I love reading Bill Heavey's stuff, and I look forward to reading Atkinson's new book, which will no doubt be as good as the first two volumes he wrote detailing the US Army's difficult entry into war in North Africa and the slow and painful advance through Italy. As you mentioned, Atkinson has a real gift for seeing the war through the eyes of the soldiers, something that another favorite historian -- John Keegan -- does so well. Keegan's Face of Battle is a classic.

Dave,

A lot of us can look back on own lives and remember when things weren't so easy and we didn't have pantries bursting at the seams. Probably the majority of us can trace our hunting and fishing roots to people in our families working to get enough food on the table.
"Food insecurity" doesn't describe starvation. It describes millions of kids who come home from school each day to a house devoid of food. It means they don't know where their next meal will come from or when it will come.
I get that you're blogging in jest, but this is not a joke.
You have a platform and when you penned this blog, you had a beautiful opportunity to ask sportsmen - the most giving group of individuals anywhere - to do something good, like donate to their food bank or Sportsmen Against Hunger or any number of organizations that work on this issue.
Sportsmen understand the value of food. By our nature as hunters we don't like the idea of Americans, particularly 16 million American children, not getting regular meals or knowing if dinner will be on the table every night.
It's OK to be funny. We all come here to be entertained. But don't miss an opportunity to be inspiring for an easy chance to be flippant.

My dad hunted for food during the depression and that is probably is why I am here. If you wanted meat on the table you got it yourself. I have donated a whole lot of deer to Hunters for the Hungry.

Heavey is a people person and not one all at the same time. I love everything he writes. Did he mention that you were a figment of our collective imaginations yet? He needs to work on that.

My high school yearbook is in the bathroom. Sad but true.

There is a whole lot of food insecurity this side of starving. I'm not talking here abouts but the villages where every guy hunts and most hunt at least a little every day. When the crops are bad you'll see kids with the big bellies and their hair looks bad. Old people decide the time is right for checking outa this world, leave food for the grand kids. Folks grow up short.

When Environmentalists encourage the government to outlaw hunting or close thousands of kilometers of traditional hunting grounds to save a dog gone cat that's what I think of. Food insecurity.

Very interesting "food insecure" as every where I look I have not seen so many overweight people on the streets where ever I go! I would say the average American is probably 15-20 lbs overweight including me. And the kids I see at the schools are positively fat especially elementary school kids. The same kids I see eating a free breakfast at school were dropped off by parents driving a Lincoln SUV.
About the books the large overall historical tomes are fine for a general overview but I much prefer the books concerning the individual warriors and their personal perspective. Try "Undersea Warrior", "Hell Above Earth", Voices From the Pacific" or my present read " A Higher Call". There are many other excellent books out there with the individual perspective.

I deal with food insecurity twice a week, every Monday and Wednesday, my church supports a food pantry, feeding 200 or more people every week.
For the most part these people are well dressed and driving newer cars, but they are out of work and can not find jobs, many have lost their homes and are living with friends or relatives or on assisted housing. As time goes on, the newer cars disappear and older cars show up or the local bus system delivers them.
Keep in mind " there but by the grace of God, go I "

Oops, it was GregMc who left the comment I was referring to. (Not that I didn't appreciate your comment, too, Tim.)

Bell Heavy is a great writer. His article is one of the first I read each month. Sometimes you just never know exactly where he is going to end up in his column, but it is always entertaining and usually you learn to look at things from a different perspective.

Another good book that was written some years ago is "With the Old Breed", by E. B. Sledge. It is hard to put down once you start.

I'm also in the middle of the Atkinson book, in December, 1944, at the Battle of the Bulge. As Dave says, he writes from the perspective of the participants, both ordinary GIs and the highest brass, and also from the German side. Hard to put down--I love history as a page-turner.

And I have to put in a word for Bill Heavey, who has brightened the end page of F&S in the best tradition of Ed Zern and Havilah Babcock. Bill finds humor in everyday life, and also in sadness, including the demise of his marriage and his affection for his daughter, Emma, and the decline of his father, a WWII aviator. I don't know Bill personally, but I knew Zern well, and I'm just discovering Babcock, who's kind of like a long-winded Zern, writing for F&S and Outdoor Life in the '40s. Too bad his books are out of print.

Only problem is, all this good reading is keeping me from hunting and fishing!

Sorry, I meant BILL.

Perhaps Atkinson's book will assuage Petzal's longing for the third part of William Manchester's unfinished masterpiece on Winston Churchill, The Last Lion