Norwich University and the Battle of the Bulge: Conclusions

Sixty-Seven Years ago, on December 16th, 1944, the German military struck back against Allied forces in Belgium, the first major blow to the advance to Germany. During the battle, over a hundred members of the Norwich University community participated; former students who had graduated and advanced in the ranks of the U.S. military, and students who had graduated early to join the fight. They fought under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, and succeeded after a month of combat in the Ardennes. In 2010, I began a research project for the University, studying the role of the students and the school in the Battle before travelling overseas to Belgium. They played an incredible role in the battle, and undoubtably helped with many of the successes that would eventually lead to an Allied victory.

Conclusions

While the German attack on December 16th caught the allied forces by surprise, the response was swift: US leaders recognized the strength of the attack, and took swift steps in negating the German advance further into Belgium: holding actions by the 106th and 28th Infantry Divisions helped to stall the German forces long enough to position reinforcements towards the edge of the withdrawal. In particular, the actions at St. Vith delayed the German forces long enough for the 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Armored Divisions to move into Bastogne, where they denied the German military a key crossroads, thus helping slow their attack further west.

Further actions from the 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions, the 82nd and 17th Airborne Divisions and the 84th and 26th Infantry Divisions helped to halt the German advance and push it back, closing the gap within a month, and closing the salient in 41 days. Considering the logistical element of coordinating the forces of two, multi-national (largely American) armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, vehicles and supplies, this seems to be an astonishing feat.

Norwich University alumni played key roles in the battle, most notably those in the 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions, but with others playing smaller roles that helped define the successes that they earned over the course of the campaign. Norwich’s heritage and emphasis on equestrian training and tactics brought numerous Norwich men into armored cavalry units, a dominant force in the battle.

As in the Normandy invasion, Norwich had a presence in every part of the battle where American soldiers fought, from the north and south shoulders of the battle, to Bastogne, St. Vith and the attacks in the West, at Marche, during every point in the campaign, from the opening salvos on December 16th to the end as the gap between the 1st and 3rd Armies closed.

Direct combat experience on the battlefield was not a prerequisite for a direct impact on the battle. For the hundreds of soldiers on the ground, there were others who helped to support their efforts from afar, such as Major Duffy Quinn ’34, of the 3rd Armored Division as a logistical officer:

Duffy is the S-4 of Combat Command B and has gone down in history as one of the greatest experts on logistics in this war. We never lacked supplies of any kind all through the campaign, and, even in the dash through Belgium into Germany, when it was necessary to go over 100 miles to the rear to obtain gasoline,, Duffy kept our tanks and vehicles rolling. (Maj. Duffy Quinn, '34, Expert on Logistics, Cp. Riley, '32 Reports 1945)

Norwich played a meaningful role in the training of the men involved in the battle. Lieutenant Colonel Clifton Batchelder noted in a University survey years later that the “Four years of living in the Corps of Cadets with all the lessons, discipline, combined with the tactical instruction…” was most valuable during the war. (C. Batchelder n.d.)

Numerous men would continue with their military careers: Generals Ernest Harmon and I.D. White continued to serve in the Army following the war, as did Arthur Pottle, who rejoined the military for Korea, and eventually worked at the Redstone Arsenal under Werner von Braun, where they developed the US’s first guided missiles. Timothy Donahue Jr. returned to Northfield, Vermont, where he became the town’s postmaster for many years afterwards – fitting, as he worked as the divisional message chief in the 2nd Armored Division. James Burt lived in New Hampshire, where he taught high school. Harmon would later return to Norwich University, to serve as president for fifteen years.

While only around 13% of the men involved held the rank of Major or above (Major, 4.85, Colonel, 1.92%, Lieutenant Colonel 4.81%, General 1.92%), a far greater number held the rank of Captain at 22.12%, with an even greater number of Lieutenants, 32.12% making up the population. Enlisted men made up a total of 19.23% (Sergeant, 8.655, Corporal. 4.81% and Private 5.77%), with a further 12.5% of the men holding an unknown rank. The numbers would seem to indicate that a majority of the Norwich population held some form of leadership role, and thus some interpretation of the orders that they received from their superiors, interpreting them for the men under their command and carrying them out.

Indeed, a letter from General Harmon to Vermont Representative and former Norwich University President Charles A. Plumley on January 28th, just days after the Bulge officially ended, outlines his own admiration of the men from the school:

“I had many fine Norwich men in the [2nd Armored] Division, and I am happy to report that I have turned it over to a Norwich Man, Brigadier General I.D. White, to command… Other Norwich men are Johnson, who will be G-3 of the Division; [Batchelder], who you will remember, is now a Lieutenant Colonel commanding a tank battalion; and there are hosts of other junior officers who are all top-notch lads and are doing fine.”

Bibliography

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• Norwich University Record. "Maj. Gen. Harmon, '16 And His 2ndnd Armored Break Runstedt Drive." February 2, 1945: 18.
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• Norwich University Record. "Perley Brainerd, '40, Named Postmaster at Bradford." March 1955.
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• Norwich University Record. "Pvt. John Hurlburt, '45, Wounded at Aachen."
• February 2, 1945: 19.
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• March 30, 945: 9.
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• February 15, 2006.
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This Blog Protests SOPA

I'm unable to black out this site, but in following with a number of other websites around the web today, please considering contacting your Representatives and Senators in Congress about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its counterpart, PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act)

Here's the text for SOPA. Here's the text for PIPA.

The main arguments behind the two bills are that they are overly broad, written without the proper knowledge and input from technical experts, and that as a result, they would hamper much of the innovation from the web.

I make my living with the internet: in my day job with an online graduate school, and in my off hours, with sites such as io9, Tor.com, Blastr, Lightspeed Magazine and others. My job exists because of innovation with the internet, and I rather like it.

I take no issue with the idea that copyright holders have a stake in this fight: their property should be protected. However, burning the forest down to stop someone lighting matches doesn't make the holders winners: it makes everybody lose out.

Contact Congress.

Norwich University and the Battle of the Bulge: The End of the Battle

Sixty-Seven Years ago, on December 16th, 1944, the German military struck back against Allied forces in Belgium, the first major blow to the advance to Germany. During the battle, over a hundred members of the Norwich University community participated; former students who had graduated and advanced in the ranks of the U.S. military, and students who had graduated early to join the fight. They fought under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, and succeeded after a month of combat in the Ardennes. In 2010, I began a research project for the University, studying the role of the students and the school in the Battle before travelling overseas to Belgium. They played an incredible role in the battle, and undoubtably helped with many of the successes that would eventually lead to an Allied victory.

Cleanup, December 26th – January 25th

Following the high water mark on December 26th, the 2nd Armored Division rested for several days following their combat operations, pulling out of the line on December 28th, and received orders on January 1st to move 30 miles to Grandmenil, north of Bastogne. (Harmon 1970, 242)

It was during this time that Staff Sargeant Walter Weatherill ‘44, of the 106th Infantry Division was killed:

Walter participated as a member of the 106th Division, which was cited by the President, in the Battle of the Bulge. He was wounded in the shoulder, but fought on until he was hit with a hand grenade about the face. A companion carried him to a German medical station after they were captured. He died somewhere in Germany in a motorized German prison hospital on December 29th. (War Whoop 1947, 22)

On December 30th, the 11th Armored Division, with 1st Lieutenant Howard Chilson, ‘41, launched an attack from Neufchateau towards Bastogne, to hold open the highway. Behind them, the 17th Airborne Division moved into position to further reinforce the Bastogne highway.

By January 3rd, the 2nd Armored Division returned to the fight, moving with the 84th Infantry Division to Houffalize, where they would spend the next thirteen days fighting, described by Harmon as “the most difficult campaigning that I have ever experienced. Heavy snow fell continuously, blotting out all light like clouds of fog.” (Harmon 1970, 242) Captain James Burt, in a letter to his wife, Frances, noted that “…we have fought under every condition possible now. Including darkness in woods in [daylight?] with foot of snow already on the ground.” (Miller n.d.)

The division seized several towns on their way, and by January 16th, the 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion with 1st Lieutenant Herbert Baker, linked up with elements of the 11th Armored Division, 1st Lieutenant Howard Chilson, just west of Houffalize. (Harmon 1970, 245) The north and south elements of the U.S. Army had begun to close in.

The Associated Press praised Harmon’s efforts in the war in a profile of the General and his division shortly after the division had halted the German advance:

His men have taken several hundred prisoners and re-liberated a half dozen Belgian villages in weather that would bother a polar bear.

They are back in combat after only three days’ rest following one of the greatest battles of the war – a head-on smash that broke the Rundstedt’s drive towards the Meuse River, kicked back the Nazis 10 miles and practically destroyed a prize SS armored division.

A second force under Brig. Gen. I.D. White of Des Moines Iowa, swept through Ciney to Celles and polished off an enemy column just outside of town. (Maj. Gen. Harmon, '16 And His 2nd Armored Break Runstedt Drive 1945)

At the same time, the 3rd Armored Division also moved ahead to converge on Houffalize, with the 82nd Airborne protecting their left flank. (Toland 1999, 334) British soldiers from the 6th Airborne also moved towards the city, and together, attacking from the north, west and south, struck against the entrenched German forces. The Germans, already suffering reduced numbers due to the ongoing fighting, received no replacements, unlike the American units, which were receiving new troops daily. (Toland 1999, 334)

On January 4th, the German military made a renewed attack against the Bastogne area, particularly against the 17th Airborne Division, who experienced their first combat on that day. (Toland 1999, 334) This unit contained four Norwich men: 1st Lieutenant Joseph M. Cronin, '47, 1st Lieutenant Frank Diefauf, '48, 1st Lieutenant Christo Zoukis, '47 and Corporal James Logan, '45. The unit received fierce resistance, and on the 7th, the 513th Regiment moved on Flamierge, where Corporal Logan, was killed:

“Jim’s unit,” the 17th Airborne Division, was flown to Paris from England, where they had completed their training, on December 24th, 1944. Because of a blinding blizzard, the Division went into action as infantry on January 1, 1945, for the blizzard blocked any plan for parachuting into combat. He was an expert rifleman, but was serving as a machine gunner on January 7th, 1945, near Flamierge, Belgium, when he was killed by an enemy tank artillery barrage after assisting a wounded companion into his foxhole.” (War Whoop 1947, 24)

However, by January 9th, German troops began to withdraw, starting with the 6th Panzers, while Patton, armed with the 26th, 35th, 87th and 90th Infantry Divisions, the 4th and the 6th Armored Divisions, and the 17th and 101st Airborne Divisions, pushed ahead.

2nd Lieutenant Arthur Pottle ’44, fighting with the 86th Mechanized Cavalry Squadron in the 6th Armored Division, was ordered to move from the southern-most part of the attack at the German-French borders on Christmas day. The unit arrived on January 1st, where he worked to listen in on the Germans. He helped to set up a listening post near Bastogne ridgeline, with German forces on the other side. He recalled ordering his men to dig foxholes in the frozen ground. Armed only with entrenching tools, they soon gave up.

“[We] had a heck of a time getting them going. Went into the position late in the afternoon. It was a moon-lit night, and we saw a couple of [artillery] batteries had pulled into a nearby field behind us. The Germans spotted them, and sent in aircraft to bomb them. Some of the bombs hit very, very close. I didn’t have to urge the troops to start digging.” (Pottle, Interview with Arthur Pottle 2011)

He would continue forward with his unit, noting that the weather was really bad with the ice and snow, and that they weren’t able to be resupplied from the air. At some point, the men in his unit built a large bonfire to ward off the cold, where he ran into a fellow classmate from another division, Hubert Schietinger ’43, as well as fellow 6th Armored Division member 1st Lieutenant Donald F. Wing ’44, of the 15th Tank Battalion. Following the meeting, towards the end of the Bulge, Pottle led his men to check a town. Crossing an empty field, he and his men discovered they had come across a minefield, and continued across, losing two soldiers in the process. The Germans promptly surrendered once they had reached the edge.

At this point, the 101st Airborne and 4th Armored Divisions were moving up to Noville, pushing past Bastogne, taking it on January 15th, the day before the 1st and 3rd Armies closed the gap between them. (Eisenhower 1995, 427) The 2nd Armored Division reached the Ourthe River at Houffalize, where they were joined by the 11th Armored Division on the next day. Two days later, the 17th Airborne Division relieved the 11th Armored Division.

Several days after meeting Pottle, Lieutenant Wing was killed in action on January 16th as the 6th Armored worked to push the German military back:

"When his platoon reached a ridge beyond the edge of town, the enemy met them with heavy, direct anti-tank fire. Realizing the situation would not permit the continuation of the attack until these guns were destroyed; he directed the withdrawal of his tanks and covered them with fire from his vehicle.” (Norwich University n.d.)

On the 16th, the Belgian Bulge was considered closed, although it would not be until the 25th of January that the Allied forces returned to their original positions held on December 16th.

Tomorrow: Conclusions

Norwich University and the Battle of the Bulge: 2nd Armored Division at Ciney

Sixty-Seven Years ago, on December 16th, 1944, the German military struck back against Allied forces in Belgium, the first major blow to the advance to Germany. During the battle, over a hundred members of the Norwich University community participated; former students who had graduated and advanced in the ranks of the U.S. military, and students who had graduated early to join the fight. They fought under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, and succeeded after a month of combat in the Ardennes. In 2010, I began a research project for the University, studying the role of the students and the school in the Battle before travelling overseas to Belgium. They played an incredible role in the battle, and undoubtably helped with many of the successes that would eventually lead to an Allied victory.

2nd Armored Division at Ciney – December 21st – December 26th

On the 21st of December, the 2nd Armored Division had begun to receive word about the situation developing in Belgium: the Germans had broken through allied lines, and were headed west. (Harmon 1970, 228) On the same day, General Ernest Harmon was ordered from the 9th Army to the 1st Army, and to deploy 70 miles away, between the Muese River and Havelange, Belgium. They were to move 13,000 soldiers and 3,000 vehicles across snow and ice, during blackout conditions. The unit was also to avoid contact with the enemy, but to wait and secure their position for a counterattack against the incoming German soldiers.

By the evening of the 22nd, the entire 2nd Armored Division was in place. In a Christmas letter sent to Harmon a number of years after the Battle of the Bulge ended, Ted Miller recounted a brief encounter that the two shared:

’General’, said the young man, ‘do you remember at the Battle of the Bulge when your division stopped for rest at 2:00am? We were really fatigued, weren’t we? General, I stood right beside you at that time and you had a cup of coffee in your hand. You looked at me and said, “Boy, you’re pretty white. You need this coffee more than I do,” and gave me the cup.’ (Miller n.d.)

After arriving in the Marche Plain, Harmon met with locals in Havelange, ordering a stop to all civilian movements along the roads, to help with his own troop movements. (Harmon 1970, 232) Already, the German military had attempted to swing north, only to hit the 3rd Armored Division, and the 84th Infantry Division already in place in Marche on their left flank to the east. (Harmon 1970, 233) The 84th Infantry contained three Norwich men by the time of the Bulge: Captain Richard Bullens, ’40, Corporal Garret A. Kavenagh, ’47 and Private John Hurlburt, ‘45.

After the long trek across three countries, the 2nd Armored expected to wait for a week while waiting for German soldiers to show up. However, on the 23rd of December, Harmon received a report from a wounded soldier in the 82nd Reconnaissance coming in from a patrol, relaying that the Germans were already within ten miles of the Division. Harmon immediately ordered some of the nearest tanks to move out to Ciney and to block off the town. Only then did he turn around and tell his superior, Brigadier General Joseph Collins, that he was committed to the fight.(Toland 1999, 228) By the next day, Ciney was under the control of Brigadier General I.D. White’s ’22, Combat Control B and with CCA under the control of Brigadier General Joseph Collier, at Celles. (Harmon 1970) Collier, who would later be stationed at Fort Knox would have an aide, W. Russell Todd ‘50, who would rise through the ranks, and upon his retirement, become the President of Norwich University.

Brigadier General Collins authorized an attack on December 25th, described by Harmon that they “[knew] that the outcome of the whole Bulge battle might be riding in our turrets.” (Harmon 1970, 237) Moving south to Celles, Brigadier General White broke his unit into two columns, one to the south, positioned to cut off a German retreat, and another moved northeast and west of the town. One of these units, the 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion, was part of the task force that hit from the North, with 1st Lieutenant Herbert A. Baker ’41, helping to destroy the German battalion that they came into contact with. (Eisenhower 1995, 372) Their actions allowed them to take Celles by 5pm and fend off several counterattacks. (Harmon 1970, 237) While the 2nd SS Panzer Division was pushed back, they were soon to receive reinforcements from the 9th SS Panzer Division. (Eisenhower 1995, 368) However, at this point, it was increasingly clear to German planners that the offensive had begun to stall. (Toland 1999, 287) At some point on the 25th, Captain James Burt’s 66th Armored Regiment came across a German supply truck. After the doctor examined its contents, he and his men had a surprise dinner: steak. (Burt, Letter to Francis 1944)

In all, the 2nd Armored Division included at least eleven Norwich Alumni within its ranks: Major General Ernest Harmon ’16, Brigadier General I.D. White '22, Lieutenant Colonel Clifton Batchelder ‘32, Colonel Briard P. Johnson '27, Captain George D. Bacon '33, Captain Donald P. Chace '37, Captain Philip M. Hawes '37, Captain Robert M. Hallam '44, Captain James Burt '39, 1st Lieutenant Herbert A. Baker '41, 1st Lieutenant Robert C. Atwood '40, Timothy M. Donahue Jr. '47 and Ted Miller.

Nearby, and at the same time on the 25th of December, Captain Richard Bullens ’40, of the 84th Infantry Division led his unit to retake a village that had been taken by the 2nd SS Panzer Division the day before:

Lieut. Bullens was given the assignment of re-taking a village that had been captured by the Germans the day previous. Early on Christmas morning he attacked at the head of his company and was successful in his assignment. He was just about to set up his command post in the village when a sniper opened up on him, and he was shot twice through the left leg above the knee. After getting things organized, he was assisted to a dressing station by some of his men. (Lt. Dick Bullens, '40, Wounded in Belgium 1945)

The next day, just to the west of the 84th Division, Brigadier General I.D. White’s CCB turned north to clear out any remaining German soldiers, spending the next couple of days in the area. By this time, the 2nd SS Panzers were ordered to pull back to Rochefort. (Eisenhower 1995, 374)

The actions on the 26th, with the combined victories from the 2nd Armored Division and the reestablishment of contact with the 101st Airborne in Bastogne, General Bradley informed Lieutenant General Walter Smith that he believed that the attack had “reached [its] high water mark today”. (Eisenhower 1995, 375) The allies had begun to win the battle.

While the high watermark had been reached, the battle was only half over, with further challenges to come. On the 27th, 2nd Lieutenant Tom Vollenweider ’46, of the 22nd Fighter Squadron, was shot down and killed over the battle zone. (Lt. Tom Vollenweider, '46, Killed Over Belgium 1945)

At some point around this time, near the 84th Infantry and 2nd Armored Divisions, the 34th Railsplitter Infantry Division pushed German forces from Laroche, Belgium, the largest town to be retaken at that point:

Members of the 4th U.S. Cavalry, one of the oldest forces in the American Army, attached to the 34th Railsplitter [Infantry Division] beat the British by a few hours into this largest town yet retaken from the Germans in the Battle of the Belgian bulge.

Blizzard conditions, which are making this the most difficult fighting yet experienced by doughboys in Europe, Italy included, coated this Ourthe River town with a merciful mantle of white.

Late yesterday, the Fourth Cavalry Task Force under Col. John C. Macdonald of Fort Sam Houston, Texas, former commandant at Norwich University, avenged Task Force Hogan.

Task Force Hogan’s 400 had abandoned all of its equipment in the little mountain town of Marcourary, north of Laroche. The 84th [Infantry] Division’s cavalry retook Marcouray, driving the Germans back to the south.

Macdonald ’20, had never graduated from Norwich, but had left the University to serve overseas in the First World War, according to the 1920 War Whoop. In 1923, he returned to the school, where he served as the school’s Commandant until 1927.

Tomorrow, the end of the Battle.

Norwich University and the Battle of the Bulge: The Meuse River & Bastogne

Sixty-Seven Years ago, on December 16th, 1944, the German military struck back against Allied forces in Belgium, the first major blow to the advance to Germany. During the battle, over a hundred members of the Norwich University community participated; former students who had graduated and advanced in the ranks of the U.S. military, and students who had graduated early to join the fight. They fought under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, and succeeded after a month of combat in the Ardennes. In 2010, I began a research project for the University, studying the role of the students and the school in the Battle before travelling overseas to Belgium. They played an incredible role in the battle, and undoubtably helped with many of the successes that would eventually lead to an Allied victory.

The Drive to the Meuse River

December 17th saw the beginnings of an organized response to the invasion: Generals Eisenhower and Bradley ordered the 7th Armored Division south from Holland and the 10th Armored Division from Patton’s command north, towards Bastogne. (Eisenhower 1995, 215) Additionally, the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions, both recuperating in Reims, France after the fight in Holland, were activated on the 17th. (Cole 1964, 305) The 101st was trucked to the key crossroads at Bastogne along with the 10th Armored, while the 82nd Airborne moved further north, to Werbomont and Trois Ponts.

As the German military was prevented from moving inwards from the top of the line at Monschau, the German military moved up from the center, aiming for Liege and Trois Ponts, and was focused on the town of St. Vith, where American forces had begun to dig in. This battle would become known as the ‘Fortified Goose Egg’. Two regiments of the 106th surrendered to German forces, while a third held their ground at St. Vith, with the 7th Armored Division moving in to their aid. At least one Norwich graduate was with the 7th Armored, 1st Lieutenant Perley Brainerd Jr, ‘40. The combined forces, which were reinforced by remnants of the 28th Infantry and 9th Armored Divisions in addition to several other scattered units, held their ground from the 17th as pitched fighting for the city began. (Toland 1999, 106)

By December 18th, the German military had pushed heavily into the region, some nearly as thirty miles into Allied territory. (Toland 1999, 97) Captain Albert Hicks and 1st Lieutenant Carl Hughes, were still located to the south of the 106th Infantry Division’s positions, where the situation became desperate: their mission changed from stopping the German advance to delaying them as much as possible. As the German military moved in towards Bastogne, the 28th worked to slow their advance, as US reinforcements arrived to contain them. (Eisenhower 1995, 253) Elements of the 9th Armored Division, with 2nd Lieutenant Olin C. Tosi ‘45, helped on the 17th, but ultimately, the 28th Infantry Division units fell apart under the German advance, allowing them to advance towards Bastogne.

However, because the German military relied on a strict timetable, the delaying actions of the units helped to stall German advance, allowing the 101st Airborne and the 10th Armored Divisions to move into Bastogne, where they were ordered to hold the crossroads at all costs.

At the same time on the 18th, the 3rd Armored Division moved into place between the Salm and Ourthe rivers, between the 84th Infantry Division and the 7th Armored Division, West of St. Vith. Lieutenant Colonel Elwyn W. Blanchard, '36 had only just returned to command a battalion within the 3rd Armored, having been recovering from wounds he sustained in France. He continued his command until he was wounded again.

1st Lieutenant Robert Christie ‘44 recalled his unit, the 33rd Armored Regiment, ordered into the fight, brought in by train, with little idea of where they were headed or what they were faced with:

It was not many days thereafter that I found myself travelling through Belgium in “Forty Hommes et 8 Cheveaux”, rolling stock where I damned near froze to death for three or four days and was only kept warm by occasional swigs of calvados bought at the trainside from the French. From the train, I recall travelling in a 6x6 deep through Belgium and seeing wrecked tanks and other vehicles along the way, and occasionally unrecovered and unburied German and American bodies strewn across the road, this being the area in the middle of the Ardennes salient (Battle of the Bulge) by the Germans. (Christie n.d.)

Shortly after his arrival to Belgium, Christie encountered a fellow Norwich alumnus during the battle, although not face to face:

The day I hit the 33rd, I was ushered into a candle-lit room. From the big, dark bed, a voice boomed from the stack of blankets about a foot thick: “Who in hell’s Christie?” I made an appearance, and the next thing I heard was a gruff command to take a brace in the middle of the room and sing ‘Norwich Forever’. About that time, I had a small suspicion that perhaps there could be a Norwich man in the crowd. Sure enough, it was Major ‘Duffy’ Quinn, ’34… Still haven’t seen Duffy’s face. He was so wrapped up in those blankets, I didn’t get the opportunity. (Lt. Bob Christie, '44, Gets Quinn Welcome 1945, 12)

Christie would go on to describe a Vermont winter as being a dozen times better what they were going through. He would later write a book about his experiences in the 2nd World War, in which he noted: “His chest suddenly tightened as he saw the partially displaced helmet from the sprawled body of a GI, the barrel of his rifle projecting upward out of the snow at a low angle. He suddenly realized what a dead American soldier really was.” (Christie n.d., 77) Christie’s experiences and his turn towards writing after the war come as no surprise when his experience with the Norwich University Record and the War Whoop are taken into consideration. (War Whoop 1947, 67)

Including Christie, eight Norwich men belonged to the 3rd Armored Division: Lieutenant Colonel Elwyn W. Blanchard, '36, Major Scott Gordon, '33, Major Duffy Quinn ‘34, Captain Charles J. Adams, '39, Captain George Riley, ’32, 1st. Lieutenant Arthur Curtis, '41, 1st Lieutenant Herman J. Lavin '33, 1st Lieutenant Charles Sellars, '47 and 2nd Lieutenant Richard P. Briggs, '42.

The battle for St. Vith at this point was “in full swing.” (Toland 1999, 106) The 3rd Armored Division met with the 82nd Airborne Division by mid-day on the 19th, when the 82nd began to move east, towards Trois Ponts, just to the northwest of St. Vith. By the 20th, they had set up a perimeter around Werbomont in all directions, while the 3rd was directed to move out as far south as Houffalize. (Cole 1964, 344-346)

On December 19th, the 26th Infantry Division moved to Luxembourg to help advance Northwest against the Germans moving on Bastogne, with Norwich members Captain Leonard E. Nysted, ’42, 1st Lieutenant Burton B. Fall Jr., ’44, and Corporal Bradford A. Cook Jr. ’44 along with the unit. (Cook n.d., 520) They attacked on the 21st at Rambrouch, Grosbous and to the Wiltz River, joining with the 4th Armored Division which contained Captain George Fairbanks ’39 and Private Charles Bailey, ’47.

For his actions throughout the Bulge, Fairbanks was awarded the Bronze Star:

Since [November 9, 1944], this unit has never wanted for supplies of any type so long as they were at all available. There is no limit to the extent to which Capt. Fairbanks will go to obtain the necessary supplies, even though this entailed many trips to rear areas at all hours and under all types of weather conditions. On numerous occasions, he has gone to company positions in an unarmored vehicle under enemy shelling to obtain a list of the daily needs.

Capt. Fairbanks was with the Fourth Armored Division when the crack tank outfit effected the historic relief of the besieged 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, Belgium.

Along with the 4th Armored Division’s push, the 104th Infantry Division with John W. Howley, ’44, and 80th Infantry Division, with Joseph Caffrey Jr., ’48, this push absorbed some of the remaining members of the 28th Infantry division. By Christmas Day, the force moved to Arsdorf, Belgium, encountering heavy fighting, where they would be pushed back. They regrouped in January for a renewed push to the area. At some point during this engagement, John Howley ’44, would be captured and sent to a POW camp, from which he would escape three times.

On December 21st, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery ordered a retreat from St. Vith, forfeiting the position. The 106th Infantry and the remnants of the other units pulled out during this withdrawal. Two things largely saved the units at St. Vith: the ferocity of the Allied defense around the city, and the readiness of the German field units, which had yet to receive their full strength by December 20th. Despite the failure to hold onto the positions, the actions at St. Vith helped to further slow the German advance.

Bastogne, December 20 - December 27

 With the difficulties that the Germans faced with the defense of St. Vith, their focus shifted to the next set of crossroads, located at Bastogne. (Cole 1964, 306) General Eisenhower, over the protests of General Patton, ordered the 10^th Armored North to the crossroads. The Division contained a number of Norwich men: Captain Phil Baird, ’38, Captain Dave Perrin, ’41, Captain, Marinus Van Kleef, ’41, Captain John R. McGauley, ’41, 2^nd Lieutenant Wilburn Hardy, ’45, Corporal Joseph McCloskey, ’42, Joseph Haines Clarke ‘40, Captain Philip R. Calder, ‘41, Lieutenant. Hubert Shietinger, ’43, and Staff Sergeant Robert G. Buttinger ’48. One member of the unit, Captain McGauley, recounted in a letter to the Norwich Record of his experiences in the unit:

 I have met several Norwich men over here so far. Most interesting were meetings during the ‘Bulge’. I was at Bastogne when the Germans started through, and in the tumult of action, I ran into Cap. Phil Baird, ’38. The last time I had seen him was when I was a freshman and was acting as an orderly for him. When the 4^th Arm’d broke through to us, one of the first persons I met was Maj. Tom Churchill, ’40.

The only members of my class still with me are Capt. Dave Perrin, and Capt. Marinus Van Kleed, both of whom have been wounded, and since returned to duty. Capt. Joe McCloskey, ’42 and Lt. Hubert Shietinger, ’43, are in this outfit also. (Capt. John McGauley, '41, Names Norwich Men With Him At Bastogne 1945)

Joining the 10^th Armored Division was the 101^st Airborne Division, who drove towards Bastogne, reaching it on the 19^th. An eventual member of the Norwich community, Howard Brosseau was a member of the 502^nd Regiment of the 101^st Airborne, which supported the north-northwest shoulder around the city. The American units around Bastogne dug in securely, with the mission to hold the town at all costs. (Eisenhower 1995, 318) The German military was aware that the US had moved in two of their airborne divisions to the center of the attack, but failed to anticipate how quickly they would set up around the city, and were forced to react as they came into contact with the three combined-arms task forces supplied by the 10^th Armored Division that were sent along the roads leading out of the city. The Americans were able to hold off the Germans for the remainder of the 19^th, but by the 20^th, they were cut off by German forces. Over the next couple of days, they would repel attacks from all sides in one of the most dramatic engagements of the battle, receiving supplies by air on the 23^rd and 24^th before being cut off again by poor weather on Christmas day. By the next day, units from the 4^th Armored moved in and helped hold open supply lines, likely aided by Major Churchill and Captain Fairbanks.

With the breakthrough of the 4^th Armored, the siege of Bastogne was over. Like at St. Vith, the allied actions helped to further slow the onslaught, denying the German military a vital crossroads that they required to support their objectives to the west. (Cole 1964, 480-481)

Monday: the 2nd Armored Division and Ciney

Norwich University and the Battle of the Bulge: Breakthrough

Sixty-Seven Years ago, on December 16th, 1944, the German military struck back against Allied forces in Belgium, the first major blow to the advance to Germany. During the battle, over a hundred members of the Norwich University community participated; former students who had graduated and advanced in the ranks of the U.S. military, and students who had graduated early to join the fight. They fought under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, and succeeded after a month of combat in the Ardennes. In 2010, I began a research project for the University, studying the role of the students and the school in the Battle before travelling overseas to Belgium. They played an incredible role in the battle, and undoubtably helped with many of the successes that would eventually lead to an Allied victory.

Breakthrough, December 16th - December 17th

By December, the Allied advance towards Germany had slowed down. The Allied armies settled along the German border in Belgium and France where units received replacements, retrained and waited to move forward. On December 15th, Private First Class Walter Henry, ‘45, of the 44th Infantry Division, went on leave in Paris, France where he planned on seeing Glenn Miller’s orchestra. While there, word came through that Miller’s airplane had been reported missing somewhere over the English Channel. Disappointed, Henry returned to his unit in Belgium. (Henry, Questions of Oct. 18 re: Battle of the Bulge 2011)

The German breakthrough of Allied lines began at 5:30 in the morning with an artillery barrage against 85 miles of Allied lines on December 16th. (Toland 1999, 23) At the top of the invasion near Monschau, three Norwich men were part of the 9th Infantry division: Major John Costello ’42, and twin brothers Arnold and Donald MacKerer ’46, both 2nd Lieutenants. Several miles to the south were six Norwich men assigned to the 106th Infantry Division: 1st Lieutenant Ralph H. Baker Jr, ‘43 Corporal Howard R. Clement ’32, Sergeant Edwin Seeger '46, Corporal Henry Waters, '46, Sergeant Walter H. Weatherill, '44, and Private Gregory Sarmanian, '47, who was part of the 14th Cavalry Group. In the center of the invasion was the veteran 28th Infantry division, which included Captain Albert E. Hicks, ’36, and 1st Lieutenant Carl Hughes, ’42. At the bottom of the invasion, the 4th Infantry Division included 1st Lieutenant Thomas L. Fulham, 2nd Lieutenant Robert H. Harrington and John W. Knowlton, all of the class of 1947.

During the initial attack, Sergeant Seeger of the 106th was killed in action, defending his post, while occupying a forward position that was overrun near Winterscheid.

Sergeant Seeger’s squadron was providing reconnaissance for the 106th Division on the opening day of the battle of “The Bulge”, December 16th, 1944. The Sergeant, with three other men, were occupying the most advance post of their squadron when the Germans overran their position. He was fatally wounded while “defending his position against overwhelming odds,” near Winterstchied, Germany, in the St. Vith sector on the first day of the battle of “The Bulge”. (War Whoop 1947, 30)

He appears to have been one of the first Norwich casualties during the battle, although he would not be the last: at some point on December 16th, 1st Lieutenant George Norman Anderson ’43, of the 1121st Combat Engineering Group, was captured, force marched to a prison camp in Bavaria, where he was later recovered by US forces.

Corporal Henry Waters ’46, was also reported as a casualty on the 16th: Corp. Henry C. Waters, Jr. has been reported missing in action in Germany as of Dec. 16. The son of Mr. and Mrs. H.C. Water of Marblehead, MA, has been overseas since Nov. 11, and was in a unit of the 106th Division which was rushed to the front lines following the Von Rundstedt breakthrough. (Corp. Henry Waters, '46, Missing in Action 1945, 28)

As the German military advanced, units of the 14th Cavalry Group occupied one of the key routes which stood in their way, with other units 25 miles away in Vielsalm. (Toland 1999, 27) Private George Sarmanian ’47, a member of the unit, was likely present at the first moments of the attack. By 1300 hrs, the 14th Cavalry Group had run out of ammunition, and began to retreat west towards American lines.

At the same time on December 16th, the 28th Infantry Division was hit alongside its entire divisional front. The center of the Division’s lines were hit hard by the German invaders, blowing open the route towards the interior of Belgium. (Toland 1999, 27) The two Norwich alumni were present amongst its ranks, Captain Albert E. Hicks, and 1st Lieutenant Carl R. Hughes would remain close friends after the war. During the attack, Hughes' unit, the 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, was surrounded by German forces. Hughes escaped by walking through the enemy lines, arriving back at American lines three days later on the 19th.

Carl Hughes described his experiences in a letter for the Norwich Record:

Here’s a bit of news. I was in Luxembourg when the breakthrough came. My unit was surrounded for three days, and then we made a break for it. We lost our wheels, so I walked through the German lines three days and nights. Now am getting a few days of rest after 170 days of combat. I saw Al Hicks ’36, in Germany during the battle of Hurtgen Forest. We were working side by side. (Lt. Carl Huges, '42, with Capt. Al Hicks, '36, At Hurtgen Forest 1945, 31)

At the same time that the Record received Hughes’ letter, further news arrived about Hicks:

“The squadron commander had my troop fall out into formation while he pinned by captain’s bars on me although the Germans were shelling about 400 yards away.” Capt. Hicks wrote his wife, “so you see I got my promotion on the battlefield after all.”

Attached to the 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Capt. Hicks at one time pursued the Germans for 140 days with only little rest. Up to this time, he has been decorated with the Silver Star for gallantry in the face of the enemy, the Bronze Star for meritorious achievement and numerous other citations. (Lt. Carl Huges, '42, with Capt. Al Hicks, '36, At Hurtgen Forest 1945, 31)

At the bottom of the German invasion, the 4th Infantry Division met elements of the German military’s attack head-on near Echternach, where they held onto their territory, backed up by the 5th Infantry Division and Patton’s Third Army. The 6th Armored Division, with 1st Lieutanant John F. Hammell ‘44, 1st Lieutenant Donald F. Wing ‘44, 2nd Lieutenant Arthur Pottle ’44, and Sergeant John H. Pimm ‘47, was located in the same area, between the French-German border, where they faced off against German forces on the other side of a river.

The northern most section of the invasion was held by the 9th Infantry division, who arrived near Monschau by the 20th of December. It helped to contain the enemy advance towards the north and limited their movement around the center of the invasion. 2nd Lieutenant Arnold ‘Bill’ MacKerer ‘46, had recently earned the Silver Star medal for his actions in Schlick, Germany, ten days earlier:

Lieutenant MacKerer was awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action on December 11, 1944, near Schlick, Germany. He crawled forward, under enemy fire and observation, to within twenty-five yards of a machine gun. With complete disregard for personal safety, he threw two grenades, destroying the gun and killing the entire crew of the machine gun. (War Whoop 1947, 29)

His twin brother, Donald, would survive him after the war, and described his brother as “a very strong person, totally fearless in combat, and he took more chances. He was much less bothered by the terror of warfare than I was” (Dean 2006).

The unit would stay in place for the battle, keeping the German advance back from Holland in the battle’s northern shoulder. (Cole 1964, 134) As the German military advanced, Bill MacKerer’s five man patrol was tasked with finding the whereabouts of the Germans in their area: His brother’s patrol performed its mission all too well, Don said. It turned up a nest of German machine-gunners, and Bill, struck by a burst of machine gun fire, fell mortally wounded. (Dean 2006)

His actions were reported in the Norwich Record:

Ten days after the action for which he was posthumously decorated, he was hit by machine gun fire while on a reconnaissance patrol near Monschau, died as a result of the wounds, and was buried in the Henry-Chapple Cemetery near Leige, Belgium. (Lt. Arnold MacKerer, '46, Dies of Wounds 1945)

Following the death of his brother, Donald took command of the same platoon, which he remained in charge of until he himself was wounded shortly after the end of the Bulge, on February 2nd, 1945. (Lt. Arnold MacKerer, '46, Dies of Wounds 1945)

By December 17th, most of the Allied forces had to pull back: The 106th Infantry Division pulled back towards St. Vith, while the German advance went through the 28th Infantry Division’s lines. One of the units that had moved following the attack was the 44th Infantry Division, along with a newly promoted Staff Sergeant Walt Henry. While the Germans had not yet hit their area in the south, they moved quickly to better ground. As they moved out, Henry recalled leaving with only their guns and ammunition. Left behind was a newly arrived package from his wife, Edith: “Some lucky German [son of a bitch] enjoyed all the goodies that Edith had so lovingly packed and sent me. I’ll never forgive them for that.” (Henry, World War II Years n.d.)

The Axis advance was aimed straight in towards American lines, uncontained.

Tomorrow, The Drive to the Meuse River & Bastogne.

Norwich University and the Battle of the Bulge: Introduction

Sixty-Seven Years ago, on December 16th, 1944, the German military struck back against Allied forces in Belgium, the first major blow to the advance to Germany. During the battle, over a hundred members of the Norwich University community participated; former students who had graduated and advanced in the ranks of the U.S. military, and students who had graduated early to join the fight. They fought under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, and succeeded after a month of combat in the Ardennes. In 2010, I began a research project for the University, studying the role of the students and the school in the Battle before travelling overseas to Belgium. They played an incredible role in the battle, and undoubtably helped with many of the successes that would eventually lead to an Allied victory.

Introduction - The Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge was the most intense and costly engagement that the United States and its allies waged against the German military during the Second World War. Over a million soldiers on both sides were involved in the clash that would last for 41 days. In the pre-dawn hours of December 16th, 1944, the German military struck against the Allied advance along the German-Belgian border. Relying on a combination of inclement weather and surprise, the Germans caught Allied leaders by surprise, and were able to push through their lines far into Belgium. The 1947 memorial edition of the Norwich University War Whoop, described the battle succinctly:

We continued to advance against the Germans in Europe with occasional set-backs, such as “the Bulge”, which was not just another set-back for the men who were there, but a battle fought for the highest stakes by both sides.

Norwich University played its own role in the battle, with just under one hundred alumni spread out across the battlefield. The training and education that the school provided her alumni undoubtedly played a role in the conduct and leadership abilities that guided them as they were shipped off to Europe. By the time December 16th arrived, the Norwich University Record reported that 1,600 Norwich Men were involved in the war, with 1,218 of them serving as commissioned officers. A further 15 held the rank of General, demonstrating the value of the training they received in Vermont.

Norwich men occupied every level of the command structure in units that participated in the Battle of the Bulge, ranging from the rank of Private First Class on the front lines to Major General, overseeing the operations of an entire division. Each played a pivotal role in the direction of the battle’s outcome. In the fight, Norwich University alumni gave their blood and their lives in Belgium; the ultimate sacrifice for their country in a time of grave need.

Soldiers from Norwich were also present throughout the battle, from the first moments of the battle, to the last, over a month later, occupying airborne, infantry and most particularly, armored units, instrumental in all aspects of the battle.

Setting the Stage

On June 6th, 1944, Allied forces came ashore in Normandy, France, where the fight into Europe began in earnest, pushing the German military further back over the course of the fall that year. During that time, a number of Norwich University alumni arrived to fight for their country: On June 9th, elements of the 2nd Armored Division arrived on shore, under the command of General Edward Brooks ‘16, a Norwich graduate, who would eventually hand over command to General Ernest Harmon ‘16, who would continue to push deeper into Europe.

From Normandy, Allied forces moved to liberate Paris, engaging in a long campaign to capture the ground between the beaches and the capital, eventually doing so on August 25th, 1944.

In September 1944, the allies launched Operation Market-Garden against German positions in Holland. Allied forces looked to capture ground and allow for a quick march straight to Germany. Its eventual failure pushed back expectations that they would reach Berlin in a timely manner.

The 2nd Armored Division found themselves in the midst of the action as they pushed towards Germany and through the Siegfried Line, described as the division’s worst experiences in the war. During this campaign, Lieutenant Colonel Clifton Batchelder ‘32, and his unit were visited by a Red Cross truck with several women handing out supplies. The women were invited to join the officers, and Batchelder, pulling rank, sat next to one of the Red Cross nurses, Anne: “From then on, when I wasn’t fighting, I was chasing Anne; until two weeks after VE day when we were married.” (A. Batchelder n.d., 2) Batchelder had been a student at the same time that the division’s Commanding General, Ernest N. Harmon, had been the Professor of Military Science and later, Commandant of Cadets. He explained after the war that one of his highest points during his experience was Harmon’s instruction in equitation.

On October 13th, 1944, the 2nd Armored Division saw action at Wurselen, Germany, where Captain James Burt ‘39, of the 66th Armored Regiment’s B Company, earned the Medal of Honor for his actions against a German garrison over the course of nine days. During that time, he directed fire from his units, scouted enemy positions, and aided the wounded soldiers involved in the fight:

In the first day's action, when infantrymen ran into murderous small-arms and mortar fire, Captain Burt dismounted from his tank about 200 yards to the rear and moved forward on foot beyond the infantry positions, where, as the enemy concentrated a tremendous volume of fire upon him, he calmly motioned his tanks into good firing positions. As our attack gained momentum, he climbed aboard his tank and directed the action from the rear deck, exposed to hostile volleys which finally wounded him painfully in the face and neck. He maintained his dangerous post despite pointblank self-propelled gunfire until friendly artillery knocked out these enemy weapons, and then proceeded to the advanced infantry scouts' positions to deploy his tanks for the defense of the gains which had been made. The next day, when the enemy counterattacked, he left cover and went 75 yards through heavy fire to assist the infantry battalion commander who was seriously wounded. For the next 8 days, through rainy, miserable weather and under constant, heavy shelling, Captain Burt held the combined forces together, dominating and controlling the critical situation through the sheer force of his heroic example. To direct artillery fire, on 15 October, he took his tank 300 yards into the enemy lines, where he dismounted and remained for 1 hour giving accurate data to friendly gunners. Twice more that day he went into enemy territory under deadly fire on reconnaissance. In succeeding days he never faltered in his determination to defeat the strong German forces opposing him. Twice the tank in which he was riding was knocked out by enemy action, and each time he climbed aboard another vehicle and continued the fight. He took great risks to rescue wounded comrades and inflicted prodigious destruction on enemy personnel and materiel even though suffering from the wounds he received in the battle's opening phase. (MOH Citation for James M. Burt n.d.)

Burt’s actions were understatedly heroic over an extended period of time. His letters to his wife from the same time reflect little of the actions that he had just carried out, and following the war, he returned to a quiet life as a high school teacher in New Hampshire: the very embodiment of a citizen soldier.

Tomorrow, the Breakthrough.

NU to The Rescue

My latest print publication has now been released in the Norwich Record: NU To The Rescue. I contributed to this piece, which outlines Norwich University's response to the flooding from Hurricane Irene in central Vermont. My contribution outlines the similarities between the response of 2011 and that of 1927, when Vermont was struck by a legendary flood that devastated the state. In both instances, Norwich stepped up to the plate and helped bring about the recovery in Northfield and in other towns in the area:

DEJA VU

Though separated by 84 years, the parallels between Tropical Storm Irene and the flood of 1927 are hard to miss.

Drive through any small Vermont town and make note of the plaques bolted to the sides of the bridges. More often than not the structures were built in 1928 or 1929, a lasting reminder of the devastation of the great flood of 1927. Then, as now, Norwich University students and staff were instrumental in rescue and relief efforts in Northfield and the surrounding areas.

Due to an unusually wet fall, by late October 1927, river banks all over Vermont were swollen and approaching their limits. A confluence of cold and warm fronts on Wednesday, November 2, resulted in three consecutive days of steady rain. By Friday, torrential downpours resulted in almost nine inches of precipitation on top of the already saturated ground. The result was horrific: 84 Vermonters lost their lives in the ensuing floods—yet incredibly, not a single person in Northfield perished.

The floodwaters, which rose upwards of 15 feet over the banks of the Dog River and Union Brook, transformed the downtown area into a veritable lake. Sophomore Glenn Leet ’30 wrote, “Almost all of the bridges were down, there were no lights or power, and communication with the rest of the world was cut off.”

You can read the rest of the piece over here.

Researching the history of the school is something that I've begun to do more with in recent years, and every single time, I'm astounded at the cadets, students and alumni of the school. It makes me very proud to be part of the school's heritage, and something that I'm very, very happy to document for future readers.

The Icarus Hunt

This year, a major goal of mine is to try and cut down on my ever-growing 'to read' list, which has slowly crept into the triple digits over recent years. There are a handful of books that I've been meaning to get back to and revisit from earlier days, and at the top of the list was Timothy Zahn's 1999 science fiction / mystery novel, The Icarus Hunt. The book was one of the novels that I first read during my transition from Star Wars novels to mainstream genre novels, and it's been a book that's stuck in my mind since I first read it.

The story opens with Jordan McKell, smuggler and ship's pilot, meeting up with Alexander Borodin, who hires him to take his ship, the Icarus and its sealed cargo, to Earth. Deep in debt to crime lord Johnston Scotto Ryland (Brother John) and his superior, Antoniewicz, McKell accepts, and ships out with the assembled crew. Shortly after starting off, one of the members of the crew is murdered, and deep questions emerge into the nature of their cargo.

The Icarus and her crew quickly becomes the target of an intergalactic manhunt from numerous factions: the Patth, a commercial race that holds a near-monopoly on interstellar shipping, believe that the cargo is an advanced star drive that would undercut their own technological advantages, while an unknown agent amongst the ship's crew has begun to endanger the crew. As the Icarus and its crew jump from system to system, steps ahead of the Paath and the growing contingent of opportunistic planetary governments and criminals, the true nature of the mission comes to light.

Zahn's solidly-constructed world is one that sees a number of parallels with popular franchises, from Star Wars to Titan A.E. and Firefly, but feels wholly unique and original in its own right, and fans of the recently released novel Leviathan Wakes, by James A. Corey should certainly pick this one up in the wait for the next installment in the trilogy.

Of particular note is the story's structure: this is very much a mystery novel set in space: who the fellow members of the crew are, from Tera, who strives to keep her identity under wraps, Nicabar, a former EarthGuard marine, Chort, the crew's alien space-walker, Everett, the ship's doctor, Geoff Shawn, the hot-tempered electrician and Jones, the short-lived mechanical expert, who's murdered early on. There's also the nature of the cargo that they're carrying, and as more people appear in the sidelines who want to get their hands on the cargo, the book kicks into a race that feels genuine to the core. The pacing is perfect, and never overcrowded as the mysteries deepen and the characters all develop richly. Zahn has done an excellent job creating a cast of dynamic characters, and keeps the reader in the dark until the very end as to some of their true intentions: when I first read the book, I went back and re-read it to pick up on the hints along the way. All the way through, it's a gripping read.

The Icarus Hunt is a book that feels like a solid hit out of the park, and while all of the plot points come together in the final chapters, the setting of a McKell in the dining room with all of the players feels more like homage than sloppy structuring. All along the way, Zahn has constructed a plausible, fascinating world that hints at other stories (sadly, this appears to be the only one) at every corner of the galaxy. It's a book that takes a lot of common story elements and mixes them together into something that's greater than the sum of its parts, and has very few books that it can really be compared to. Even better, it holds up past my nostalgic love for it, despite the release of more recent, similar stories. Truly, a cult classic in the making.

Geek Things of 2011

2011 was a busy year for all manner of geek things, from literature to films, to real world events.

A year ago, actor Pete Postlethwaite passed away on January 3rd. He was best known for his roles in Jurassic Park, and more recently, in the film Inception. He was an actor that I noticed when he popped up, and enjoyed his characters. Just the day before, actress Anne Frances died, She had starred in one of my favorite science fiction films, Forbidden Planet. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, was something I caught in early January, and was utterly blown away. It was easily the first Harry Potter adaptation that nailed the leap between mediums, and I was particularly impressed with the filming. In early January, author Jerry Weist died. He had penned a book that I had kept with me since high school, Bradbury: An Illustrated Life, which I open from time to time to pull in the vivid imagery of Bradbury’s life. The other film that I finally caught in January was The Social Network. It’s not science fictional by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s an interesting take on the geeks behind Facebook, and a great story regardless of what you think of the platform. In other January news, the Kepler satellite discovered 1,200 new worlds shortly after it went online, scanning distant stars for variations on their brightness. Over the rest of the year, it’s made some amazing finds. February started off with a down note, as Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series, passed away on the 5th at the age of 72. Jacques was a particularly early influence on me with his series, and I remember talking about them in the 4th grade with a couple of friends. Mossflower is still a favorite, and holds up well. The BBC released their short-lived show Outcasts in February, which I really enjoyed, even if British audiences didn’t: the show did poorly in the ratings, and was soon cancelled. The pilot was particularly beautiful, with some fantastic acting and stories. Unfortunately, like all really good television shows, it ended on a cliff-hanger, and I doubt that we’ll ever see any resolution. Still, it was fun while it lasted. Borders filed for bankruptcy in the middle of February, something that had long been expected. As a former employee of Borders, I was happy to see that the market takes care of poor management and vision, but at the same time, sad to see the #2 bookstore in the nation go down. Also in February, Space X orbited the Earth for the first time, the first private space company to accomplish such a feat. It’s a bit amazing, really, considering how fast the company has come, and for what their entry into space means. They’ll do some pretty impressive things in the rest of the year, and hopefully more of that in 2012. February also marked the time that I began working with Lightspeed Magazine as a slush reader. Christie and John asked me to come on board to help with the demand, and I began reading submissions for the magazine. I was a bit nervous at first, after reading a couple of rather horrendous stories out of the gate, but started getting into it. Over 2011, I read several hundred short stories, and recommended several that were published, which I’m very happy about. One of the books that I picked up for SF Signal was Embedded by Dan Abnett, one of the better military science fiction novels that I’ve read in recent months. I really hope that Abnett will return for new stories in this universe, because there’s a lot of potential for them after the ending of this book. This year marked the year that I got into the TV show Community, hardcore. Their episode Advanced Dungeons and Dragons blew me away, with a funny cast, entertaining story and a Lord of the Rings parody ten years out. Apparently NBC was against the episode, but I have to say, it got me into the show, buying all of the DVD sets out, and subscribing to the new episodes on iTunes. I hope that the show returns soon. One of my most anticipated books of the year, Leviathan Wakes by James A. Corey, was slated to be released in June, but I was able to get my hands on an advance copy in March, which I promptly blew through in a couple of days. The book was excellent, a fun space opera romp in our own solar system. I can’t wait for #2. Superbrothers released their Sword & Sworcery: The Ballad of the Spacebabies towards the end of March, an original fantasy RPG game for the iPad that was innovative, interesting and very fun to play. March brought the first of the year’s anticipated films, Battle: Los Angeles, to theaters. This was a film that was quite a bit of fun to watch: aliens vs. marines during an invasion. It’s not a perfect, thinking-person’s film, but it is one of the better depictions of infantry combat. Plus, great aliens. One of the coolest things that I did this year was find out about a conference hosted by NASA, on the History of Spaceflight, down in Washington DC. I took a couple of days off and flew down, and spent a couple of days in academic bliss, listening to a number of presentations about the history of spaceflight, and meeting some interesting people. On the same trip, I blew through three books, Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi, Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh, and Spectyr, by Phillipa Ballentine. Fuzzy Nation was highly entertaining, and I read through it in just a couple of hours on the plane, laughing the whole way. Soft Apocalypse, a whim buy at a train station Barnes and Noble, became my favorite book of the year, and I finished it on the way back home. In early May, I finished a short story, and began submitting it to a bunch of markets. I received by first of several rejections for it on May 18th. It’s a good milestone to have, and it’s currently out at the markets now. Hopefully, someone will pick it up. In late May, I travelled out to Belgium with a group from Norwich University, touring Battle of the Bulge sites. I spent the next six months finishing up and polishing the paper that I produced, and came up with a great history that I’m really happy with, setting the groundwork for another project. Dr. Who returned at the end of May, for a nice run of episodes, and I got back into the flow a bit, which is nice. At some point, I’ll need to marathon the rest of the modern series. While in Belgium, I began to read China Mieville’s new novel, Embassytown. It’s a fascinating read, one that I highly recommend. While it doesn’t top The City and The City, it’s very, very interesting. Also in June, we had a fantastic troop over at the Flying Pig Bookstore, the biggest in Vermont, with a number of troopers from MA coming up. I had thought that the X-Men film franchise had played itself out with the third entry (I haven’t seen the Wolverine films), but Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class was a nice return to the series with some great action and acting throughout. The best film of the summer though, was J.J. Abram’s Super 8. Harkening back to the Steven Spielberg films of the 1970s / 1980s, this film impressed me quite a bit. It had a good story, effects, but was also a nice homage to a great time in films. ReaderCon in July was a great break in the middle of the summer. I got to sit in on some great panels this year, and to meet some interesting people, as well as some familiar faces. The high points were meeting author Ken Liu, editors Scott Edelman, John Joseph Adams, and being in the same room as Neil Gaiman. NASA launched its last space shuttle flight with the STS-135 mission. The mission brought up supplies to the International Space Station, a quiet end for the program. It brought with it a number of reminiscences of the program, and quite a bit of talking in the media about the value of spaceflight. Marvel came back with another film in the run-up to The Avengers, Captain America. Of the rest of the prequels, this was one of the better ones, although it doesn’t come close to the first Iron Man film. Still, good adaptation. The Harry Potter franchise came to an end with The Deathly Hallows Part 2. The first part was the best of the series, and the second was almost as good, following the second half of the last book closely, although it took a bit more in the way of liberties, and it generally went to special effects over story for a bang. Cowboys and Aliens was one of the films that flopped this year, at the box office and from the critical response, but I thought it was quite a bit of fun. Entertaining above all else, with a decent story and effects. Harrison Ford did a fantastic job. Blake Charlton returned this year with his second novel, Spellbound, which continued his trilogy that he had started with Spellwright a couple of years ago. This book was a fun one, expanding on his fantastic world. As much as I like Blake’s book, though, Lev Grossman’s The Magician King came to me as the best fantasy novel of the year. I didn’t think that it was possible to improve on the first book, The Magicians, but somehow, he did it, and his sequel blew me away, completely. Right around the same time this fall as Grossman’s book, Borders closed down for good. The stores sold off their merchandise and closed their doors. Some, I was happy to see, were bought by Books A Million, but not everywhere. Limitless was a Bradley Cooper film that had gotten a little attention in 2011, and while I missed it in theaters, I was really impressed with it when I rented it. Smart, excellently filmed and with a very cool story, it’s one of the better science fiction films of the year. In September, I got into Halo hardcore, picking up Halo: Reach after a particularly trying day. I’ve long been a Halo fan, and I think this is one of the better games out there in the franchise. (No Flood). The mechanics work well, and it’s a neat addition to the story. Hopefully, we’ll see more one-offs like this. September 11th marked a very geektastic night, with a concert with Jonathan Coulton and They Might Be Giants over in Norwich, Vermont. They had a great set of music, and was generally well worth the drive out. I’ve long been a fan of Steven Soderbergh’s works, particularly Traffic (and the related film Syriana). His latest film, Contagion takes the same style of storytelling, and looks at world health and pandemics. It’s scary, but fantastic. One of the notable novels that I read this fall was Max Barry’s Machine Man. I read Jennifer Government when it first came out, back when I was in high school, and was happy to see that Barry still has the dark, sarcastic humor that he used to. One of the lower-profile shows that came out this year was Person of Interest. I only caught the pilot, but I really liked what it’s got: the mix between Minority Report and Brave New World. However, the TV show that I was really looking forward to was Fringe, which returned for Season 4 this year. I’m thrilled to see a science fiction show continue forward against all odds, and this season has been particularly good over the first half of the season. I can’t wait for it to return. This year also marks the first time that I was professionally published, with an article in Armchair General titled Changing the Skies. I did a little dance when I saw my name on the cover. My wife, Megan, really got into Terra Nova when it was released, watching it on Hulu while waiting for me to get out of work. (We work in the same place, but she gets out an hour or two before I do.) The pilot was pretty good, and I’ll likely catch up on the rest of it when it hits DVD. This year, the books that stood out for me were the ones that I didn’t know about earlier. This is so for T.C. McCarty’s Germline, which portrayed military journalist on the front lines. The biggest tech story of the year was that Steve Jobs died shortly after stepping aside from his roles at Apple. To be honest, I’m not sure what to think: he was a brilliant innovator, and clearly recognized the potential for not only how something would be used, but how it would change things. And, he was really abrasive, apparently. Something that was really quite a bit of fun earlier this year was getting to go up on stage with Weird Al Yankovich for 2 concerts in October. He regularly partners with local 501st groups to help with their stage show. I did it once back in 2008, and was thrilled to do it again this time around. Remember how I said I got into a real Halo fix earlier this year? Halo: Glasslands by Karen Traviss helped. She’s an excellent author, particularly when it comes to military fiction, and her take on the Halo universe is simply fantastic, with an awesome book under her belt that really redefines the universe a bit and sets up for the next trilogy of games. It wasn’t the best book of the year, but Ready Player One by Ernie Cline was a helluva lot of fun to read. Predictable, with a lot of references for everything, it’s what I would describe as the definitive geek primer. In December, I was promoted at Lightspeed Magazine to an Editorial Assistant. Most of my duties are about the same as being a slush reader, but I’ve been tasked with a bit more writing, and I’ve taken control of the site’s social media systems. In the middle of December, Joe Simone, who created Captain America, died. I’ve been an off-and-on fan of the comics, and the movie was fun, but he created an enduring character that is still going strong. I received a copy of Charles Stross’s latest book, Rule 34, which I’d been eagerly anticipating. One of the best books of the year, it gives a lot of food for thought. The Adventures of Tintin finally hit the silver screen, bringing one of my favorite childhood icons to motion. I really enjoyed the film: it captured the look and feel of the books nicely, and adapted three particularly difficult stories nicely. Finally, the week before Christmas was the perfect one for movie trailers. Three of the biggest films of next year were given a tease: The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, and Prometheus. Of the three, I’m looking forward to Prometheus the most, but all of them look to be excellent.

So, it’s been an interesting year, and I’m eagerly anticipating what’s to come in 2012.

Before and Away

2011 had its moments. I did some excellent troops with the 501st, read some awesome books and generally got to geek out about some neat things. Started work with Lightspeed Magazine, and published my first article with Armchair General, submitted another couple for publication, which will happen in the next couple of months / at some point in 2012. Went to Belgium, worked on an awesome bit of research. Got married to a wonderful girl.

I'll skip over the down points. Suffice to say, there were some very difficult points that tested my will and resolve in a lot of ways. Take the bad, learn, and move forward.

2012 looks to be an interesting year. Our wedding is coming up (for the rest of the family), work with freelance publications is beginning to pick up, and I've got some cool plans coming up for the first part of 2012.

This year, I'm going to:

• Continue work on large project. Finish large project. Begin next step of large project.
• Begin, research, write and collaborate with Megan on a cool historical project.
• Write, submit, and repeat.
• Learn, move forward, and continue.
• Conceptualize, plot, plan and outline the next large project.

Trilogy of Trailers

This past week has been a fantastic one for the promotional kick-off for a couple of highly anticipated films: The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, and Prometheus. The three films, together, make up the bulk of the movies that I'm most looking forward to so far. I don't usually get overly excited for trailers, but this week has been the exception. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sftuxbvGwiU]

Of the three, Prometheus looks the best. Ridley Scott's Alien is one of my all-time favorite science fiction films, and I'm excited to see a return to the universe under Scott's control. From everything that I had heard of the film, it looked interesting. The first glimpses of footage, however, make it look like it'll be a great film. I certainly hope so: science fiction is a genre that should be handled properly, and that's not something that happens all that often these days.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GokKUqLcvD8]

The Dark Knight Rises is interesting in that it gives us the first real look at where the final Nolan Batman film will go. It should be an interesting film, especially following up The Dark Knight, and I'm eager to see where Nolan will take the story.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0k3kHtyoqc]

Finally, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey feels like a long-overdue reunion with an old friend. It's been an entire decade since the Fellowship of the Ring started off the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the footage looks just like it should. Above all, Martin Freeman absolutely nails the younger version of Bilbo Baggins. More than just the footage though, I'm eagerly anticipating the eventual soundtrack for this film.

Of the three, Prometheus looks to be the most interesting, and of the three, it's got the best teaser: it gives us just enough of a look, a taste of the plot and some absolutely stunning visuals. *That's* the science fiction that I've been missing the past couple of years.

At the very least, I think that I'll be pulling out Alien, Lord of the Rings and Batman Begins over the holiday break.

2011 Reading Census

This year has been an interesting reading year for me, fluctuating between a bunch of really, really good books, and a couple that really sucked out any interest that I had in reading at that time, with a number of books in-between that I thought were fun reads. Here's what I got through in 2011:

1- Grey, Jon Armstrong (1-8) 2- The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (1-21) 3 - Hull Zero Three, Greg Bear (1-23) 4 - Hunger Games, Suzanne Clarke (2-1) 5 - The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (2-4) 6 - At The Queen's Command, Michael A. Stackpole (2-19) 7 - Mossflower, Brian Jacques (2-20) 8 - Embedded, Dan Abnett (3-7) 9 - Kraken, China Mieville (3-9) 10 - Leviathan Wakes, James A Corey (3-17) 11 - Little Fuzzy, H Beam Piper (3-28) 12 - Fahrenheit 451 Graphic Novel, Ray Bradbury (4-13) 13 - Yarn, Jon Armstrong (4-13) 14 - Welcome to the Greenhouse, Gordon Van Gelder (4-19) 15 - Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi (4-25) 16 - Spectyr, Philippa Ballentine (4-26) 17 - Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh (4-27) 18 - Blackout, Connie Willis (4-30) 19 - Locke & Key, Joe Hill (5-8) 20 - Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins, (5-22) 21 - Deathless, Catherynne Valente (5-27) 22 - Embassytown, China Mieville (6-18) 23 - Hex, Allen M. Steele (7-2) 24 - The Gravity Pilot, MM Buckner (7-4) 25 - A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin (7-15) 26 - The Big Roads, Earl Swift (7-19) 27 - Spellbound, Blake Charlton (8-2) 28 - The Magician King, Lev Grossman (8-4) 29 - Bright's Passage, Josh Ritter (8-5) 30 - Grave Peril, Jim Butcher (8-13) 31 - Spook Country, William Gibson (9-6) 32 - Machine Man, Max Barry (9-10) 33 - Crisis in Zefra, Karl Schroeder (9-15) 34 - Halo: The Fall Of Reach, Eric Nylund (10-1) 35 - Germline, TC McCarty (10-5) 36 - The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (10-16) Audio 37 - Halo: Glasslands, Karen Traviss (10-29) 38 - Red Herring, Archer Mayor (10-20) 39 - Ganymede, Cherie Priest (11-11) 40 - Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (11-20) 41 - Ready Player One, Ernie Cline (11-26) 42 - Open Season, Archer Mayor (12-5) 43 - Seed, Rob Zeigler (12-11) 44 - Rule 34, Charles Stross (12-??)

In the pipeline: X-Wing: Rogue Squadron, by Michael A. Stackpole, All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl and The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education by Craig M. Mullaney. Rogue Squadron is something I'm going to finish up sometime this weekend, and All You Need is Kill is somewhere behind that. The other two are a bit denser, and while they're interesting, they're taxing to get through.

Interestingly, this was the first year where I really read books electronically. I've dabbled with it in the past, ever since I bought an iPad, but this year, I made the jump and read a small percentage digitally: 7 in all: Grey, Lifecycle of Software Objects, Embedded, Little Fuzzy, Crisis in Zephra, Ender's Game and Open Season. Add in Game of Thrones, with which I alternated between my paperback and ecopy, and that's 19%, or just under a fifth of my book pile existed on a hard drive somewhere, rather than a bookshelf.

An interesting thing about eBooks: there's really only a single novel that I read in which I felt really took advantage of the book’s digital nature: Crisis at Zephra. This novel, a short novella, really, was published by the Canadian Military, and incorporated a lot of data about new and upcoming technologies, and trends in said technology. I was limited in that I was reading on a wifi only iPad when I was away from the internet, which left me unable to click on the links scattered throughout the text, with explanations as to what the terms, technology and theory meant. This, I think, is where eBooks will eventually head: less reading experiences, and more immersive and interactive ones.

I've also been doing a bit more with book reviews, on a number of different sites: SF Signal, The Functional Nerds, Kirkus Reviews, and my own blog, with a total of 15 books (34%) read for a review. In this instance, I've written reviews for a number, but these are books that were given to me by either the website that I wrote the review for, or sent by an author or publicist for my own purposes, even if a review wasn't necessarily expected or promised. Just under a full third of my reading this year was subsidized by someone else, for review purposes. Of those books, I had a bit of fun, although my reviews weren't universally positive. The caveat to this, of course, is that a majority of my reading, (29 books in all - 65%) are for my own pleasure, and a minor attempt to whittle down my own to-read list. I've got a feeling that I'll never destroy the growing pile.

I've always described myself as a science fiction fan, rather than a fantasy one, and in years past, I've typically read more fantasy than science fiction. This year? I read 27 Science Fiction books (61%), 11 fantasy books (25%), 2 mystery novels (4.5%), 2 YA novels (4.5%), and 1 each of history and steampunk (2%). This year was certainly more science fictional than years past, which I'm happy about.

Interestingly, while I describe this year as being up and down, when looking over the list as a whole, there's only four books that I really didn't like. I thought just under half (20) were good, while just under a quarter (10%), were okay - decent, but nothing that really wowed me. 10 books in all really blew me away (22%). Of the books that I read this year, the more memorable were the really great ones, and of those, three really stood out for me: The Magician King, by Lev Grossman, Soft Apocalypse, by Will McIntosh, and The Dervish House, by Ian MacDonald. (See my top 10 list for the full number of ones that impressed me this year.) These books are astonishing reads, and I really hope that we'll see The Magician King and Soft Apocalypse get the attention they deserve: Grossman has gained a considerable amount of acclaim, but McIntosh's first novel feels like it's under the radar a bit, the underdog of the year. If you haven't read it: I can't recommend it highly enough. The Dervish House was nominated for a Hugo, but somehow ended up at the bottom of the polls. Still, it's nice to see it nominated.

Of the really bad books, these all stand out as ones that I had the most trouble getting through: Seed, by Rob Zeigler, The Gravity Pilot by M.M. Buckner, Deathless, by Catherynne Valente and Hex, by Allen M. Steele. I believe that the reason why they stand out so much is because they were all books that I had high hopes for: Seed was lauded as the successor to Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, and utterly failed at that, The Gravity Pilot looked interesting, and didn't work, Deathless was wonderfully written, but was a book that I simply couldn't get into, and Hex was part of Steele's Coyote universe, which started off so well, and has fallen so far with this book. There were some others, like Jack Campbell's Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught, which was so abysmally written that I couldn't even get through the first chapter, and Sarah Hall's Daughters of the North that I had a lot of trouble getting into and didn't finish.

Everything else in the middle was entertaining, and some excellent novels: Susanne Collins' Hunger Games was an excellent read, although the sequel was a bit too much of the same for my liking. I haven't reached #3, Mockingjay, and I'm awaiting that one's release in paperback. China Mieville's Embassytown was interesting, a little flawed, but brilliant all the same, although I have to say that I liked Kraken quite a bit more. Leviathan Wakes was a lot of fun to read, and a promising start to a new series, while John Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation was something I tore through in just a couple of hours on a plane. I finally got in on A Game of Thrones, and it lives up to the hype, somewhat. I even broke out of the SF/F genres, and picked up the fantastic The Big Roads, by Earl Swift, which was a fascinating look at the construction of roadways in the US. Karen Traviss's entry into the Halo universe was also a fantastic one, and it's dragged me in to that particular expanded world, as I picked up several other Halo novels, which will likely get read next time I'm on a Halo kick. I re-read Mossflower after Brian Jaqcues passed away, as well as Ender's Game, and found both books really lived up to my memories of them. Ernie Cline's Reader Player One was a fun, entertaining book, but it was lacking in other departments. Finally, I had a chance to go back and revisit Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which lives up to my first impressions wonderfully.

So, why quantify my enjoyment? I've generally been accused from people of taking things like this too seriously, in reviewing films or books that should be 'just for fun'. I've never subscribed to the ‘turn your brain off while you read/watch/listen’ train of thought, because I think that does a disservice to the author. Certainly, there's books or films that I've done that with, enjoying them because they were written to be enjoyed. But, distilling a year's worth of reading down into some easy statistics?

A couple of reasons: one, it helps me better understand my own interests by grounding them in reality. As mentioned, I firmly describe myself in the science fiction camp, but over the past couple of years, I've generally been surprised when I've read more fantasy than science fiction. My interests are all over the place, and I don't generally remember at a glance what I've read as a whole. I was a little surprised that I hadn't finished more than a single history book this year, despite the intense work that I did on various history projects: I've read portions of numerous historical texts, mainly about World War II and military history (including a couple that are still technically on the reading list), but never finished them, or needed to finish them. This might also be me forgetting to stick a book onto the 'Read' List.

Reading is an important part of what I do. I typically read at night, before I go to bed (increasingly, if I'm using my iPad, or at the beginning of the day, when I can get through 10-15 pages while I'm waiting for my computer to load up at work. Weekends usually mean a lot of time to blow through something, and when I was on public transportation for two trips earlier this year to Washington D.C. and Belgium, I read a lot: three books for each trip (for the DC trip, that was one book for the airplane, one for the second day on the train, and the third for the flight home, all in a couple of days.) Better understanding my own reading habits help me to read more, I think, and while it's not quantity over quality, I've got a massive backlog of books that I've bought. Looking over my list from this year, I had a total of 6 books - 13%! - came off of that list, which currently numbers around 100. These are all books that I've owned for more than a year, while a huge number of books that I picked up this year were released this year, and this also comes as a bit of a surprise.

My thoughts going into 2012 is that I’ll be whittling down the to-read list. There’s a lot of books that I do want to get to in the near future. Off the top of my head, I can think of a number that are edging up the list: George R.R. Martin's second entry in the Song of Ice and Fire, Clash of Kings is most certainly going to make it onto the list when the next season hits, the entire X-Wing series by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston will get re-read prior to the next novel in the series, Mercy Kill. I also want to revisit Timothy Zahn’s Icarus Hunt. I've also been wanting to begin David Louis Edelman's Infoquake, finish out William Gibson's Bigend trilogy with Zero History and get into Neal Stephenson, Iain M. Banks, and generally blow through a bunch of paperbacks and history books that I've had for a couple of years. Hopefully, I'll be able to get through a portion of that, and hopefully, I'll slow down the growth of my own library - we're running out of shelf space (again).

It’s been a fun year, with a lot of good stories all around. It looks like 2012 will be just as much fun.

Relevant Events & Art

 

Over on his blog, Mark Charan Newton talked briefly about the link between the Occupy movement and the upcoming Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, which seems to tap into the 99% idea with its recent trailer. I've got my doubts that a film of this magnitude would be directly influenced at the core by something that's happened: the Occupy movement has been around for around three months, and the film's timeline would predate that by a considerable amount of time. The marketing department, however, could certainly use the sudden relevancy of the issue and angle quite a bit of marketing towards that theme.

This has me thinking about the creation of films and art in general. Certainly, science fiction has a tendancy to be very relevant. Avatar and Moon in 2009 really took a stab at the state of environmentalism and energy consumption in the world, while this year's film In Time landed at the right moment, right when the Occupy movement started up a couple of months ago. These are big, societal issues, and if someone has their head to the ground, listening for what might come next, it's certainly easy to see some of these things happening down the road: the genre is a good place to examine such issues. While The Dark Knight Rises is already written, it's far from in the can: the next steps would be the post-production stage, where the editing shapes the footage into a regular, finished product, and I would be not at all surprised if some of the events in the tale end of 2011 will help to shape the film that we'll see next July.

Science Fiction is a relative genre, and often, the films that really last the longest are the ones that seem to retain a certain amount of relevancy the longest: films like Soylant Green, Silent Running or Outland are perfectly watchable, interesting films that hold up considerably well in the present moment, because they really carry messages that resonate: environmentalism, corporations running amok, and bleak futures, all of which we're seeing in full force in the present day. Certainly, the fact that the film Moon has drawn upon some of these films and become a critical success in the last couple of years is testament to that.

It would be facinating to take some of the politically charged films from the 1970s, go to the raw footage and recut and re-edit the film with the current context of today in mind to help shape the story. In all likelihood, I'm guessing that the films wouldn't change that much: the points those films made then are the same or similar now. Similarly, it would be interesting to take the footage that's been shot from The Dark Knight Rises and have it cut back in June 2011, and to compare the final product next year. How different would it be?

The Best Books of 2011

2010 was a good year for reading, and this year, while it had some significant downs, also had its share of really great reads. I'll be posting a full list of the books read in 2011 in the next week or so, but in the meantime, here's the books that I most enjoyed this year:  

1 - Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh

My absolute favorite read of the year was Will McIntosh's debut novel, Soft Apocalypse. Already the recipient of a Hugo award, this book is one that I hope will follow suit. A bleak and outstanding look at what the future might hold, McIntosh weaves a tale that's outstanding in its character growth and understanding of how the world works on massive scales. It's tragic and heartbreaking on one hand, and unmistably beautiful on the other. (Review)

2 - The Magician King, Lev Grossman

I didn't think that Grossman would be able to top The Magicians, and I was wary of it earlier this year: Where the first one could be described as the anti-Harry Potter, I have a hard time seeing how this one could play out. It turns out, it played out very well: Grossman not only topped the first book, he created a story that was brilliant in all regards: further building up the characters from the last book, and making the stakes from this book much higher, darker and deeper than I thought possible. The story is simply stunning. (Review)

3 - Leviathan Wakes, James A. Corey

Leviathan Wakes is a book that grabbed me at the cover and refused to let go. I've long had a soft spot for space opera, and this book really fits the bill, with an exceptional world within our solar system. There's a bit of everything in this story: military action, detective fiction, weird science and space Mormons. I already can't wait for the followup, Caliban's War, due out next June. (Review)

4 - Rule 34, Charles Stross

I'm currently in the middle of this book, but I'm confident of it's place here. I met Stross at ReaderCon in 2010, where he told me that his next book opens with a man getting murdered by a viagra enema. It's set in the same world as his prior novel, Halting State, and in a way, the book is a cross between the J.J. Connolly's Layer Cake and William Gibson. (Review to come at the Functional Nerds)

5 - Embassytown / Kraken, China Miéville

I loved Miéville's book, The City and The City, and the 2 books that I read from him this year both deserve a place on this (Kraken was a 2010 release). Both are wholly fantastic books: an alternative, weird London in one, and a totally alien world in the other. Miéville is a master at fully understanding the worlds, and both are fantastic examples of a brilliant story meshed with a perfectly conceived setting. (Review / Review)

6 - Spellbound, Blake Charlton

Charlton did a nice job with his first novel, Spellwright, and his second is a worthy followup that expands and builds upon his world in grand fashion. I loved his understanding of magic: this book is almost a science fiction novel, running on a bit of a slightly different frequency. It's a great addition that builds on the first novel, and I can't wait to see what happens next. (Review)

7 - Halo: Glasslands, Karen Traviss

I've long loved the Halo franchise, and I got into it hardcore: bought several other books, bought and played through Reach, Combat Evolved and got my wife hooked on the armored folks. This novel has a great story to it, which is sort of par for the course for Traviss, revolving around the end of the Human-Covenant War, continuing the storyline into new territory. I'm excited to see where she goes with it. (Review)

8 - Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi

John Scalzi embarked on a bit of an experiment with Fuzzy Nation: it's a literary reboot of H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy. It's a fun read, with an pointed, relevant message. The book is a quick read, and it's got about the same level of substance to it, but it's a hilarious read, one that had me laughing out loud throughout the couple of hours that I read it. (Review)

9 - Machine Man, Max Barry

Max Barry's Jennifer Government was a book that showed me that great science fiction could be really funny and ridiculous at the same time. Max Barry returns with Machine Man, partially written online, and falls with much of the same level of humor that Jennifer Government held. It's ridiculous at one level, but then, when you look at our increasingly technology filled lives, it's not so far fetched. (Review

10 - At Queen's Command, Michael A. Stackpole

I've long been a fan of Michael Stackpole's books, going back to the X-Wing Series and some of his other fantastic novels. He's now back, under the Nightshade Books banner with an alternate history novel that reimagines the early days of the British colonies in the Americas with magic, zombies, necromancers and dragons. It's a fun, vivid read. (Review)

Other Notables: A couple of additional books that I enjoyed were Ganymede by Cherie Priest, Germline by T.C. McCarty and Ready Player One by Ernie Cline.

Bad SciFi Movie Night

A year or so ago, I posted up on Facebook that I had finally gotten a chance to watch Tron, and asked people what movies were worth looking into. The response was overwhelming, and I've come up with a long list of films that I should watch, along with some of my own research into cult classics and gems from the science fiction / fantasy genres. When Megan moved in to my apartment, we began what we jokingly referred to 'Bad SciFi Movie Night', running with the idea that most of the films from that time period are bad films.

It's entertaining, that whenever I post up something about Bad Scifi Movie Night, there's an inevitable flood of replies that the films that I'm watching *aren't* bad. It's true: while there have been some films that I've come across that have been hard to get through, most are outstanding. So, here's an explaination to what I can point to.

So far, Megan and I have run through an excellent list of films:

12 Monkeys, 2001, 2010, Alien*, Aliens*, Alien Nation, Batman, Blade Runner*, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind*, Dark Crystal, Dune, Enemy Mine, 5th Element*, Forbidden Planet*, Jason and the Argonauts, Gattaca, Highlander, Last Starfighter, Logan's Run, Omega Man, Outland, Planet of the Apes, Predator, Silent Running, Starship Troopers, Supernova, Soylant Green, The Thing, Tron, Total Recall and Westworld. (* indicates that I'd already seen and owned it, but rewatched it.)

Of those, there's some real classics that I've really, really loved: Alien, Alien Nation, Omega Man, Outland, Silent Running and Soylent Green. Others, I didn't like: Enemy Mine, Dark Crystal and Supernova. Win some, lose some.

What I'm enjoying about this watch-list is that it's an excellent opportunity to go through some of the roots of science fiction classics. Movies such as Alien, 2001, Blade Runner, Forbidden Planet and a couple others are real classics in the genre that have absolutely shaped the films that come after it. Part of this came out of my love for the film Moon, by Duncan Jones. In some of the interviews and commentaries that I've read/listened to, he's cited films such as Silent Running and Outland as direct inspirations for his first, brilliant film.

As a historian, my instincts are to look at the roots of what form the present. The films of the 1950s through the early 1990s form the basis for movies and popular culture of today - it's easy to recognize the phrase 'Soylent Green is People!', but it's also important to see some of the roots and themes of the stories from these movies. Understanding the past is important to understand the present, especially in something such as popular culture.

So, while Bad SciFi Movie Night is titled as such, it's not reflective of the quality of the films that we're watching: if anything, the films that we've gone through are just as good - better in some cases - than films that are coming out today.

Ender's Game and Military Strategy

The point that comes the most readily to mind when thinking about Ender's Game is the way military strategy is conceived of and executed. Of all of the Military Science Fiction novels that I've read, there are very few that really capture one of the major elements of combat, the strategic and leadership components that make a battlefield commander effective against an enemy force.

Humanity, under attack from an insectoid race known as the Formics (Buggers), fight tooth and nail to survive: first against a probing force, exploring our solar system, and a second time when a queen is to be installed for a permanent settlement. Earth is razed at points, and the countries of the world band together to form a cohesive military force to confront the military threat. In a number of ways, this is reminiscent of the overall strategy that worked effectively to combat the Axis powers during the Second World War.

Ender's education is the major element of the book that bears examination. From the beginning of the story, he understands a key component of warfare: render your enemy completely unable to pose a threat against you and your interests. Early on, he strikes out at a bully who is attempting to hurt him, noting later on that he would utterly destroy anyone who tries to harm him. It's a theme that's passed along through several points while at Battle School.

The same techniques apply as he is assigned to an army and begins learning the ropes to command an army of students on his own. There are several subsets to this: understanding just how to lead and most effectively lead the soldiers under his command, and effectively using those soldiers to carry out the goal in front of him.

From Bonzo, Ender learns what not to do: personal issues and ego can be exceptional motivators for success, but in his first army, Salamander, it's just as much a detriment to his own unit's cohesion, as Ender himself proves, when he breaks orders at one point to win a game. From other, fellow soldiers, such as Bean, he learns how it's important to use people at their most effective: while some might not be effective as platoon leaders, tapping into the strengths of those soldiers, and allowing them some degree of mobility or latitude to undertake parts of the army's overall mission. This essentially only works when there is a good deal of confidence in the abilities of the people below the leader. As equally important as leadership is, it's an essential key to delegate to sub-leaders who understand the end objective. In Bonzo's case, any strategy undertaken as such would likely not be effective. Under Ender, it propels him to the front of the standings amongst the students. This strategy would also prove effective when Ender is unknowingly fighting against the Formics, all the way to the end.

Militarily, Ender does a couple of interesting things: ensuring that any enemy can't strike back, but also learning from enemy soldiers and innovating accordingly. He moves around his soldiers into a different layout, allows a greater amount of latitude amongst his toon leaders, and uses his soldiers in unorthodox methods, such as using human shields or extra tools. These are key elements that real militaries utilize to undertake their missions, orienting themselves against one another by training to overcome individual systems and strategies.

With Ender's education, this is a military science fiction novel that does dual work with military strategy and tactics, both addressed at the same time, something that often doesn't happen in a novel in the genre. Furthermore, it does so within the framework of addressing some of the deepest moral elements in the genre: how does one even prepare for the total destruction of a race, and what's the impact? The fact that these elements are not only addressed, but really reinforced throughout the plot, make Ender's Game out to be one of the strongest within the genre.

Ender's Game and Bullying

Reading Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game ten years after I had first picked it up left me coming away from the book with several new insights into the story. I've found that the book was even more relevant than when I had first read it, accurately capturing how technology would be used for human interactions, while the military elements of the book hold an especially important place when looking at what the world is like today. Something that I didn't expect, however, was just how important the role of power was to the characters.

In a number of circles in the speculative fiction world, Orson Scott Card's name is an invitation for quite a bit of criticism due to his vocal opposition to a number of social issues, namely that of same-sex marriage. It's an interesting thing then, that the book is particularly relevant in the age of 'It Gets Better', following the suicides of numerous gay teenagers across the country after instances of bullying.

Bullying has become a hot-button issue for schools and communities across the country. Recently, in my home state of Vermont, an entire school, with a number of parents joining them, staged a sit-in to support a fellow teenager who had been bullied at the school over his sexual orientation. In the opening scenes of Ender's Game, a young Andrew Wiggin is attacked in a surprisingly similar manner:

"Hey, Third." Don't answer. Nothing to say. "Hey, Third, we're talkin to you, Third, hey bugger-lover, we're talkin to you."

The scene goes as one might expect: Andrew - Ender - is grabbed by several other children in the group and attacked, before striking out and kicking Stilson, and continued to pummel him until the other boy was unable to fight. At the end of the book, it's discovered that Ender actually killed his classmate.

Other incidents happen shortly thereafter at Ender's home, with his brother Peter and when he attends Battle School, when he's targeted by his first commander, Bonzo Madrid. Peter uses physical force to bully his younger brother, giving in to aggression that he later worked to mitigate and apologize for, while Bonzo attempted to use psychological force against the boy, keeping him isolated and using humiliation to dominate him. The actions of both are instrumental in Ender's desire to move forward in the novel, providing him with a good degree of motivation to succeed.

Card makes it a point to demonstrate that each of the boys who bullied Ender are weak in their own ways: Peter is unable to control his aggression, while both Stilson and Bonzo are afraid: Stilson because of his size, Bonzo because of the legacy that he faces due to his heritage. Bullying, from my own experience and from what I've generally heard from various places, is a technique to try an gain power over another person. Psychologically, they have their own issues, with the aggression a result of that. Card goes to some lengths to paint this aggression in a larger picture, symptoms of a system that's fighting tooth and nail to help the human race survive.

While reading Ender's Game, I couldn't help but think that the kids whom 'It Gets Better' is intended for wouldn't be helped somewhat by reading Ender's Game, and realizing that their stories aren't something new or sadly, even unique, but also that there is a way out at the end. Ender learns much at the hands of his own personal aggressors, learning to survive and to come out on top. At the same time, it's a good book for some of those at the other end of the engagement to read, to understand that there are other deeper and far more costly consequences to their actions, not only to their victims, but to themselves as well.

Card might not appreciate the irony of this, but Ender's Game feels like the perfect tool for a gay high school student to learn how to endure and survive those who are out to hurt them. But, regardless on his own views on how people should live their lives, it's a book that stands well on its own, and one that can go as far to make a miserable couple of years all that much better.

Technology and Ender's Game

A couple of weekends ago, I had a bit of time to revisit a book that I had last picked up while I was in High School: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. It's been one that I've long wanted to revisit, and since the time that I last cracked it open, I've graduated from college with two degrees in history: one specifically in military history, which has given me a unique view on the intersection between military science fiction and how militaries function in the real world.

There were three things that really jumped out at me while reading the novel: the use and conception of technology at the time, the degree to which bullying and power played into the plot, and the way in which military tactics and strategy was used.

Reading Ender's Game in 2011 was an experience that comes right out of the book, and from the perspective of a young high school kid back in 2001, the future has certainly crept up on us slowly, but certainly.

The obvious points is in the use of technology in everyday lives: the students learned and interacted with one another via desks. Reading the book just a couple of weeks ago on an iPad, I was struck at how dead on Card conceptualized the use of portable computers: students bring them with one another, send and receive messages, read, write and learn their lessons on something that could easily be an iPad or similar computer.

More than the physical objects that the characters interact with (after all, small, portable computers have been used in science fiction novels for ages), the way in which they interact with one another was also surprisingly familiar: the internet. Some of the details are slightly off, such as the degree to which people can be restricted from accessing certain contents, but what Card described in 1985 with Peter and Valentine's rise to power is identical to that of bloggers and the abilities to which they can voice opinions on their own, rather than voicing the opinions of a large organization.

What Card seems to have done was conceptualize not the technology, but how people do to interact with one another regardless of how they're hooked up. The introduction of the internet, social media and interactive media hasn't fundimentally changed how we do things, but represents a natural expression of technology and human interactions.

It's interesting to read the book after seeing the rise of such major changes from the ground level. In 2001, I saw the power of the news by watching the headlines change during September 11th, and again with the explosion in activity following the killing of Osama Bin Laden on Twitter. Reading Peter and Valentine's strategy to fulminate support during uncertain political times is strongly reminiscent of very notable people in the media today: political bloggers that capture a significant audience and have whom have the ability to push their own agenda towards solving problems that they see.

The use and conceptualization was one of the surprising highlights of Ender's Game that I'd not readily remembered or expected when returning to the story, but it was a welcome one. While science fiction has more misses when it comes to predicting the future than accurate predictions, Card certainly got a major part of our lives right.

Ready Player One

Ernie Cline is no stranger to nostalgia. His 2008 film, Fanboys, looks at the enthusiasm of Star Wars fans as the clock towards the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace slowly counts down. Cline is now back with a novel, Ready Player One, which taps into the same enthusiasm with a much broader range of geek culture, feels like Fanboys with an exponential injection of energy. The best description of the novel comes from John Scalzi, who described the book as a 'nerdgasm', which sums up the entire package quite nicely, and there's rarely a page without some affirmation or reference towards 1980s Geek culture. If ever there was a primer on what constitutes a Geek, this book is it.

At the same time though, I found Ready Player One to be a considerable letdown. It's got almost all of the ingredients to make for an excellent story: there's plenty of nostalgic love wrapped up in it, but the book falls flat when it comes to the actual path of the story. The book also name-checks just about every obvious author, film, television show and comic book to make any fan giddy, and while it's fun to see everything in a great mashup, it ultimately serves little purpose for much of the plot.

Cline sets up a fairly plausible story that takes shape in 2044, where the world has taken a turn for the worst climate change and the decline of governments mean most people spend a lot of time in an online system known as OASIS, a technological mixup of virtual and augmented reality, social networking and a little bit of the Matrix thrown in there. People meet, fall in love, get educated, go to work, play and all of the other things that the internet currently does, and it's a pretty compelling place, until the founder, James Halliday, dies, leaving his entire fortune and control of OASIS to whomever can locate and solve three puzzles, all centered around his childhood and formative influences. Overnight, an entire class of people searching for the clues - Gunters - are born, ranging from the freelancers to the stereotypically evil corporation, IOI (known as the Sixers). Our protagonist, Wade Watts, joins in the fun just like everyone else, obsessing over Halliday's life and interests, and finds himself a world-wide celebrity when he uncovers the first key. The race is on, and he finds himself on an adventure that's more dangerous than he expected.

It's a fun, quick read, on par with what one might expect from a summertime movie (and this book is already optioned for film treatment - I'll be interested to see how they handle every franchise name-checked in it.) with about the same amount of depth. It's not a bad read: far from it, but in the couple of days since I finished it, I've had a bit of an off feeling coming from the story.

The central part of the problem isn't the packaging or concept of the story: it's what the characters do, and a lot of it comes down to the writing and execution of the story itself. Watts is the idealized geek: encyclopedic knowledge of '80s popular culture history, and frequently, the prose comes down to Watts explaining that he's downloaded, consumed and memorized just about all of it: it stretches the imagination a bit, which might be the idea, but it rubs me the wrong way. For one thing, the impressions of anything that I've come across isn't static. Recently, I re-read Ender's Game, and came away after a decade long break with a totally new understanding of the text and plot. Here, the materials that is so lovingly listed is treated as a mere object.

This leads me to my next issue with the story: the characters really don't learn much from their efforts. Watts and his band of friends memorize everything, but there's not a whole lot that they seem to get out of it, aside from some of the really big concepts, which makes their eventual successes a bit underwhelming: the lessons that they learned in finding the first key to the second to the third essentially only exist in that they're waypoints for the next movement forward, rather than yielding some form of knowledge and understanding of life and the world around us as the whole purpose of the exercise would be. Even the character's interactions with one another feel predictable, foretold, rather than allowing events to drive them. While IOI is looking to gain the keys for wealth and profit, that feels like it would be their weak point, where Watts & Co. succeed by learning something while moving forward. It's alluded to towards the end, but no more than lip service.

One of the major issues that acts as an umbrella for the entire book is that it's easy to list and incorporate everything into a giant mix of one's favorite franchises: it helps to provide some of the more exciting scenes in the book, but after reading the story, I found myself wondering what about the stuff that happened in between 2003 (the latest reference that I caught was Firefly), and 2044, a time that's more than double the period of popular culture influences? The book is intended as a nostalgic exercise, but popular culture is popular for far more reasons than mere nostalgia, it's the continued imagination that drives it forward. Far too frequently, it feels like the sudden popularity of geek culture is a blip in the ether, something that will slowly fade as our memories of our collective childhoods becomes just that much more hazy. There's a gap between the imagination and innovation of consumers and our tendency to fall back on what's familiar. While Ready Player One is a fun, exciting and page turning read, it heavily embodies the derivative nature of our culture, and runs with it. It's not a legacy that I really like.

To be sure, Ready Player One is a fantastic primer, one that sums up the check list of essential geek things to look in on. But it misses some of the key points of the heart of the subject. It's a good effort though, and if anything, it's well worth the entertainment and trip back in time.