[Cowen]

I'm not sure if this is an official list. But for those interested, the top offices of the military do pretty regularly publish reading lists.

National Defense University (an actual part of the Department of Defense) has links to them all here.

* http://www.ndu.edu/Libraries/Professional-Military-Reading-L...

EDIT: Well, plenty of the links appear to actually be broken. But a quick Google can probably find those ones.

[tcopeland]

In my experience, military web sites are pretty spotty in terms of maintaining links. So for the past decade or so I've been keeping a "list of lists":

https://militaryreadinglists.com/

Always looking for new material if someone spots one I'm missing...

[velodrome]

Nice list. Thanks!

[HeavenBanned]

No "Infanterie Greift An" ?

[tcopeland]

Yup, that's on the March 2014 revision of the Army Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course reading list, the April 2009 revision of the Army Chief of Infantry list, and the April 2011 revision of the Army Maneuver Center of Excellence list:

https://militaryreadinglists.com/books/1191-infantry-attacks

It's using the English "Infantry Attacks" translated title though as you can see.

[chrishacken]

For those interested, here's the Marine Corps reading list. (Edit: that's actually already in the list of links you posted, missed it). There are a lot of good books on leadership; I'd stick to the Officer lists.

http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/usmcreadinglist

It's not on the list, but the best book I've ever read was One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick; current CEO of Endgame Inc.

Turn the Ship Around! is also a great book about leadership and empowering your subordinates.

[Animats]

The official USMC reading list is at [1].

Some recommendations:

- "Warfighting (MCDP 1)". This is the official USMC document on how to run a war. It's more philosophical than tactical. It's about how to achieve a goal.

- "The Defense of Duffer's Drift". This little book on small-unit tactics and how not to screw them up is over a century old. It's little-known outside the military, and quite funny.

- "Boyd, The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War". Boyd was a very strange guy. Top fighter pilot. Responsible for pushing through the F-16 and the A-10. (Yes, a fighter jock pushed the A-10 Warthog, which is a slow, heavily armored ground-attack aircraft.) Invented the OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) Loop, a way of thinking about decision making under uncertainty. It has some similarities to "agile" development, but is more suitable for combat and crisis. USAF hated him. USMC liked him.

- "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" - understanding counterinsurgency. This is a depressing read, but necessary.

[1] http://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Articl...

[Bahamut]

I found some of the books on the Marine Corps lists somewhat propaganda, so one has to be careful to not follow their lists blindly.

Source: I was a reserve Marine grunt and have read some of the books

[arca_vorago]

Agreed, but that's why you read the generals list and work your way down instead of the other way around.

If I hear one more gates of fire reference... my head is going to explode.

[wtf_is_up]

One Bullet Away is great. It gives another perspective of the popular book Generation Kill.

[camiller]

I assume many are being updated for 2017, googling for the Navy list gets a different address, with a message that they are upgrading.

Please don't hate me for what I'm about to say....

Wonder if any of these dod lists will add "The Art of the Deal" ;)