Words have meaning. Many are unique — frequently those that are not normally used in day-to-day conversations. When a unique word is used to describe a book, the author sits up and takes notice. That’s because many books are reviewed by professional reviewers — perhaps eminent historians or journalists — that write these published reviews — who often have very impressive achievements in their fields.
One in a great while, a person comes along who understands deep in their soul what the essence of a particular historical account is, because they have lived their lives doing what is being written about in the book. Not necessarily a part of a particular event described, but more likely they spent much of their lives actually accomplishing similar achievements. That is exactly what happened recently concerning Dying Hard.
A retired United States Army Lieutenant General recently sent me a short note about the book. During his many decades in the military, he had fought in Vietnam as a troop commander, and later was a division commander fighting in Operation Desert Storm. He finally finished Army service as a corps commander. In short, he understands more deep in his gut about combat and war than I ever will.
In his message, he used a single word in describing the book: “monumental.” I am not sure if anyone else, such as a journalist or historian, will ever attach that same word to anything I write, but that’s not important. His comment is good enough for me, and more importantly a wonderful tribute to all the soldiers in Company B.