This year, the Navy and Marine Corps celebrate their 250th anniversaries. In honor of the milestone, Military Families Magazine has gathered reading recommendations to guide you through the history and legacies of these storied institutions, their impact on the people who serve within them, and the families who stand by their side.
Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy
This extensively researched book by writer Ian W. Toll details the complex history behind the Navy’s early years. In its review of the work, The New York Times praised the writing, and said “the book’s real value, and the pleasures it provides, lies in Toll’s grasp of the human dimension of his subject, often obscured in the dry tomes of naval historians.”
Written by Chester Nez and billed as “the first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII,” this book is included on the Marine Corps Association’s 2025 Commandant’s Professional Reading List. During his childhood, Nez was forbidden from speaking Navajo at the U.S. government-run boarding school, yet Nez, alongside the other men recruited by the Marine Corps as part of the first all-Navajo platoon, ultimately used the language to create “the only unbroken code in modern warfare.”
Included on the Marine Heritage Foundation List, “Flags of Our Fathers” is written by James Bradley (with Ron Powers) about the Marines who fought at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, including Bradley’s father John, and the iconic photograph of the American flag being raised at the battle’s conclusion. The book was a New York Times bestseller, and their review called it “one of the most instructive and moving books on war and its aftermath that we are likely to see.”
Written by Melton A. McLaurin, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, this book is based on interviews and traces the history of the first Black Marines, who trained at Camp Montford Point in North Carolina, and their experiences in the wake of American desegregation.
Written by Jim Stockdale, former vice admiral of the U.S. Navy and a vice presidential candidate, along with his wife Sybil Stockdale, this book details their lives during Jim’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, where he endured torture and horrific conditions for more than seven years. During Jim’s imprisonment, Sybil worked to found the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, which brought and kept the plight of those imprisoned and missing in action to the national spotlight.
Devotion: An Epic Story of Friendship, Heroism, and Sacrifice
Adam Makos’ “Devotion” tells the true story of the friendship between two Korean War Naval aviators — one white, one Black — who together face the perils of war, at a time of deep and bitter segregation at home. The book was a New York Times bestseller and called “riveting” by USA Today.
Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown
Before he was killed in Afghanistan in March 2010, U.S. Navy SEAL Adam Brown lived an extraordinary life, from his upbringing in Hot Springs, Ark., to his time with SEAL Team 6. Fearless is an in-depth look into Brown’s life, struggles and heroism from writer Eric Blehm, and comes from extensive interviews with his teammates on SEAL Team 6 and those who loved Brown best.
