September 6th is "National Read A Book Day"! On this day, book lovers are called to indulge in their favorite hobby. Bringing new worlds to life, books enlighten us and transport us on exciting adventures. They can also challenge our perspectives on the human experience in ways unmatched by other media. This year, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation would like to showcase books that took our annual awards program by storm. 

The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Annual Awards program recognizes exemplary work that furthers the understanding of Marine Corps history, traditions, culture and service. Judged by Marines and civilian experts, the Annual Awards are a mark of distinction and achievement for journalists, writers, photographers, artists and scholars.

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A Final Valiant Act



The Story of Doug Dickey,
​
Medal of Honor

By: Lt Col John B Lang USMC

​ (Ret) 

​The story of Doug Dickey, a young Marine in Vietnam who acted when a grenade landed nearby and saved the lives of his comrades.

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The Mosquito Bowl



​ A Game of Life and Death in

​ World War II

By: Buzz Bissinger

​
​An extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August.

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Freaks of a Feather



A Marine Grunt's Memoir

​By: Kacy Tellessen

​​In his memoir, Tellessen offers a truer account of life as an infantryman: the complicated, conflicting, adrenaline-pumping, and traumatic experience of war. Though much of our country's fighting and dying is done by infantry members, few accounts detail the grunt experience with as much clarity and vulnerability as Freaks of a Feather.

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A Quiet Cadence


A Novel

​By: Mark Treanor

Sometimes it takes years for a combat vet to understand what war did to him when he was nineteen. With the perception and reflection of a man on the cusp of retirement from a career teaching high school kids, Marty McClure recalls the relentless intensity of prolonged combat as a teenaged Marine machine gunner facing booby traps and battles in a war with few boundaries.

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Rock Eater



​By: Mason Rodrigue

 In search of something unnamed, the poems in Rock Eater tell the story of what he found as a Machine Gunner in the Marine Corps. An exploration of identity, loyalty, culture, violence, love, hate, loss, addiction, trauma, forgiveness, and healing through poetry. Above all, Rock Eater is an answer to the question, "what happens when a man gets turned into a weapon and aimed at nothing?" 

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