anyway.

I'm just going to start with a couple of URLs:

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/9833
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=217052

Here's my have-read list:
Jarhead, Anthony Swofford.
Marine, Tom Clancy.
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien.
Several articles by Sydney Freedberg.

Here's my to-read and keep-reading list:
Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character, Jonathan Shay.
Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein.
Red Army, Ralph Peters.

...And now Armor by John Steakley.

Because I really just don't want to be punched in the head.

Move Starship Troopers to the have-read list.

THAT book belongs with Narnia and Dune. I'm reading it and I'm like, sure, that makes sense, I buy that, maybe in BIZARRO WORLD.

Add to the to-read list: This Kind of War by T. R. Fehrenbach.

Add to the have-read list: Suicide Charlie by Norman L. Russell and The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford (upon which Full Metal Jacket was based). I read these a while ago, figured I'd list 'em.

About movies: I've seen so many I can't possibly list 'em. Full Metal Jacket is my favorite. I've seen all the ones you list, KSB, except Stalingrad. I watched Band of Brothers a couple times through; I watched one early episode three times in a row. They advance up a hill into a town - it's the third or fourth episode.

Blackhawk Down is important to the game, but not for being a good movie - I need to make sure that the game does "this one bad happening makes the whole operation go terribly, terribly wrong" and does it well.

Most recently I watched about half of Gunner Palace - something interrupted me and I couldn't finish it, I'll have to go back to the video store and pick it up again.

I'm looking forward to Jarhead.

RPGnet: Let's brainstorm my "boot camp" game.

Linked within:
Infantry One Station Unit Training Cycle Template
Infantry Training Brigade
This one's exciting: Marching and Running Cadences
And a jukebox! Army Cadence Jukebox
Go Army: Basic Training
Special Ops Schools and Training

KSB goes: "So you got army initiation... But I am wondering what have you planned these future supersoilders are going to be fighting. Giant ants or fellow humans over a goal that is vague and not really understood by the troops? Just curious."

That'll be a dial you set during game setup. It has three settings:

1. Humans. You're fighting humans on Earth or from Earth. The scale of the war is national, whatever the nations (or corporate nation-substitutes) happen to be.

2. Non-human people. You're fighting aliens who, while inhuman, are undeniably people. They have culture, language, art, technology, diplomats, motivations you mostly understand. Think of Star Trek or Farscape aliens.

3. Non-people. You're fighting aliens who are not recognizable as people. Here's your Aliens and your Starship Troopers.

Which you choose will have thematic significance, obviously, and mechanical significance too. For instance, if the group chooses non-people, that allows the GM the option to have battles in a toxic environment, but takes from the GM the option to have the civilians back home become outraged at the enemy's inhuman treatment at the hands of the marines.

Infantry Journal: Articles from the professional journal of the American ground fighter via MetaFilter

Army Field Manuals

Jarhead is a good movie, too.

Cruiser Scout, Recollections of War in the Pacific