Practicing History: The William E. Colby Military Writers’ Symposium
By Carlo D'Este

Published Wednesday, March 26, 2008  | 0 comments  | Print  | E-mail

2008 Colby Award Winner

Author R. Alan King is a recognized authority in Middle Eastern affairs and security, with extensive specialized experience in Iraq. King served in the Army as a Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations officer and is a veteran of Operation Just Cause in Panama where he served with the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne). When assigned to Operation Iraqi Freedom he served as the senior civil-military advisor to the 3d Infantry Division in Baghdad, Iraq, immediately following the fall of the former Iraqi regime. Twice Armed is the memoir of one of the most decorated veterans of the Iraq war and his experiences capturing some of the most-wanted former Iraqi regime leaders. It is a rare combination of military service and scholarship. In keeping with the way that our armed forces must fight on the new battlefield, King uses an extraordinary understanding of Mideast culture and social attitudes to achieve the mission. The vivid, no-holds-barred retelling of that story makes this book an outstanding recipient of the 2008 Colby Award.

Past Recipients

2007 John Glusman,?Conduct Under Fire, and Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates
2006 Nathaniel Fick, One Bullet Away, and Kevin Weddle, Lincoln’s Tragic Admiral
2005 Sid Shachnow and Jann Robbins, Hope and Honor,?and Jon Meacham Franklin and Winston ?
2004 Bing West and Major General Ray L. Smith, The March Up,?and Robert L. Bateman, No Gun Ri?
2003 Bryan Mark Rigg, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers
2002 Patrick K. O’Donnell, Beyond Valor, and Ralph Wetterhahn, The Last Battle
2001 James Bradley with Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers?
2000 B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, Stolen Valor
1999 Fred Chiaventone, A Road We Do Not Know,?and Bill Harlow, Circle William

Armchair General Award

In 2007, Armchair General publisher and CEO Eric Weider and Editor-in-Chief Jerry D. Morelock began an association with the Colby and Norwich University. Armchair General is donating $500 annually (a figure matched by Norwich) to an outstanding student in military history who enrolls in the Norwich Master of Arts in Military History online graduate program. On behalf of Eric and Jerry, the award will be presented at the Colby Award dinner at Norwich on April 3, 2008.

In addition, Armchair General is also donating free subscriptions to the magazine for interested Norwich military history students.

My sincere thanks to both Eric and Jerry for their generous support. It is yet another example of AG’s growing contributions to the field of military history.

[continued on next page]

bookmark to

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.