How Authors Emerged From the Trenches

From Soldier to Storyteller: Essays on World War Veterans Who Became Famous Children’s Authors. Edited by Kathleen Broome Williams and Hal Friedman. McFarland. 226 pages. $49.95

By Lt. Col. Joe Byerly, U.S. Army retired

When war breaks out, it leaves a wake that can last for centuries. Borders are broken and re-formed. Governments rise and fall. It produces technologies like jet engines, penicillin and computers that greatly alter society. And it forever changes the lives of the men and women who participate in it.

In the 20th century, the two world wars devastated millions of lives. Yet a handful of men and women transformed their wartime experiences into artistic and literary works that continue to captivate readers—both young and old—nearly a century later.

From Soldier to Storyteller: Essays on World War Veterans Who Became Famous Children’s Authors is a collection of 12 essays, edited by Kathleen Broome Williams and Hal Friedman, that explores the writers who turned their wartime experiences into beloved stories. As the editors note, “they turned to children and youths, to fable, myth and fantasy, to provide answers to the otherwise incomprehensible carnage they had witnessed.”

Many of the authors featured in this collection remain widely recognized today. Among them are Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) and Charles Schulz (Peanuts), along with others whose works continue to shape Western storytelling.

Each essay provides a biographical sketch of the author, detailing their early life, wartime experiences and how those experiences influenced their writing. Their military roles varied—Elizabeth McIntosh (Inky: Seeing Eye Dog, published under a later married name, Elizabeth Heppner) and Ian Fleming (James Bond, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) worked in espionage, while A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh) fought in the trenches of World War I. Hugh Lofting, unable to share the horrors of war with his children, instead wrote letters about the animals he encountered—letters that eventually gave birth to Dr. Dolittle.

For those interested in the children’s authors who emerged from the world wars of the 20th century, this book is an excellent resource. Each essay contains extensive endnotes for readers looking to explore the authors’ lives and works in greater depth.

From Soldier to Storyteller is a powerful example of how people can take a destructive experience like war and transform it into art that inspires and entertains. For U.S. Army leaders today, these authors serve as a testament to the value of writing as a means of processing experiences in a healthy and meaningful way. They show how military service can serve as a catalyst for imagination and creativity.

Lt. Col. Joe Byerly, U.S. Army retired, served 20 years, retiring in August 2024 as commander of 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Germany. He is the founder of the website From the Green Notebook and the host of the From the Green Notebook podcast.

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Officer Overcomes Polio to Serve Nation

My Toughest Battle: A Soldier’s Lifelong Struggle with Polio. Maj. Gen. William Matz Jr., USA Ret. Casemate Publishers. 320 pages. $34.95

By Kayla Williams

If asked to list major historical events relevant to the U.S. military from the 1960s to the 1990s, key episodes might include the integration of the University of Mississippi, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam War protests, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, tensions in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the creation of light infantry divisions and accompanying doctrine, the Iran-Contra Affair, Operation Just Cause in Panama, the end of the Cold War and the subsequent shift in force strength and focus.

Retired Maj. Gen. William Matz Jr. had some level of involvement in each of these high-profile historic moments, and he shares his recollections of them in My Toughest Battle: A Soldier’s Lifelong Struggle with Polio. The memoir covers his challenging recovery from polio-induced paralysis of his right leg; time as an ROTC cadet in college; 33-year U.S. Army career as an infantryman; and post-military years as a defense contractor, veterans advocate and political appointee.

At the tender age of 5, Matz contracted acute poliomyelitis, which affected the motor neurons to his muscles. He spent months as an inpatient quarantined in an isolation ward, undergoing excruciatingly painful treatments designed to prevent permanent paralysis. After discharge, he wore a brace and continued with swimming therapy for years.

He participated in Boy Scouts and sports, continually seeking to “hide and disguise [his] deformity and permanent limp,” according to the book. With a combination of special orthotics and sheer grit, Matz was able to overcome these physical challenges and go on to have a successful career as an infantryman.

In the Army, Matz completed both airborne and Ranger training, with later assignments to the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. During his long career, he served several times at the Pentagon and saw multiple deployments overseas. He earned a Distinguished Service Cross during the Tet Offensive. Matz’s description of the wide range of staff and command assignments he held while progressing from second lieutenant to major general will benefit young officers interested in tracing the evolution of a successful career and understanding the vast array of responsibilities senior officers may encounter over time.

However, those seeking introspection about long-term consequences of policy decisions may come away disappointed. For example, Matz discusses how “we had failed to prepare for the transition to stability operations” after Gen. Manuel Noriega’s regime fell in Panama, but does not explore why this lesson was not internalized before Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He also writes about how troops in Vietnam “hated operating in areas struck by Agent Orange” and how his own exposure resulted in prostate cancer. Despite this, when responsible for the destruction of chemical weapons at the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System, located on Johnston Island in the central Pacific, Matz disparages representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as “bothering” the commander with “senseless bureaucratic matters detracting from his mission.”

Matz’s illustrious military career was not the end of his service. After stints in the defense industry, he became president of the nonprofit National Association for Uniformed Services, advocating on behalf of “the entire military/veteran family” on Capitol Hill. He was appointed to the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission, which delivered a comprehensive report recommending improvements to the disability system for veterans.

Matz finished his decades of service to the nation as secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, overseeing dozens of overseas cemeteries and memorials.

The grit and toughness that allowed Matz to honorably serve as an infantryman after surviving childhood polio with ongoing physical limitations is inspiring. His first-person perspective provides unique insights into the astonishing array of major historical events in which he participated as a servant to the nation.

Kayla Williams is the author of Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army and Plenty of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War.

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Examining the Effectiveness Of Special Forces Soldiers

Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan. Frank K. Sobchak. Naval Institute Press. 352 pages. $39.95

By Robert Seals

Since the birth of U.S. Army Special Forces in 1952, authors have largely celebrated these storied soldiers. Writers have praised the Green Berets for their service and unquestioned valor during the Cold War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, global war on terrorism and overseas contingency operations.

But few, if any, authors have analyzed Special Forces operations to understand if and how they worked. Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan, by Frank Sobchak, is an attempt to remedy this and determine which recent “by, with, and through” efforts have been successful—and why.

Sobchak, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel, is the chair of Irregular Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, New York. Sobchak’s singular focus in the book is on security force assistance—the mission to train, equip and advise foreign security forces. His book is an attempt to explain why “most of the U.S. efforts to build effective partners proved catastrophic failures”—with a few notable exceptions like the Afghan Commandos, who fought the Taliban to the end. According to Sobchak, the central question of his book is to determine what makes the difference in producing capable partners.

To this end, he examines such factors as language training and cultural awareness, consistency in adviser pairing, the ratio of advisers to host forces, ability to organize the host units and the ability to advise during combat.

The author analyzes these factors in five case studies: El Salvador from 1981 to 1991; the Philippines from 2001 to 2015; Colombia from 2002 to 2016; Iraq from 2003 to 2011; and Afghanistan from 2007 to 2021. For consistency, these chapters focus on Special Forces soldiers providing training to elite forces rather than conventional or police forces. Sobchak measures the host nations’ combat effectiveness in different scenarios, yielding a box score that ranges from the best, Colombia, “the dream allies,” to the worst, Afghanistan, “chasing bright and shiny objects.”

When connected to the advisory factors, some of Sobchak’s findings will challenge orthodox beliefs, such as his suggestion that “neither combat advising nor proper advisor language and cultural awareness skills have proven essential.” All Sobchak’s findings will have important implications for future security force assistance missions.

This reviewer challenges one assertion in Sobchak’s conclusion, that the U.S. has “never taken [security force assistance] seriously”—assigning thousands of advisers to train, advise and mentor the Republic of Vietnam armed forces at the height of the Vietnam War suggests a level of seriousness. That aside, the book is well researched, noted and referenced, with 44 pages of endnotes and 340 sources in the bibliography.

Sobchak conducted 114 interviews with Special Forces veterans, including Lt. Col. Ted Mataxis Jr., Maj. Gen. Edward Reeder Jr., Col. Duke Christie and Lt. Col. Joseph Reagan, to provide context and perspective. The work includes a helpful list of abbreviations for the unfamiliar, though some 30 pages of “calculating partner-force-to-advisor ratios” in the appendix seem to be an excessive level of detail.

Sobchak’s book is important and should encourage a much-needed critical examination of Special Forces and other advisory operations. Training for Victory is for those with a strong interest in Special Forces and the challenges of building effective partner forces. As the author contends, advisory operations are “a difficult, long-term, and often thankless endeavor,” but one that the Army must be ready to execute.

Robert Seals served 22 years in the Army as an infantry and Special Forces officer, retiring in 2004. Currently, he is a command historian living in Raeford, North Carolina.

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Dutch Villagers Give Thanks to US Troops

Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II. Robert Edsel. Harper Horizon. 528 pages. $31.99

By Matthew Seelinger

In his latest work, Robert Edsel—author of the acclaimed The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History and other books on the preservation of Europe’s artistic treasures during World War II—has produced a moving study of the German occupation of southern Holland, its liberation by the U.S. Army late in the war and the everlasting thanks of the Dutch people. Edsel’s Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II is a touching tribute to both the American soldiers and the Dutch citizens of Maastricht and nearby villages, especially Margraten, who took it upon themselves to preserve the memory of thousands of fallen U.S. soldiers and airmen.

Edsel begins by providing a cast of characters central to his narrative, including Dutch citizens and American servicemen. He follows with chapters describing the southern Dutch province of Limburg before the May 1940 German invasion and four years of privation during the harsh Nazi occupation, as well as the early lives and military service of the soldiers and airmen featured in the book.

Among them are twin brothers who flew in the same B-26 Marauder medium bomber, a Regular Army lieutenant colonel in the 101st Airborne Division, an Army chaplain, two African American soldiers (one assigned to a quartermaster company, the other to a segregated tank battalion), a German-born Jew serving as a translator and a Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives officer (aka “monuments man”). Many of these men would perish in the war, several within weeks of V-E Day.

When U.S. Ninth Army forces helped liberate southern Holland and ended years of Nazi oppression, the Dutch welcomed them with open arms, and many developed close relationships with the Americans. They recognized the sacrifices made by U.S. forces, as evidenced by the American military cemetery established just outside of Margraten, the initial resting place of some 18,000 fallen soldiers and airmen and, for some time, the largest U.S. military cemetery in the European Theater.

One of the most valuable contributions of Edsel’s book is his detailed description of the necessary, if unsettling, work of the Quartermaster Corps Graves Registration Service units, much of it carried out by African American personnel.

Central to Edsel’s title, Remember Us, are the efforts by Dutch citizens to remember the fallen by individuals and families “adopting” a U.S. serviceman’s grave, especially since many American families did not have the means to travel to Europe. Edsel describes how much of this task was led by the efforts of Emilie Michiels van Kessenich, the wife of Maastricht’s mayor and the mother of 14 children. Edsel credits her and the Dutch program of adopting graves as a reason many next of kin decided to keep their loved ones buried in Holland, in what became the Netherlands American Cemetery, knowing their remains would be cared for, rather than have them repatriated to the United States. The program continues to this day, with fourth-generation family members carrying on the tradition.

Edsel’s prose keeps readers glued to the page—this is no dry academic tome. He also includes many photographs and a map of the Netherlands American Cemetery that shows where some of the soldiers mentioned in the book are buried. The occasional misuse of military terms (“brig” instead of “stockade” for an Army jail, for example) is a minor annoyance in an otherwise excellent book about service, sacrifice and remembrance.

Matthew Seelinger is the chief historian at the Army Historical Foundation and editor of the Foundation’s quarterly journal, On Point.