For as long as I could remember, I had been a book nerd. Reading was always the easiest way for me to relax and recharge. That changed dramatically in 2008 when I started medical school. Suddenly, any extracurricular hobby was a guilt-inducing distraction from studying. So, I dutifully set aside my hobby and “read more about my patients” for the next several years.
I then had the privilege of hearing the “Warrior Monk” himself, General James Mattis, speak during my utilization tour in Guantanamo Bay. After his speech, the first question from the audience was, “What are you reading, sir?” I was shocked, thinking, “This man is the Secretary of Defense! He doesn’t have time to read!” Of course, I later learned that General Mattis is rumored to have a 7,000 volume personal library and wrote in his memoir, “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”1 That gave me license to casually pick-up books again, guilt-free. However, my reading selections were admittedly haphazard.
Fast-forward to 2022: I am a busy family man and third-year neonatology fellow, seemingly always either post-call, pre-call, or on inpatient service. I was intrigued by the Surgeon General’s Professional Reading List after learning about it on Captain Joel Schofer’s Career Planning Blog, but could not imagine having the time to undertake it myself. Then my wife (an English Literature professor by training and voracious reader herself) showed me the Department of Defense MWR Libraries. Nearly every title on the Surgeon General’s list is available there as an audiobook! While I would miss out on the tactile joy of holding these books while reading them, I figured that I could make better use of my P.T. and commuting time by simultaneously listening to the selections. Rear Admiral Bruce Gillingham has made it clear that this list is not meant to be viewed as “homework,” but rather as a jumping-off point for each sailor’s reading journey.
The Surgeon General’s Professional Reading List is divided into four subgroups, organized by Navy Medicine’s priorities: People, Platforms, Performance, and Power. Over the first six months of 2022, I completed the eighteen “People” and “Platforms” titles and will focus on those in this entry. For the sake of the busy sailor/clinician, I have adopted a different organizational structure: (1) Must Read Now; (2) Becoming Better People and Leaders; (3) Learning from Our Past; (4) Steaming to Assist; and (5) Preparing for the Future.
Must Read Now—Achilles in Vietnam, Caste, How Doctors Think, Leadership in Turbulent Times
Using direct quotes from patients, former VA psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam conceptualizes PTSD as a moral injury and emphasizes that control of combat stress is a command responsibility. By highlighting parallels between the experiences of Vietnam and Trojan War veterans, it posits a framework for the prevention of combat stress. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s landmark work, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, describes the eight foundational pillars by which slavery has established a social and economic caste system in the United States, and challenges readers to break down those pillars through connection and understanding. How Doctors Think by Dr. Jerome Groopman warns medical professionals of pitfalls like diagnostic uncertainty, logic errors, and confirmation bias in delivering safe, reliable care—lessons particularly important in the remote and austere settings where military medicine operates. Finally, for fans of history, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Leadership: In Turbulent Times explores the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin and Teddy Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson, allowing readers to understand their early leadership potential, see that potential tempered by deep mental and physical health crises, and then thrive during times of great national struggle. These four books challenge the total makeup of a military medical leader and collectively distill the overall spirit of the “People” and “Platform” selections; if you only have time for a few, read these books.
Becoming Better People and Leaders—Athena Rising, First Break All the Rules, Make Your Bed, The Road to Character
The concept of the “Eulogy Self,” as opposed to the “Résumé Self” is raised in David Brooks’ The Road to Character and lays the groundwork for the other books in this section. Though I would love to see the topic undertaken by a female author, Captains (ret) Brad Johnson and David Smith’s Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women boldly puts forth a call to action in asymmetrically advocating for women in our organizations. True, ascribing to the “10 Rules for Success” from retired Admiral William McRaven’s Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe The World, or seeking answers to the “12 Questions of Employee Engagement” from Gallup’s First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently will undoubtedly support the Résumé Self. More important, however, is how fully incorporating lessons learned along the way, combined with nurturing underrepresented groups, will foster the Eulogy Self and simultaneously make our future teams stronger.
Learning From Our Past—The Golden Thirteen, Indianapolis, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
“This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.”2 These were the words of Lieutenant Commander Robert Copeland to his crew at the outset of the Battle off Samar as described in James Hornfischer’s The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour. Together with Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic’s Indianapolis and Paul Stillwell’s The Golden Thirteen: Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers, these World War II-era books herald the stunning bravery and dauntless spirit of Americans in the face of adversity. They also tell the stories of challenges in organizational leadership and the risk of excluding our best and brightest from the fight on the basis of race. Whether against a near-peer foe or the everyday work of defense, these are the stories we must take with us as we prepare for what lies ahead.
Steaming to Assist—Odysseus in America, The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan, Redeployment
These three books remind us of the overwhelming challenges in returning from war while recovering from the invisible injuries it inflicts. These injuries are predictable, insomuch as they are fictionalized in Homer’s Odyssey, then again nearly 3,000 years later in Phil Klay’s Redeployment and Bryan Doerries’ The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan. However, Dr. Shay’s follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, argues that policies supporting unit cohesion, ethical leadership, and adequate training (the Prevention Tripod) can limit those injuries in future conflict.
Preparing for the Future—2034, Ghost Fleet, On Call in Hell, Out of the Crucible
While they may seem like “Learning from our Past” entries, Dr. Richard Jadick’s On Call in Hell: A Doctor’s Iraq Story and Dr. Arthur Kellermann and Dr. Eric Elster’s Out of the Crucible: How the U.S. Military Transformed Combat Casualty Care in Iraq and Afghanistan are really stories of how to rapidly adapt and deploy new care delivery frameworks using first-hand experience, data sharing, and joint cooperation. In 2034: A Novel of the Next War, Admiral James Stavridis, USN (ret), and Elliot Ackerman imagine what a future multi-domain (air, land, sea, space, cyber) conflict with a near-peer rival might look like. In Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, P. W. Singer and August Cole do the same. (Note: 2034 begins with the hero facing a Med Board!) Regardless of the specifics of the recent or future conflict, the heroes of these stories are individuals who innovate, collaborate, and lead. We will do well to keep these lessons in mind as we go about healing and defending our nation in the 21st century and beyond.
I have enjoyed the first half of the Surgeon General’s Professional Reading List and preparing this review. I look forward to highlighting the “Performance” and “Power” selections in a future entry. Happy reading!
- James Mattis and Bing West, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead (New York: Random House, 2021).
- James D. Hornfischer, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour (New York: Bantam Dell, 2004).
