What I Am Reading

Years ago, I found a little known author writing great stories about the Military. William E. Butterworth AKA WEB Griffin was writing a series called the Brotherhood of War. It started with the Lieutenants and went on through the Generals and into Special Opns. I found out who WEB Griffin was when I was reading a book about a Pilot flying into each state in a Gypsy Moth and when he was somewhere in the South he showed a picture of Bill Butterworth and named him as WEB Griffin.

As a general rule, I almost find anything written by WEB Griffin great reading. I even found a couple of his books written when he was writing under the name Alex Baldwin. If you go to the Used Book stores there are several books co written by Bill. In fact I found one of the M*A*S*H books he co wrote.

Lately, he has been letting his son William E. Butterworth IV co-write. In my opinion, you can tell where the two each write. If the reading in fluid and the characters well developed, the Dad is writing. If the material turns almost into a Thesis with cold hard facts thrown in, it is the son. He is truly a great writer if I was looking for a Doctoral Thesis. Perhaps with time he will lighten up some and become a fun writer and make things a little less precise. Fiction is or should be a story well told not written as if you have to argue the facts to a Board.

WEB Griffin has written several series of books and I like the Badge of Honor series almost as much as the Brotherhood of War.

If you want some action reading for the summer, pick up a couple of used WEB Griffin books from the books store and see if you enjoy them as much as I do.

MUD, COL (Ret)