With the conclusion of each Civil War Trust Battle App project I find myself with this huge surplus of battlefield photos that scream out to be placed in a book.  Here’s my Chancellorsville book with many of my favorite photos from this remarkable battlefield.

To see the book in a larger size on your computer screen click on the full-screen option in the bottom left of the preview widget below.

Chancellorsville by Robert Shenk | Make Your Own Book

2011 was a great year on the photography front.  I had many great opportunities to take photographs at amazing places throughout the country.  Here are my ten favorite photos from this past year.

#1  Reynolds Monument in Winter

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

#2   Taking Aim

Fort Jackson outside of Savannah, Georgia

#3 The Churchyard at Dusk

St. Helena Church, Beaufort, South Carolina

#4 Storm over Henry Hill

Manassas National Battlefield, Virginia

#5  Groveton Landscape

Manassas National Battlefield, Virginia

#6 Rainout

Nationals Park, Washington DC

#7 Granite Sentinels

Yosemite National Park, California

#8  Torrent

Nevada Falls, Yosemite National Park, California

#9 Mystic Gate

Fort Baker, Marin County, California

#10  Rebel Charge

Ball’s Bluff Battlefield, Virginia

2011 proved to be a challenging year for many throughout the world, but on the book front it was a runaway bull market.  Given all the great books I had the pleasure to read it was actually pretty hard to settle on just five.  This year’s selections are all non-fiction works and heavily skewed towards history and biography – my normal staples.  And for those concerned about a world without physical books, I’m happy to report that four of the five listed below were read in their original hardback form.

Without further ado, here’s the list of my five favorite books of 2011:

#1   Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Audiobook played on Apple iPhone

I think when I finished this book I must have mouthed the words “Wow, wow, wow” over and over.  Listening to the book through my iPhone playing audio through my car speakers, I just couldn’t believe all of the painful and emotional twists and turns that this book presents.  Knowing that this book was a non-fiction account (just goes to show again that reality is always better than fiction) made the saga all the more powerful.

I’m not sure I was really looking to “read” this book.  My initial reactions to the topic and book were clearly shortsighted.  What is this Seabiscuit author doing messing around in the World War 2 realm?  I’m sure she could turn a pretty phrase, but would her scholarship be worthy? Well, desperate for a new audiobook to fill my excruciating commutes in and out of Washington DC, I decided to download the audiobook onto my iPhone and give it a shot.  Unlike many other audiobooks where my mind would oftentimes wander from the disembodied voice, I was quickly sucked into this story.

Louis Zamperini was someone that I had never heard of, but his life quickly became a modern Odyssey to me.  For those who have read this book you know what I am talking about.  How could one man, a man who had once been an Olympic runner, survive an ordeal that includes a crash in a B-24 Liberator, 43 shark-filled days floating on the Pacific, followed by captivity within some of the most brutal Japanese POW camps?  This survival epic is a true testament to the resiliency of man.  But its the final chapter, with Zamperini back in post-war Southern California, which really produces the true shock and power of this story.  In what first appears as a maudlin, unfortunate descent into alcoholism and self-destruction leads to a surprising personal rebirth.  Zamperini, who everyone hopes gains total revenge against his sadistic captors, takes a diametrically opposed course of forgiveness.  Forgiveness?  With the legendary Reverend Billy Graham as his minister, Zamperini discovers his Christian self and becomes a powerful agent of of the New Testament command, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”  Completely unexpected….and an ending that vaults this book into a truly exalted plane.

#2  1861: A Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart

Hardback Book

Did I really want to read this book?  I wasn’t so sure.  Yes, this book, 1861: A Civil War Awakening, was focused on the first year of the American Civil War – a key topic for me at the Civil War Trust in 2011.  But in perusing this book in the bookstore it seemed that this book went out of its way to avoid traditional military topics like First Manassas, Ball’s Bluff, or Wilson’s Creek.  Where were the maps of the Union and Confederate soldiers as they met in combat at Henry Hill or Bloody Ridge?  Hmmm.  Maybe some other book would be better for me.

After reading an excerpt of the book in a Sunday New York Times Magazine article, I decided to give 1861 a shot.  In that article one could clearly see that Goodheart was an excellent writer.  Let me just say that I am so glad that I did read this insightful and well-crafted book.  Adam Goodheart’s book filled in some huge gaps in my understanding of the first days of the Civil War.  And while focusing more on Northern topics and subjects, the book helps to bring to life the powerful emotions and undercurrents which motivated the North as it confronted the specter of civil war. Before reading this book, I, like lots of others I surmise, always assumed that it was the Confederacy alone that was filled with an almost revolutionary zeal and that the Northern forces, reluctantly and quietly, simply went south to do their duty, nothing more.  1861 smashes this conventional notion.  Here you find a wide range of characters and subjects ranging from mysterious Wide Awakes to the acrobatic Elmer Ellsworth to Jessie Benton Fremont to a young James Garfield.  With each Goodheart connects you to their strong emotional desires for a renewed and improved union.  Reading 1861 fills you with an improved understanding of why men from Northern farms and cities rushed out after Fort Sumter to join regiments that would be sent south to fight for something called the United States.  This book is truly Pulitzer-prize worthy in my estimation.

See an interview that we did with Adam Goodheart earlier this year:  Read the Interview

#3   Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Hardback Book

What an ass!  What a genius.   I can’t imagine working for a man like Steve Jobs, but I also can’t imagine a world apart from his great gifts and products.  Walter Isaacson in Steve Jobs does a brilliant job of shining a bright, penetrating light upon this central figure of the computer and digital age.  This biography, brought to market shortly after Job’s death, highlights the many emotional peculiarities and deep character flaws found in the man.  The book also does a great job in de-mythologizing Jobs.  In chapter after chapter we learn of Job’s important role in the development of great products like the Apple II, Macintosh, iOS, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad, but we also get to see the other great contributors whose roles were rarely celebrated publicly by Jobs.

After reading this book did I find myself admiring Steve Jobs less?  On a personal level my answer is unequivocally yes.  But on a business and product front I must say that my impression of the man was bolstered, if not extended in some interesting ways.  Despite running one of the largest and richest companies in the world, Jobs’ ironclad focus on just a few key products is truly remarkable.  This laser-like focus is so very hard to achieve, but its also so terribly important so as to achieve greatness in any category of note.  Jobs’ attention on all aspects of product greatness (product, software, the buying experience, and even the boxes that contained its magical products) is another powerfully reinforced strength.

Isaacson’s biography reads quickly and his account seems entirely fair and free of the “reality distortion field” that was so present around Steve Jobs and his company.

#4    Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James Hornfischer

Hardback Book

In World War 2, major naval powers quickly learned that the aircraft carrier was the dominant naval weapons system and all of those expensive and slow battleships and cruisers were of limited value in this new modern age.  Right?  Well yes, but as Neptune’s Inferno by James Hornfischer shows, there were key points in the Pacific War where surface combatants reigned supreme.  Neptune’s Inferno focuses in on the surface naval combat in the Solomon Island chain near the strategic island of Guadalcanal.  With the U.S. Marines holding a tenuous position on the island, the U.S. Navy’s remaining aircraft carriers were, one by one, being sunk, damaged, and driven off by strong Japanese forces.  Seeking to regain control of Guadalcanal, the Japanese navy sought to use big-gunned battleships and cruisers to obliterate the American positions on the island.  To counter this terrifying threat the US Navy had to rely upon its own large surface combatants.

Hornfisher, who also wrote the excellent Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, does a great job in describing the various surface actions off of Guadalcanal.  The pages are filled with Long Lance torpedoes, the screech of armor piercing shells, and mangled ships making their way through the night waters.  We also get to see how the US and Allied Navies managed to learn from their early mistakes (Savo Island) and respond with new and more aggressive tactics. And we learn that while the Marines would get most of the public acclaim back in the States, it was the Navy that actually took more casualties during the fight for this strategic toehold.  Neptune’s Inferno is really one of the best World War 2 naval warfare accounts to come out in a long time.

#5   1493: Uncovering The New World Columbus Created by Charles Mann

Hardback Book

My number 5 book of 2011 is actually two books – 1491 and its sequel 1493.  I have always been fascinated by the classical age of European exploration and was naturally interested in these critically acclaimed accounts of pre-Columbian America and the true, far-reaching impact of the European discovery of the “New World.”  What I really liked about these two books is that the author, Charles Mann, focuses in on the real battlegrounds where the new and old worlds collided.  While its easy to point at explorers like Columbus and conquistadors like Pizarro and Cortes, Mann shows us that the true conflict was being waged on the microbial and biological level.  The great destroyer of the New World empires were diseases, not horse-mounted Spanish soldiers wielding new-fangled firearms.

In 1491 we learn a great deal about the remarkable extent and numbers of the pre-Columbian populations.  The notion that the Americas were a sparsely populated terra nova awaiting European settlement are just plain wrong. And in 1493 we learn about how the biological-microbial landscape helped to shape not only the development of the New World (encouraging African slavery because West Africans were more resistant to the terrible sources of malaria in the Americas), but also how it shaped the rest of the world (ex. the globalization of rubber).  Endlessly interesting, these books should help educate many who are looking for a fresh and insightful look at the world-changing impact of Columbus’ voyages at the end of the 15th century.

——–

Other 2011 Books of Note:

Perilous Fight: America’s Intrepid War with Great Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815 by Stephen Budiansky

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick

Distant Thunder: Photographs from the Manassas Battlefield

Here’s an online preview of my new collection of Manassas Battlefield photos.

Too expensive to buy, I’ve provided a full online preview below. Click the full-screen expand button (near the Blurb logo) to see the book at a larger size.

Distant Thunder: Photographs from the Manassas Battlefield

Distant Thunder by Robert Shenk | Make Your Own Book

Using 21st Century Technology to Help Illuminate a 19th Century Battlefield

The Fredericksburg Battle App

On May 4, 2011, the Civil War Trust officially launched the Fredericksburg Battle App – a GPS-enabled battlefield tour for iPhone and iPod Touches.  This launch brought to a close a project that I had been thinking or working on for the better part of a year.  And while the Fredericksburg Battle App is actually our second iPhone App, behind the Gettysburg: Devil’s Den & Little Round Top offering, this new app, focused on the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, is what kicked off this whole project.

Hey, Wouldn’t It Be Cool If We Could……

As the Civil War Trust’s Director of Internet Strategy and Development, I have the great job that allows me to think about ways to leverage modern technology in support of 150 year old battlefields.    Holding my new Apple iPhone and exploring various GPS-enabled touring apps, it wasn’t that much of a stretch to think about how this great new bundle of mobile, hand-held technology could be leveraged to produce a truly new and differentiated battlefield touring product.   If Rick Steves could make a touring app for historic Paris, why couldn’t I make one for Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, or Shiloh?

The concept for our “Battle App” was simply to create a topographical map of a battlefield and then to stick “Virtual Signs” into that digital landscape.  As one wandered around the battlefield expanse they would see their GPS blue dot and know how close they were to this or that site.  Easy?  In concept yes.

Assembling a Team of Rare Talents

I must fully admit that the ideation part of this project was the simplest part of the project.  Figuring out a way to make this app, without busting my modest budget, was going to be a much bigger challenge.  After thinking about it for a while I knew that I was going to need (A) approval from my boss Jim Lighthizer (B) the blessings of our Board of Trustees (C) a great app development partner (D) a Battle of Fredericksburg historian (E) someone to help write all the content (F) historians that would agree to be within our video modules (G) someone who could produce quality audio tracts recreating northern and southern Civil War soldier voiecs (H) someone who could help assemble all this great content into a usable package (I) a cartographer who has strong familiarity with the Civil War and the Battle of Fredericksburg (J) a great graphics designer and (K) a lot of time.

On the approval front, I was gratified to receive immediate and enthusiastic support from Jim Lighthizer and our Board.  You would think that the Civil War Trust, a non-profit which focuses on historic land preservation, would be sheepish about pushing resources into this untested mobile internet space, but true to form they boldly encouraged me and rapidly provided their approval.  A and B – check.

Gulp.  Ok, now I’m in it.  I’ve got a nice idea and I’ve stuck my neck out with the Board……now I need to build this thing that I’ve never built before.  Fortunately for me, the Civil War Trust Web Team provided me with G, H, I, and J.  Jim Drey, Wendy Woodford, Doug Ullman, and Steve Stanley were exactly the types of talents that I needed for this effort.  IT smarts, great designer, NYU drama grad – great with audio production, and one of the preeminent Civil War cartographers.  Check, check, check, check.

My fortune continued to hold when Frank O’Reilly, the man who has written the book on the Battle of Fredericksburg, and a National Park Service historian at the Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania National Military Park, agreed to help me lay out the tour and to be the historian in our onboard videos.   In one three-hour, sun-baked session on a park bench next to the historic Sunken Road, we poured over Google Earth print outs, chose our tour paths and Virtual Sign spots, and talked about great primary source material to leverage.   Later, on a broiling-hot summer day in Fredericksburg, Frank would share his great accounts of the battle with my Canon EOS 7D SLR in video mode.  Check, Check.

Historian Frank O'Reilly Describing the Union Crossing of the Rappahannock

Maybe the most important, and improbable, quest was in finding a seasoned technology partner who would be willing and able to produce this new Battle App.  I can remember pouring through the iTunes App Store looking for companies that had produced GPS-enabled touring apps.  After finding a few, I did some follow up Google searches and found this company called AccuTerra out of Denver, Colorado.  AccuTerra had just released a GPS-enabled hiking app that had won a design award from Apple Computer.   Sheepishly I dialed the number looking to talk to anyone who would listen to my pitch.  Much to my amazement I did get to speak to a human (Dave Witonsky) and even more shocking was the fact that they were looking for a partner like us – someone who could help them spread out into the “cultural” space.  What were the odds?

During this project, AccuTerra went through its own challenging period.  Intermap, their corporate parent, let go much of the staff that we had been working with and then spun out the company.  Fortunately for us, the newly spun-out entity, NeoTreks, retained all the development prowess and strength that we so desperately needed for this project. Big check!

Lastly, and importantly, Garry Adelman, a good friend of the Trust’s, helped to bring on his old firm, History Associates, as the writer of the text for our Virtual Signs and Points of Interest.  Even more encouraging was the fact that Garry left HAI to join the Civil War Trust during this process – giving us a great in-house historian to leverage for this and future efforts.  Garry would not only become a key part of the Battle Apps team (you can see him in our Gettysburg App), but also would lend his great narration voice to our two mini-animated maps.

Amazingly we had managed to assemble a team, filled with industry leaders, with rare skillsets, to pursue this project of building a modern battlefield touring product for the iPhone.

The Fredericksburg Battle App Plan

As mentioned above, the concept behind the Battle Apps was fairly straight forward.  The notion of developing historical content and tying that content to specific points on a useful map is a part of almost every traditional touring product.  Guidebooks, tour maps, audio CDs, battlefield interpretative signs, and even DVD products all followed this tried and true approach to guiding one over unfamiliar terrain.  So why would one want to use an iPhone instead of a nice, familiar guidebook?

To make sure we had a winning product it was important that we focus on the true advantages that the smart phone brought to the battlefield tour.  As compared to traditional products we saw our Battle Apps as having the following chief advantages:

1.   Leverage the Battle Apps’ GPS to Deliver True Power of Place

We would design our base maps to not only show a 1862 landscape, but would also include the locations of the various regiments and brigades that fought in the battle.  Having the app in hand would allow to stand, with confidence, where the 21st Mississippi or 20th Massachusetts or Washington Artillery stood during the battle.

2.  Leverage the Battle Apps’ Content Strengths to Serve Skimmers and Buffs Alike

We were very sensitive to the notion that not everyone is going to read every bit of text in our Battle App Virtual Signs, but we also didn’t want to offer up the kind of short snippets that you find on various signs.  Our Virtual Signs would deliver bulletized information at the top (for the skimmer) and lengthier accounts below (for the interested).

3.  Take Full Advantage of the Battle App’s Onboard Media Strengths

To go beyond just simple text and photos we were determined to include rich video segments and audio tracts that recreated the voices of soldiers and civilians who were there at the battle.  We also took small portions from our Battle of Fredericksburg animated map and included those animations within the product.

4.  Leverage the Virtual Nature of the Tour to Create a Full-Battlefield Offering

Early on we determined that this Battle App would cover the entire battlefield, not just the few spots that the National Park manages.  From the streets of Fredericksburg to the farmland of the Slaughter Pen, we would have tours that covered every aspect of this great, and poorly understood battle.   Being a virtual product helps us greatly on this front.

5.  Create an Offering that Works at Home as Well as on the Battlefield

As a native Californian I am always interested in historical products that can expand one’s knowledge of a site, despite being thousands of miles away.  Physical signs and tour guides are only useful at the battlefield itself.  Our Battle App would work well in San Francisco, New York City, or London, England.

6.  Let the Technology Be an Entry Point for A New, Younger Demographic

We believed strongly that a younger demographic who may have only a modest interest in the Civil War could be motivated to learn more just due to the fact that the historical content is available in a technologically interesting package.

7.  Use Apple’s Update System to Make this a Living Product

This would not be a “one and done” product.  We could expand, enhance, or fix the Battle App with dynamic updates delivered straight to the phone.

A "Virtual Sign" from the Union Attack Begins tour

Physical signs are great, but the amount of content they can include is constrained by their physical dimensions.  The vast majority of them also cannot carry audio and video content.  Signs are also only available to those standing in front of them. Lastly, signs are the sworn enemies of birds everywhere.  But maybe most importantly, you can’t put a physical sign anywhere you want.

Guidebooks are less constrained by text content limitations, but they can be cumbersome in the field and its not always easy to determine your exact location vis-a-vis the guide.  Am I standing here?  Or am I there?

Audio guides can be nice, but they really are geared to driving tours and include no imagery.

Human tour guide remain the best option, but the best guides are not always available and they can be an expensive option for most.

And lastly, our product would be the least costly option of the lot – well maybe only surpassed by a NPS Ranger-led tour.

During the development of this product we worked hard to produce great historian videos (Frank O’Reilly 24×7), inspiring audio accounts (amazing to think that we used voices from the Civil War Trust staff), tight, well written text designed to appeal to skimmers and buffs alike, modern and historic photos, and a fantastic set of GPS-enabled maps showing the 1862 landscape.

In March of 2011, NeoTreks delivered to us the first usable test version of the Fredericksburg App.  With Michael Bullock of NeoTreks in town, we ventured down to Fredericksburg to give it a try.  I must admit, that as the project lead for this app, seeing the magical blue dot marking my position on the streets of Fredericksburg within the Battle App filled me with a great flood of appreciation and excitement.  There it is!   Even now that blue dot still makes my blood pump.  The App works, the app works – no better feeling for a product developer.

I know that in talking to many early adopters of our Fredericksburg Battle App, many of them serious Civil War buffs, that they have said to me that they had never really toured the streets of Fredericksburg, where so much of the early battle occurred on December 11, 1862 or wandered Prospect Hill, or knew the true extent of the main Union attack to the south.  These are great words to hear, for one of our main objectives of the Battle App is to encourage people to expand their appreciation and understanding of the full geography, the entire history of the Battle of Fredericksburg.  This is a very good sign.

Now that the Fredericksburg Battle App is launched, the Civil War Trust/NeoTreks team is working hard to produce our next set of Battle App offerings.   Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and Malvern Hill are all in various stages of development.  So many others are being prepared to development as well.   Thanks to a generous grant from Virginia’s Department of Transportation, we now have the funds and commission to produce 10 Virginia Civil War Battle Apps over the next two years.  So onward and upward for the Battle App program.

The Battle App in action up on Marye's Heights

Build It and They will Come….or Will They?

So with the Fredericksburg Battle App now launched, the efforts now swung decisively towards promoting our new offering.  Let’s just say that the ready market for a smartphone based battlefield touring product of a Civil War battlefield in Virginia (not Gettysburg or Antietam) is no where near the size of apps like the “Virtual Lighter”, “Talking Ben the Dog”, or Angry Birds.   Our niche offering needed to find its niche audience – wherever they hide.   Fortunately here, the team was further benefited by Jim Campi and Mary Koik from our communications team at Civil War Trust.  No one knows the Civil War media landscape like these two.   So thanks to their efforts we were able to not only get a great press conference with the Virginia Secretary of Transportation, Sean Connaughten and Virginia Speaker of the House Bill Howell, but we also received a great deal of media coverage for our new release – all very much appreciated.

Fredericksburg Gets Civil War App: MyFoxDC.com

Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star Coverage

WTOP News Coverage

Patch.com/Fredericksburg

LT. Shenk Onboard USS Nimitz

It was early evening and I found myself inside the cramped secure comms room aboard the USS Nimitz just off the shore of San Diego.   I can remember standing near one of the crypto officers who was listening in to various Navy and broadcast messages that were heralding the beginning of Desert Storm – the offensive to reclaim occupied Kuwait.

It was January 17, 1991 and this tiny room filled with sensitive communications gear was buzzing with energy from thousands of miles away.   As I listened into the stream of words and noise, not all intelligible to this junior officer,  I can remember being filled with a flood of powerful emotions.  Could this really be happening?  Could the United States and dozens of other nations really be flying hundreds of attack aircraft on missions over an Iraqi landscape filled with sophisticated surface to air missiles, MiG-29s, and tens of thousands of dumb, but effective anti-aircraft guns?  My mind raced and my heart beat.  I must admit that my first and most powerful emotion was this surge of war lust.  At 26 years of age and with nary a care in the world, I wanted in the worst way to be there, to be in the action, to be contributing. I didn’t want to be off the coast of San Diego.  I wanted to be off the coast of Kuwait.

The second emotion, far more subdued, but definitely detectable, was a sense of foreboding.   As I listened to the endless radio chatter, the salty crypto officer said, almost as an aside, that the Iraqis had fired numerous Scud rockets into Israel and that those medium-range ballistic missiles were filled with deadly chemical and biological agents (note: the Iraqis did fire eight Scuds into Israel, but none of them had chemical or biological warheads).  Would the Israelis retaliate with something stronger?  And what other evil tricks did Saddam Hussein have up his sleeve?

Operation Desert Storm was a watershed moment in the history of the United States military.  This grand aerial assault saw the first widespread use of cruise missiles, stealth attack aircraft, real-time 24-hour news coverage from CNN, Patriot anti-missile batteries, human shields, and guided munitions that brought back actual TV footage of their exploits.  Despite facing what appeared to be a deadly array of Iraqi air defenses, the Coalition forces quickly gained the upper hand and then pounded the Iraqi forces wherever found.   In short order this grand aerial offensive prepared the desert landscape for the powerful ground offensive to come.

USAF F-15s and F-16s Flying Over Kuwait

Headed to the Gulf: Better Late Than Never

As a young Navy Lieutenant I wanted to be in that action, but my squadron, airwing, and carrier was not to be a part of the opening of Desert Storm.  The question for me and my pilot buds was whether we would get to the Gulf in time.  Would we get our chance to fly over the sands of Iraq and Kuwait?   Strangely, and indefensibly, I remember wishing that the conflict would drag on – just give us time to get our battlegroup across the Pacific and Indian oceans, up through the Arabian Sea, and into the Persian Gulf in time.  Just a few combat sorties, just a few juicy targets.  Come on…how fast can this carrier move?

The Nimitz and Airwing 9 were just finishing up all their workups, preparing for their next cruise.  Our squadron, Strike-Fighter Squadron 147 – the Argonauts, had completed its transfer from the venerable A-7E Corsair II into brand new Lot XII F/A-18C Hornets.  As we received our orders to depart San Diego for deployment to the Gulf I can remember thinking that the chances to use our new Hornets in combat were low indeed.  And sure enough almost a day after our departure the news of the cease fire that brought an end to the military part of Desert Storm was received.

View of the USS Nimitz from a nearby helicopter

Given the state of affairs in the Gulf, our transit across the huge Pacific was done at a more measured pace.  Across the northern Pacific, near Midway Island, down through the Bashi Channel, and into Subic Bay, Philippines we came.  Floating across the endless Pacific was a sublime experience.  Despite being on the largest warship afloat, day after day of nothing but open ocean made me feel small.  Watching flying fish spring forth from our wake and to smell and feel the salty, humid air was powerful stuff – the stuff of adventure for someone who had really never been too far from the coastline for any length of time. This giant floating steel platform, filled with oil, bombs, heat seeking missiles, chicken legs, steam, spare engines, wool blankets, soft-serve ice-cream machines, Nomex flight suits, nuclear power plants, steel chains, 85 aircraft, and 5,000 men had become my home.

After a beer-soaked port of call in Subic Bay we proceeded down below the equator (hello Neptunus Rex, goodbye Pollywogs) and then into Singapore (I guess we really aren’t in a hurry are we?).   From Singapore we proceeded across the hot Indian Ocean and up into the Arabian Sea.  It was the dead of night when we slipped through the narrow Straits of Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf – we had made it.  14,075 miles from San Diego  and we were now on station in the once-dreaded Persian Gulf.

Arrival in the Persian Gulf… Now What?

Our first job upon entering the Gulf was to relieve the carriers that had fought long and hard during the main event of the Gulf War.  These carriers had flown endless numbers of sorties and were ready to skedaddle for home.  As they left we became the only carrier remaining in the Gulf.  I can remember climbing out onto the walkways near my port-side stateroom and looking down into the waters of the Persian Gulf.  As spring gave way to an unmercifully hot summer you could look down into the oily waters and see poisonous sea snakes all around the ship – the desert sand-filled skies, 120 degree steel deck, and serpent-infested waters below, it did seem like we had floated our way into Hades itself.

Airwing Nine FA-18s and F-14s Prepare for Mission Over Iraq

Once established in the Gulf our airwing was tasked with maintaining combat air patrols over Iraq and Kuwait.  With Iraq laying prostrate and a strict no-fly zone still in effect our pilots saw little action.  Yes we chased a few phantom Scud missile mobile launchers and yes we pointed our noses at a few Red Cross planes, but for all intents and purposes there was little need to employ the modern weapon systems of our brand new jets.   Later in our deployment, to break up the boredom of long flights, I would give our pilots the locations of various Iraqi and Babylonian archeological sites that they could then “paint” with their ground-mapping radar.   In fact the only danger that we faced during this deployment to the Gulf was the weather itself.  As the skies became filled with sand from the Rub Al Khali in Saudi Arabia and smoke from the burning oil wells in Kuwait, it became harder and harder for our pilots to see the deck or to find the drogue hoses of nearby air tankers.  Near the end of our deployment one of our brand new Hornets nearly hit the rounddown of the ship as it attempted to land in the murk.  Skidding into one of the arresting wires (miracle) the wounded Hornet, fully loaded with live air-to-air missiles, and with its afterburners still lit, came to a sudden lurching stop.  Our pilot managed to eject and he landed unceremoniously right on the deck (no sea snakes for him).  Fortunately for all of us his plane stopped on the angle, missing a whole set of jets that were readying for their cat shots on the front of the deck.  Talk about a close call.

The only other high drama of this deployment came when Saddam Hussein had decided to show that he wasn’t totally kaput.  Hussein had decided to shuttle around a number of his remaining mobile Scud launchers into a more offensive posture and this had caught the attention of our forces.  To reapply the pressure, our airwing was asked to develop a strike plan that would have had us and other US Air Force assets (F-117s in particular) striking targets in and around Baghdad.  We did a lot of planning and preparation for this attack, but alas we were never called upon to execute it.  To be frank I’m not sure we or anyone had any luck in tracking down and stopping these pesky Scud launchers.

LT. Rob Shenk visiting a Portuguese fort in Bahrain

For me, a young Lieutenant on his first cruise, our late arrival in the Gulf did have some advantage.   Given the calm state of the Gulf we were allowed to take ports of call in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.  I also had the chance to visit Bahrain and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – all places that I would probably never have visited on my own.  I found the Arab culture there to be very interesting and I certainly took to the local food – schwarmas, mint tea, and falafals became regular treats after a lifetime of ship food.  I also managed to catch a few flights on whatever could take me.  I managed two cats (carrier catapult launches) on a S-3 Viking and a C-2 Greyhound (couldn’t see much on either flight).  I also managed to get some rides in various helicopters like the HH-60, SH-3, and CH-53 – all great fun.

By late summer our relief came in the form of the USS Abraham Lincoln battlegroup and we were cleared to exit the Gulf and head home.

Its been twenty years now since that deployment.  And despite missing most of the combat action, I am still proud of the fact that I had the chance to be “over there.”  I’m also most grateful that I and my entire squadron came home together.

Operation Desert Storm: Twenty Years Later

Given all the more recent history of Operation Iraqi Freedom (the 2003 invasion of Iraq) and the endless deployments in Afghanistan, its hard for many to separate Desert Storm from that longer and more recent narrative.  With that said I strongly believe that Desert Shield/Desert Storm should be seen as a separate and distinct military engagement – one that ended in real triumph.   Unlike our more recent military forays into Iraq and Afghanistan, Desert Storm had a well defined and finite goal – get Iraq out of occupied Kuwait.   Our military leaders – Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Chuck Horner – developed and implemented a military plan that was devastatingly effective.  Our political leadership, most notably President George H.W. Bush, stuck to our intended goal and was not deluded into following the more nebulous goal of “nation building” – a task that our combat arms are not really equipped or trained to do.    To me, even twenty years later, Desert Shield and Storm, remain the model for how our military forces should be employed.

In memory of the almost 400 Coalition airmen, soldiers, and sailors who died fighting in Desert Storm.

Note: The lead photo is of a F-14 Tomcat of VF-24 – part of our Airwing while deployed to the Gulf

You can preview my new 2010 Photo Book, Cloudscapes,  via the widget above.  If you’d like to see the book and images at full size go ahead and click the “View Fullscreen” button in the bottom right of the preview widget.

For me, 2010 was a great  year for books.   Out of all the books that I read or listened to during the past year I have selected these five as my favorites.  As you can quickly see 4 of the 5 are military histories or military related.  That’s not unusual for me, but what is different is how I consumed these great books.  Out of the five books listed I read only one physical book – the old fashioned method.  Of the other four I read them on my Apple iPad – a great reading machine – or listened to them as an audio book playing from my iPhone.   When it comes to books I am no early adopter, so maybe my 2010 experience is just further evidence of how quickly the book market is changing.

Without further ado, here’s my list of my five favorite reads of 2010:

#1   Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley

Amazon Kindle for iPad

The paperback version of this history book debuted in 2009 and I had been eying this book ever since.  With my impending summer trip to Spain, I decided to read this book as part of my preparation for that trip.  What a great choice!   While the book, as suggested by its title, is focused on the 1565 Ottoman Siege of Malta and the Battle of Lepanto, the well-written account actually covers most of the time period when the great Ottoman sultans dueled Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire for control of the Mediterranean.

What makes this book so interesting to me are all the great characters that inhabit its pages.  You’ll find great descriptions of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Emperor Charles the V, Barbarossa, the dreaded sea pirate, Knights Hospitallers in their red and white surcoats, magnificently exotic Janissary warriors, galley slaves by the tens of thousands, the golden boy Don Juan of Austria, and so many others.

This great account will open your eyes to the geopolitical realities of the 1500s in the Mediterranean.  One must also wonder how history might have changed if Suleiman was successful at Malta or had avoided the crushing defeat at Lepanto.

During my visit to Spain I was fortunate to see many Lepanto-related objects – captured Ottoman naval flags, great paintings, swords, a full-size replica of a fighting galley, and even the ornate tomb of Don Juan of Austria, located in El Escorial.

#2  War by Sebastian Junger

Apple iBooks App  for iPad

I had read Sebastian Junger’s blockbuster, A Perfect Storm, a few years back and really liked it.  After hearing some good things about this new book of his, War, I decided to download a copy onto my iPad.  I knew the book was about American soldiers deep in Afghanistan and thought that the book would be a traditional study of dusty soldiers doing their best against the odds, but this book proved to be something else altogether.

As a journalist embedded with a company of hardened US Army combat soldiers located in a mountainous valley of Afghanistan, Junger certainly saw and witnessed a great deal.  This was no in-and-out embed.  Junger seemed to really share some of the near-death experiences that this group of warriors faced.   Its at this point that you expect the book to take the conventional “war is hell” approach, but Junger really surprised me by delving deeply into the emotions and motivations found deep within the warrior psyche.  War becomes more of an insightful character study of the group dynamic within bands of soldiers.  What may surprise most people, at least those who have not experienced prolonged combat, is that many soldiers derive powerful attractions to combat.  For many of the young soldiers in Junger’s account, combat almost becomes an addiction, something that is difficult to live without.   And within small combat groups, the interpersonal connections and sense of total brotherhood can surpass any other type of relationship that a man may forge outside of the military.   While reading this book I was reminded of another one of my favorite books, James McPherson’s For Cause and For Comrades.  McPherson’s book on the inner motivations of Civil War soldiers seems to parallel many of same themes that Junger explores, and in doing so makes me believe that what Junger was tapping into is a warrior ethic and mentality that may be timeless in nature.  Why do soldiers continue to fight tenaciously, even in terrifying or near-hopeless circumstances?  This book will help answer that age-old question.

#3   Life by Keith Richards

Audio Book/iPhone

Life by Keith Richards?  Eh?  How did this book make it onto your list?   I’m not even sure why it was that I decided to listen to this book during my painful commutes into and out of Washington DC, but I’m sure glad that I did.  Maybe my choice here was the natural opposite after listening to a biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer?   Anyway, facing an account filled with endless vulgar language, rampant heroin usage, recurring petty criminality, discourses on how to employ a knife in a fight, close shaves with the law, and many other sex, drugs, and rock & roll moments, I found this biography to be totally compelling and almost impossible to stop listening to.  Part of that attraction may have been forged by the three narrators used to cover this autobiography – Johnny Depp, some other unknown narrator with a great cockney accent, and Keith himself.  Each brings a lot of character and emotion.  But I think so much of the attraction here is Keith Richards himself.  This autobiography is so totally open, so completely removed from the typical high-posturing that you find in this genre.  And the amount of insightful, self-critical thought is completely refreshing.    I also think that this book is useful as a historical account of the 1960s/1970s counter-cultural movements.

When you strip away all the nasty drug use, ill behavior, and rockstar antics, you are left with a Keith Richards who clearly is someone who deeply loves music – something that I don’t think you can say about every rock or pop star you encounter.  The account is filled with stories of Richards exploring country music, reggae, blues, other genres of music, and a wide variety of guitar playing techniques.  He seems constantly fascinated with musical technique and musical artforms.  This is the part of the book that really resonated with me.   Rather than being dismissive of other musical genres, Richards seems to revel in just about anything that involves great musicianship.

#4    The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic  by Robert O’Connell

Physical Book

Cannae.  Ah, Cannae, the perfect battle….or so one who has never really read a book on this battle is led to believe.  Cannae, fought between Rome and Carthage in 216 BC, is often held up as the model for how to conduct a battle of annihilation.

When I saw this new book on the Battle of Cannae from Robert O’Connell I just knew that I was going to have to drop everything else and read this.  What I found is that this book is really much more than just a detailed battle analysis.  Really this book is a campaign study of the Second Punic War – a very interesting and instructive period of military history.  The Second Punic War essentially teaches you that winning all of the battles doesn’t necessarily mean that you win the war – maybe an instructive lesson for us as we sit in Iraq and Afghanistan year upon year?  Hannibal, the consummate military commander,  defeats legion upon legion of Roman forces, but with each passing month his army grows weaker living so far away from his bases in Spain and North Africa.  In the end Hannibal is forced to give up all of this Italian territory and retreat to defend Carthage itself.

In addition to giving the reader an excellent overview of the battles and strategies employed, I thought that O’Connell also did a good job of describing what it must have been like for many of the unfortunate soldiers who were to face Hannibal’s Numidian cavalrymen or Scipio Africanus’ principes.

#5   The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898  by Evan Thomas

Amazon Kindle for iPad

I wasn’t certain if I wanted to read this book, but I had really enjoyed Evan Thomas’ previous releases and thought that I’d give this War Lovers book a go.  I’m glad I did.  This book follows Theodore Roosevelt, William Randolph Hearst, and Henry Cabot Lodge prior to, during, and shortly after the Spanish-American War of 1898-1899.  I thought Thomas did a great job of detailing how the great deeds of Civil War heroes had so deeply ingrained themselves into the psyches of these men.  Roosevelt, in particular, feared that he would never been seen as a great man or leader since he had not been tested in combat.  This warlike attitude, in Roosevelt’s mind, also translated to the United States on a national level.  Great countries engage in great wars – if I may loosely paraphrase TR.   This rabid desire for war and for military glory seems archaic by our modern standards, but there it is plain as day.

Thomas goes into some interesting detail describing some of the absurdities and posturings of William Randolph Hearst and Roosevelt.  Roosevelt’s actions on Cuba seem martial enough, but also stretched in terms of their true military value.

In the end the book ends on a sad, but proper note.  Roosevelt’s almost medieval desire for the test of combat would also translate into expectations for his children.  And in 1918, his son Quentin, maybe his favorite son, was shot down and killed over the Western Front during World War One.  This death affected Roosevelt greatly, so much so that many say that he never really recovered from that loss.  This final chapter I think add the necessary and tragic antidote to all of his earlier warmongering.

——–

Postnote: I’m halfway through “What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly – a fascinating, mind expanding book, on how our world of rapidly developing technologies is almost self-propelled.  I’m sure if I had finished that book earlier it would have made my list.

After two heart-attack inducing playoff series the San Francisco Giants are now World Series bound.  Amazing.  Who would have thought that this club, so imperfect early in the season, would now be playing for the 2010 championship?   As a lifelong Giants fan I have always said that my one sporting wish would be to see the Giants win the World Series before I expire……just once.   Not too many people realize that after the cursed Cubs and the hapless Indians, the San Francisco Giants have the longest World Series drought of any Major League franchise.   That’s a little hard to believe since the Giants have been fielding some competitive teams over the years.  But with each passing season my fears of never seeing them win it all started to loom ever larger.  Would generation after generation of Shenk men pass from the earth without ever seeing a World Series banner hung at AT&T park?   Would I need to start eating just mashed vegetables and sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber?   Would I need to explore the possibility of cryogenics to ensure that my total TV-watching  lifespan would be long enough to see the glorious day?

2002 World Series Program

Since moving to San Francisco the Giants have been to three World Series and have lost all three.  In 1962 (before my time) the Marichal & Mays led Giants lost to the New York Yankees.   Later, much later, the 1989 San Francisco Giants, this time led by Will Clark and Matt Williams, faced off against the Oakland Athletics and were fully pulverized in four games by Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire – the anabolic Bash Brothers.  During that series Dad and I managed to get tickets to Game Three at Candlestick Park.  While sitting in the temporary right field bleachers with my polish sausage and beer in hand I watched the entire Bay Area roll beneath a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.  I thought it was a good omen….well at least until the stadium lights went tilt and the sun dropped below the horizon.

In 2002 we returned to the World Series with our own anabolic wonderman – Barry Bonds.  2002 had to be our year.  We fielded a terrific lineup and we were facing the Los Anaheim Angeles Angels – not the most frightening team you could imagine.  I can distinctly remember sitting in the living room of my California house watching Game 6 on the television with the family.  Emotions were running high.  The Giants had a 3 games to 2 lead in the series and were up 5 to 0 in the top of the 7th inning.  We were just 8 outs away from baseball immortality.  Dreams of gaudy 2002 World Series Champion T-Shirts and hats danced before my eyes.   But those dreams were cruelly dashed as the Angels Rally Monkey made its 117th appearance on the Edison Field jumbotron.   Amidst a background of squealing monkey noise the Angels scored 6 unanswered runs in the 7th and 8th and would take that critical game 6.  Game 7 was a foregone conclusion.  The demoralized Giants barely showed for the final game and lost 4 to 1.   To this day I can’t stand being near or around Spider Monkeys – damn nasty primates.

So now its 2010 and a new and pluckier Giants squad has managed to make its way to the grand showdown.  This team, made up of some homegrown talent (Lincecum, Posey, Cain, Wilson) and some heartfelt mercenaries (Huff, Ross, and Burrell) look like a team of destiny.  You’ve got to like the Giants pitching,  but I’ve been here before.   We’ll just have to see if this will be the year or not.

In thinking about this improbable 2010 Giants squad I got to thinking about the other Giants World Series teams.  How does this lineup stack up against the 1989 and 2002 Giants?  Here’s my look at those three teams at each position.

1989 Giants Statistics |     2002 Giants Statistics |    2010 Giants Statistics

Buster Posey

Catchers:

1989: Terry Kennedy

2002: Benito Santiago

2010: Buster Posey

While Buster Posey has been a huge catalyst for the 2010 Giants and is likely to win the 2010 Rookie of the Year award, my vote here goes to Benito Santiago.  Santiago, a grizzled veteran by the time he joined the Giants, had a great year in 2002 and still retained the rocket arm that made any base stealer think twice. His 16 home runs and 74 RBIs were huge.  I think Posey could be the real deal, but his greatness is in the future.

First Base:

1989: Will Clark

2002: JT Snow

2010: Aubrey Huff

JT Snow is still one of the best defensive first basemen to ever play the game, but Will “The Thrill” Clark is the pick here.  Clark could not only play a mean first base, but he was also the sweet-swinging offensive catalyst of the 1989 Giants.  In that World Series season Clark hit .333 and knocked in 111 RBIs.  The Giants really haven’t had an elite hitting first baseman since Clark.  Aubrey Huff is a great addition to the 2010 Giants, and he could be the answer for the offensively-challenged Giants for the near future.

Second Base:

1989: Robby Thompson

2002: Jeff Kent

2010: Freddy Sanchez

Robby Thompson is a Giants legend, but the easy choice here is Jeff Kent.  In 2002 Jeff Kent hit .313, hit 37 home runs,  and drove in 108 runs.  As the 2002 National League MVP, Kent was the best offensive second baseman in the major leagues.  Freddy Sanchez, a former batting champ with the Pirates, when healthy, is a great hitter to have in the lineup, but he’s no Jeff Kent.

Shortstop:

1989: Jose Uribe

2002: Rich Aurelia

2010: Juan Uribe/Edgar Renteria

At the shortstop position my choice for the best Giant is Rich Aurelia.  Aurelia in 2002 hit 16 home runs and drove in 61 – all seemed like clutch runs too.  Aurelia’s sweet glove and hard nosed play made him an instant fan favorite in San Francisco.   Jose Uribe is largely known for the crowd chant that can still be heard at AT&T stadium today – “oooo-Ribe, oooo-Ribe, oooo-Ribe.”   Juan Uribe (have the Giants collected all the Uribes?), the hero of Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS is a streaky hitter who when hot is deadly.  If Juan knocks in a few game winners this series I may have to rethink my rankings here.

Third Base:

1989: Matt Williams

2002: David Bell

2010: Pablo Sandoval/Mike Fontenot

Without a doubt the best choice in this category is Matt Williams.  The Giants have never had a better third baseman than Matt Williams – period.  In 1989, Williams was still very young and had not yet hit his prime.  Just the following year he knocked in 122 RBIs.  I’m not even sure who David Bell is and don’t get me started on Pablo Sandoval.

Barry Bonds

Left Field:

1989: Kevin Mitchell

2002: Barry Bonds

2010: Cody Ross

Cody Ross is the current darling of San Francisco and the 2010 National League Championship Series MVP, but there’s no way he can challenge Kevin Mitchell and Barry Bonds.   Everyone forgets Kevin Mitchell, but in 1989 he hit 47 HRs and knocked in a staggering 125 RBIs.   And I know that many of you are Barry-haters, but he’s the true batting legend in this group.  I know that I’ve never seen a better power hitter on any team at any time.  His awesome, chemically enhanced power, was truly lethal because he possessed tremendous plate discipline and the best hands in the game.  Barry Bonds wins this category hands down.  He hit 4 HRs, batted .471, and had a gaudy 1.294 slugging percentage in that 2002 series.

Center Field:

1989: Brett Butler

2002: Kenny Lofton

2010: Andres Torres

This position is a little tougher to pick.  Brett Butler, the Dodger-retread, became a real catalyst for the 1989 Giants.  Butler stole 31 bases and had an OBP of .349 that ’89 campaign, but he was a non-factor in the ’89 series – no stolen bases and only 4 hits.  Kenny Lofton, far from his prime, was also a big catalyst for the 2002 Giants.  During the 2002 series he had 3 stolen bases and hit .290.  Andres Torres has been one of the pleasant surprises of the 2010 season.  While not playing the entire year, Torres still hit 16 home runs and knocked in 63 RBIs, but he also struck out 128 times!   All three were good defensive center fielders too – very hard to pick one, but maybe I’ll go with Andres Torres for now.

Right Field:

1989: Pat Sheridan

2002: Reggie Sanders

2010: Pat Burrell

Well here’s a collection of retreads if I ever saw one.  I’m not even sure I remember Sheridan at all.  I think he took over from a badly slumping Candy Maldonado.  Reggie Sanders was really the Pat Burrell of 2002.  Sanders, a veteran player, was brought in to give the Giants some added pop and he largely delivered that year.  His 23 homers and 85 RBIs put him near the top of a good Giants lineup.   But I think my choice here is going to be Pat Burrell.  Since joining the Giants starting lineup midway through the season he has hit 18 homers – almost every one of them seemed like a game winner.  His veteran presence and hometown cred are big positives as well.  So Pat Burrell is my close choice over Reggie Sanders.

Matt Cai

Starters:

1989: Atlee Hamaker, Scott Garrelts, Rick Reuschel, Kelly Downs

2002: Jason Schmidt, Kirk Reuter, Russ Ortiz, Livan Hernandez

2010: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner

Without a doubt the 2010 Giants starting rotation is the strongest the Giants have ever had.  Lincecum, who has already won two Cy Youngs, is our franchise player.  Cain is a horse – a great pitcher who can pitch deep in every game.  Sanchez, while more mecurial than I would like, is still capable of no-hit baseball every start.  And at 21 Madison Bumgarner looks like a real keeper.  Awesome stuff.    I like that 2002 rotation as well, but its not even close to what we have now.  So Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, and Bumgarner is the choice here.

Closer:

1989: Craig Lefferts/Steve Bedrosian

2002: Robb Nen

2010: Brian Wilson

This is a hard category to judge too.  In 1989 the Giants platooned Lefferts and Bedrosian as closers.  On that staff was Jeff Brantley who would go on to become a true Giants relief legend.  In 2002 Robb Nen was the dominant Giants closer.  In that season Nen had 43 saves and an ERA of 2.20.  But even better than those two is Brian Wilson.  While Wilson gives me a heart attack each time he takes the mound he still put up record numbers this year.  His 48 saves in 2010 is a single-season Giants record and his 1.81 ERA and 1.17 WHIP are out of this world.  So Fear the Beard in 2010.  I hope Wilson has 4 more saves in him for 2010.

Coach:

1989: Roger Craig

2002: Dusty Baker

2010: Bruce Bochy

Humm Baby…. Roger Craig is my choice here.  Wily ol Roger Craig got more out of average players than any Giants manager I’ve ever seen.  Baker and Bochy are also excellent Giants skippers, but they are just below Craig.  Of course the first Giants manager to pull off a Giants World Series win will be immediately dragged from the dugout, bronzed, and placed on a podium in front of AT&T park.

So there you go.  The 2010 Giants are far from the best World Series lineup that they’ve fielded, but they are a team of heart and clutch performances.  Hopefully they will also be the team that makes my one sports wish comes true.

Go Giants!  I’m getting old!

Living in northern Virginia and working for the Civil War Preservation Trust has afforded me many great opportunities to visit Civil War battlefields throughout the United States.  But despite having now visited remote places like Glorieta Pass, Champion Hill, and Fort Blakely, I must admit that there was one big glaring hole in my battlefield dance card – I had never been to the Shiloh battlefield in Tennessee.  Egads….and you call yourself a Civil Buff?  Never been to Shiloh?  Isn’t that like a vintage automobile connoisseur who has never heard of Bentley?

2nd Tennessee Monument at Shiloh

In my defense Shiloh is not an easy battlefield to get to.  Shiloh, located in rural southwestern Tennessee, is far from just about everywhere.  The Shiloh National Military Park is roughly two and a half hours drive from either Nashville or Memphis, Tennessee.  To get to Shiloh you really have to want to go there and in my case I really, really wanted to go there.

With the first glimpses of dawn on the horizon, I jumped into the truly uncomfortable seat of my non-descript rental car and turned on my Garmin GPS.  My backseat was littered with Shiloh maps, books on the battle, and printed Google maps of western Tennessee.  The front passenger seat had my Canon EOS 7D and my iPad, loaded with a Shiloh battlefield guide. There was no stopping me now.

A little more than two hours later, with my car’s little 4-cylinder engine glowing red hot, I managed to cross the mighty Tennessee River at Savannah, Tennessee – the same location where Ulysses S. Grant had his headquarters at the start of the Battle of Shiloh.  From Savannah it’s just a short drive south to the Shiloh National Military Park at Pittsburg Landing.  I had made it!

Now for all of you more fortunate souls you already know that Shiloh is one of our Nation’s great battlefields.  Maybe due to its rural remoteness or its early formation as a National Military Park, Shiloh has been remarkably well preserved.  And if it wasn’t for all the beautiful military markers and marbled monuments that fill the many wooded fields and country roads, one could swear that the place looks much like it did on the morning of April 6, 1862.

Duncan Field at Shiloh

Civil War buffs will remember that Shiloh was maybe the first terrible battle of the Civil War.  More than 40,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston would pour forth from the wooded fields near the Union army camps of William Tecumseh Sherman and Benjamin Prentiss.  The savage combat that would occur that first morning and afternoon eclipsed anything that came before it.   The precipitous fighting in places like The Peach Orchard, Rhea Field, Shiloh Church, Duncan Field, and the Hornet’s Nest would leave the forests and open fields littered with dead Confederate and Union soldiers.

By the end of the second day’s fighting more than 24,000 soldiers from both sides would be dead, captured, or missing, including the Confederate commander Albert Sidney Johnston.  In a remote forest alongside a distant river, a place virtually unknown before April 6, more soldiers would die than had died in all the Civil War battles leading up to this date.  More would die and be wounded at Shiloh than at the more celebrated Battle of Antietam.  The news of the great battle and its tremendous cost, sent by courier and telegraph, would shock the civilian population, both North and South.  Shiloh, place of peace, had been turned into an epic killing ground that presaged all the bloody battles yet to come.

Shiloh Church

A visit to Shiloh, as it did for me, will not disappoint.  You can lose yourself in this place.  Walk down the Sunken Road and into the Hornet’s Nest, push your way through the dense forest, stand in the one-room Shiloh Church, touch the fence rails, look at the battle flags in the visitor center, stand before the gravestones and burial trenches, and gaze upon the solemn faces of the soldiers atop their monuments.  Far from civilization, far from anything, it’s not hard to hear the distant peal of lines of muskets or the thunder of nearby cannon.

Fully satisfied that I had now fulfilled my quest to see the Shiloh Battlefield, I now faced the long, anti-climactic drive back to my hotel in Franklin.  After tramping the battlefields for six hours my rumbling stomach begged for a late lunch.  But where would one find a bite to eat around this remote place?  Fortunately I remembered the advice of one of my colleagues and headed over to the Catfish Hotel which is near the park and overlooks the Tennessee River.

In the self-proclaimed Catfish Capital of the Country, the Catfish Hotel and its menu of Catfish Filets, All you Can Eat Catfish, Lemon Pepper Catfish, Cajun Catfish, Frog Legs, Fried Clams, Sweet Tea, and endless baskets of hush puppies was the perfect cap to my battlefield quest.  The restaurant was filled with local farmers in overalls, Harley riders in leather chaps, local southern women with various bouffant hairdos and conservative sweaters, and a few frazzled battlefield visitors like myself.  Unlike the poor Union soldiers driven from their tents, knapsacks, and campfires on April 6, 1862, I would not go hungry at Shiloh.