590 pages long. I purchased the Kindle version and I think it’s a little bit longer due to the formatting of Kindle.

What I liked about American Soldier

First of all, I liked learning about General Franks. His rural America beginnings that led to Commander in Chief of a U S Army in Iraq. I liked his reasoning with regard to tactics and strategy during the phases of the war. His no-nonsense stand when dealing with the upper echelon of the government.

The best thing I liked is the view of the wars post WWII. During the time of those wars I was occupied as an owner operator in the trucking business. I didn’t follow the news much and was ignorant of what was going on in the world.

The telling of the story brought most of it to light for me. From Viet nam to Afghanistan to Iraq was clarified for me.

The Disappointing Part

The last part of the book was somewhat disappointing. It seemed like it was created to make the book longer. I thought it contained a lot of fluff and stopped reading before I got to the end.

Recommendation

I would still recommend reading American Soldier. The fact that an adopted boy that got into trouble as a youngster could achieve such status is an amazing tale.