General Books - Old Segundo Productions

Empire Marine: General Littleton W.T. Waller and the Growth of American Imperialism, 1856-1926 (companion book for the documentary film, Empire Marine)

Vernon Williams — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 20:50:29 +0000

Empire Marine examines the role that Littleton W. T. Waller played in the development and growth of the Marine Corps within the emerging empire of turn-of-the-century America. The grandson of the governor of Virginia, Littleton W.T. Waller grew up during the post-Civil War years when his widowed mother struggled to provide for her sons. Unable to attend university or a professional military school, Waller secured a commission in the Marine Corps in 1880 and began a long and successful military career. Waller’s service corresponded with the growth of the Marine Corps and the exportation of American imperialism in the 1890s and beyond. Particularly significant were the episodes of U.S. political and military expansion in South America, the Philippines, China, Panama, Cuba, and Haiti. Waller’s experiences reflected the new emerging role that marines would play in the execution of American policy across the globe.

About the Author

VERNON L. WILLIAMS is a military historian and president of the Old Primero Historical Foundation. Williams grew up in an Air Force family, and his writings and documentary films record the stories of ordinary people who did extraordinary things in American military history.

288 pages

The post Empire Marine: General Littleton W.T. Waller and the Growth of American Imperialism, 1856-1926 (companion book for the documentary film, Empire Marine) first appeared on Old Segundo Productions.

Lieutenant Patton (companion book for the documentary film, Patton and Pancho)

Vernon Williams — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 05:19:16 +0000

George S. Patton, Jr. and the American Army in the Mexican Punitive Expedition, 1915-1916

In 1915-1916 the mobilization of the American Army along the Mexican border and the combat operations on the Mexican Punitive Expedition helped to forge the frontier army into a new mobile fighting machine that would soon face the trials of modern warfare in Europe. Among the subalterns who participated in that experience was Lieutenant George S. Patton who would develop into one of the United States Army’s great combat commanders.

Vernon L. Williams has woven the story of the young Patton into the fabric of the Punitive Expedition that gives the reader a glimpse of the future leader who captured the imagination of a later America and embodied the offensive spirit of the Army of the United States. Patton’s experiences on the Punitive Expedition serve as a vehicle that sheds light on the changing face of the Army. Air power, mobile operations, communications, and emerging technology called for new tactics on the desert of northern Mexico.

The post Lieutenant Patton (companion book for the documentary film, Patton and Pancho) first appeared on Old Segundo Productions.

Flight Surgeon: A War Diary, 1941-1945 (companion book for documentary film, From Ozark to Fortress Europe)

Vernon Williams — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 04:21:05 +0000

Colonel Thurman Shuller’s war diary traces his story from Las Vegas Army Airfield in the summer of 1941 to the desperate days of the air war in Europe. The group surgeon character in the motion picture Twelve O’clock High was based on Shuller during his time as Group Surgeon of the famed 306th Bomb Group at Thurleigh, England, where he struggled with finding medical solutions for high altitude frostbite, oxygen deprivation, combat fatigue, and a growing crisis of hopelessness among the air crews. Shuller campaigned for setting the maximum number of missions for air crews to fly in a combat tour and argued for the elimination of “Maximum Effort” missions that forced them back to base from furloughs and passes.

Shuller’s diary brings his wartime experience back to life. His descriptions of the journey across the North Atlantic in the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress are vivid and personal. His accounts about life among the British during the war bring a fresh look at the air war as it emerged from the pleasant meadowlands of East Anglia.

Royalties for the book are being donated to the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force (www.mightyeighth.org).

About the Editor

VERNON L. WILLIAMS is a military historian and director of the East Anglia Air War Project. Williams’s writings and documentary films record the stories of ordinary people who did extraordinary things in American military history. Williams edited the Shuller war diary, bringing the surgeon’s journey to life as part of a much larger story of war.

442 pages

The post Flight Surgeon: A War Diary, 1941-1945 (companion book for documentary film, From Ozark to Fortress Europe) first appeared on Old Segundo Productions.