subscribe  |    email  |    print  |    continue the debate

AFJ’s first essay contest invited readers to write a short article on the book that most changed how they viewed their careers. There was an excel¬lent response from officers across all the services. If a common thread ran through the submissions, it was how each author had been inspired to be a better leader by the pages he turned. Maj. Niel Smith’s description of how he stumbled across a copy of Andrew Krepinevich’s “The Army and Vietnam” in a German library and the effect it had on him as a company commander in Iraq is our winner. A set of thought-pro¬voking books recommended by retired Col. T.X. Hammes is on its way to the Counterinsurgency Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where Smith is based. The three runners-up each will receive book gift cards.

Congratulations to all of our winners. AFJ editors thoroughly enjoyed reading their submissions; we believe you will, too.