On Patrol

The current wars are growing in popularity … on America’s bookshelves.

The New York Times profiled the upswing in the popularity of military memoirs over the weekend, noting how the first-person accounts of war have become a boon for publishers. This is especially true of books by former Navy SEALs, whose popularity skyrocketed last May after the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs.

“The big common thing right now is people saying: ‘I haven’t read a book since I had to. And yours is the first that I’ve read,’ ” former SEAL Chris Kyle told the Times. Kyle is the author of American Sniper.

Read more in “A Wave of Military Memoirs With You-Are-There Appeal.

In other news around the military:

• In an odd side note to the story of Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, ABC News found an Ohio couple that accused Bales of conning them out of their life savings through a series of questionable investments more than a decade ago. Bales is accused of carrying out a one-man raid that killed 16 Afghan civilians on March 11.
  
  
• The Los Angeles times says the Air Force plans to alter the handle that engages the F-22 Raptor’s emergency oxygen system after a probe found the system’s setup played a role in a 2010 crash.