Commanding Officer’s Recommendations

Read

Raising the Bar: The story of Clif Bar & Co., by Gary Erickson with Lois Lorentzen

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard

The Fourth Turning, by William Strauss & Neil Howe

Anything written by Joseph J. Ellis

Watch

Admiral McRaven UT Austin 2014 Commencement Speech

Simon Sinek, “Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe” Ted Talk

Colin Powell, “The Essence of Leadership”

GEN Martin Dempsey, CJCS, Real Conversations with Real Leaders

Band Of Brothers, HBO Miniseries

 The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)

 Midway (1976)

 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

 We Were Soldiers (2002)

 Glory (1989)

 Gettysburg (1993)

 Remember the Titans (2000)

Executive Officer’s Recommendations

For the most comprehensive reading lists, see the Commandant of the Marine Corps’s Professional Reading List or the CNO Professional Reading Program. The following are my personal recommendations:

Military history

First to Fight (Victor H. Krulak)

With the Old Breed (E. B. Sledge)

The Last Stand of Fox Company (Bob Drury and Tom Clavin)

Neptune’s Inferno (James D. Hornfischer)

Forgotten Warriors: The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, the Corps Ethos, and the Korean War (T. X. Hammes)

Hue 1968 (Mark Bowden)

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (Robert Coram)

 One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War (Bing West) 

Leadership and Mindset

Call Sign Chaos (James Mattis)

Leadership in Turbulent Times (Doris Kearns Goodwin)

Drive (Daniel Pink)

Start with Why (Simon Sinek)

 Man’s Search for Meaning (Victor Frankl)

 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

 Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity (Charles Duhigg)

Periodicals for the Naval Officer

Proceedings

Marine Corps Gazette

 War on the Rocks