Thirteen Soldiers

The soldiers described, and the wars they fought in, are: • Joseph Plumb Martin, American Revolutionary War • Charles Black, War of 1812 • Samuel Chamberlain, Mexican–American War • Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., American Civil War • Edward L. Baker Jr., Spanish–American War • Littleton Waller, Philippine–American War • Elton Mackin, World War I • Guy Gabaldon, World War II • Chester "Pete" Salter, Korean War • Leo K. Thorsness, Vietnam War • Mary Rhoads, Gulf War • Monica Lin Brown, War in Afghanistan (2001–present) • Michael A. Monsoor, Iraq War Only three of the thirteen are officers and there is diversity among the thirteen, with two African Americans and two women represented as well as people from different social classes. While McCain and Salter described the military lives of McCain and his two famous admiral forebears in their 1999 Faith of My Fathers, in this book it is the chapter on the Korean War that describes the actions of Salter's father, Chester "Pete" Salter. In this action, which is described in this book, Salter was one of the soldiers who interacted with Mitchell Red Cloud, Jr., who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for the November 5 action. (The actions of Red Cloud are more fully described in McCain and Salter's 2004 volume Why Courage Matters.) == Reception ==

In a review for the Wall Street Journal, Alexander Rose wrote that "McCain and Salter have chosen a thoughtful array of subjects" and that the book was in the tradition of Plutarch's Parallel Lives and the romances and chronicles of Medieval literature in revealing how character and codes of behavior can lead to greatness. However Rose disagrees with the authors' implicit assumption that soldiers across all these wars faced similar challenges or that their experiences were similarly "transforming". Military Review said that McCain and Salter "do an incredible job of bringing to life not only the experiences and stories of the individuals being examined, but also of those who served around them." However it chided the authors for including only a general bibliography and not specific citations for possibly novel statements and said that as a consequence the book was well-suited to general audiences but not academic ones. Kirkus Reviews summarized the book as containing "A patriotic though unsentimental look at the major wars fought by the United States as told through the difficult experiences of ordinary soldiers." McCain appeared in media interviews to promote the book and also did some book signings. Thirteen Soldiers was published in trade paperback in November 2015. ==References==