TO THE FRONT

In this memoir/biography, a general’s grandson reflects on how his life was enhanced by his grandfather’s stories.

Born into a military family whose service goes as far back as the Mexican War in 1846, author and blogger Van Ness offers tales about his grandfather’s combat experiences during World War II. Running alongside these lucid anecdotes are tales of the author’s own legacy growing up surrounded by his grandfather’s artifacts, medals, and uniforms and his own tenure in the military as a physician. Van Ness grew up as the youngest grandson of West Point graduate and two-star major general John Anderson and the son of a decorated naval officer. As a child, the author would periodically sleep over at his grandparents’ house. Van Ness would don the veteran’s combat helmet, and Granddaddy would regale him with vividly reenacted stories of his time as a military commander, including sharing photographs of him with Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower in 1945. “Everything I learned from him has helped shape the man I am today,” the author fondly writes. He recalls enjoying day camp as an athletic, adventuresome boy, but, as a football player in grade school in Washington, D.C., he was regularly shuffled to Bethesda Naval Hospital for random sports injuries. As the descendant of military warriors, Van Ness believed it would be “natural for me to think I would follow in their footsteps,” and he soon began dreaming of a Navy medical career. Though the staunch anti-war movement of the 1960s derailed any interest in military enlistment, the author eventually became a Navy physician, setting the groundwork for a career as a medical officer that would inform and greatly enrich his adult life.  

While the volume’s timeline isn’t always reliably linear, Van Ness’ account shimmers not only with palpable pride for his familial heritage, but also the honor and respect he holds for America as well. Written with the same verve, authority, and redemptive honor as his debut biography about his grandfather’s legacy, General in Command (2019), this striking follow-up deftly intermingles Van Ness’ own life and adventures with those of his grandfather, offering greater insights and more meticulous details than the first work. The author draws from his experiences as a Navy doctor and the son of a naval aviator to infuse authenticity into a busy book that also includes complex stories from his friends, classmates, and their families as well as evocative retellings of historical events like the Battle of the Bulge, which his grandfather actively participated in. Though wartime tales can sometimes be dismal and cumbersome, Van Ness is a passionate, natural storyteller, and his dynamic prose strikes sincere, uplifting, and heartfelt notes throughout, with an extra emphasis on the preservation of history since, as the author posits about the contemporary political climate, “we are facing threats to our republic.” The volume concludes with an extensive reference section that features historical photographs, maps, document snapshots, Anderson’s military roles and rankings, and heavily detailed notations and ancestry charts of the author’s family’s expansive progeny. The result is a literary time capsule that informs, educates, and enlightens while paying an honorable personal tribute to the heroic veteran experience.

A sublime amalgam of personal recollections and meticulous wartime biography brimming with reverence and brio.