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At eighteen years old, Kelly Thompson enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces. Despite growing up in a military family --… she would, in fact, be a fourth-generation soldier -- she couldn't shake the feeling that she didn't belong. From the moment she arrives for basic training at a Quebec military base, a young woman more interested in writing than weaponry, she quickly realizes that her conception of what being a soldier means, forged from a desire to serve her country after the 9/11 attacks, isn't entirely accurate. A career as a female officer will involve navigating a masculinized culture and coming to grips with her burgeoning feminism. In this compulsively readable memoir, Thompson writes with wit and honesty about her own development as a woman and a soldier, unsparingly highlighting truths about her time in the military. In sharply crafted prose, she chronicles the frequent sexism and misogyny she encounters both in training and later in the workplace, and explores her own feelings of pride and loyalty to the Forces, and a family legacy of PTSD, all while searching for an artistic identity in a career that demands conformity. When she sustains a career-altering injury, Thompson fearlessly re-examines her identity as a soldier. 2019.
From a veteran air-refueling expert who flew missions for over two decades during the Cold War, Afghan War, and Iraq… War comes a thrilling eyewitness account of modern warfare, with inspirational stories and moral lessons for people on the battlefield, in boardrooms, and in their everyday lives.Get a glimpse of life in the pilot’s seat and experience modern air warfare directly from a true American hero. Lt. Col Mark Hasara—who has twenty-four years experience in flying missions around the world—provides keen and eye-opening insights on success, failure, and emphasizes the importance of always being willing to learn. He provides twelve essential lessons based on his wartime experience and his own personal photographs from his missions during the Cold War, Gulf War, and Iraq War. With a foreword by #1 New York Times bestselling author and radio host Rush Limbaugh, this is a military memoir not to be missed.
<p>America's war in Vietnam. In over a decade of bitter fighting, it claimed the lives of more than 58,000 American… soldiers and beleaguered four US presidents. More than forty years after America left Vietnam in defeat in 1975, the war remains controversial and divisive both in the United States and abroad. <p>The history of this era is complex; the cultural impact extraordinary. But it's the personal stories of eight people—six American soldiers, one American military nurse, and one Vietnamese refugee—that create the heartbeat of Boots on the Ground. From dense jungles and terrifying firefights to chaotic helicopter rescues and harrowing escapes, each individual experience reveals a different facet of the war and moves us forward in time. Alternating with these chapters are profiles of key American leaders and events, reminding us of all that was happening at home during the war, including peace protests, presidential scandals, and veterans' struggles to acclimate to life after Vietnam. <p>With more than one hundred photographs, award-winning author Elizabeth Partridge's unflinching book captures the intensity, frustration, and lasting impacts of one of the most tumultuous periods of American history.</p>
Riveting, novelistic, and startlingly candid, John T. Halliday's combat memoir begins in 1970, when Halliday has just landed in the… middle of the Vietnam War, primed to begin his assignment with the 606th Special Operations Squadron. But there's a catch: He's stationed in a kind of no-man's-land. No one on his base flies with ID, patches, or rank. Even as Richard Nixon firmly denies reporters' charges that the United States has forces in Laos, Halliday realizes that from his base in Thailand, he will be flying top-secret, black-ops night missions over the Laotian Ho Chi Minh Trail. A naive yet thoughtful twenty-four-year-old, Halliday was utterly unprepared for the horrors of war. On his first mission, Halliday's C-123 aircraft dodges more than a thousand antiaircraft shells, and that is just the beginning. Nothing is as he expected -- not the operations, not the way his shell-shocked fellow pilots look and act, and certainly not the squadron's daredevil, seat-of-one's-pants approach to piloting. But before long, Halliday has become one of those seasoned and shell-shocked pilots, and finds himself in a desperate search for a way to elude certain death. Using frank, true-to-life dialogue, potent imagery, and classic 1970s song lyrics, Halliday deftly describes the fraught Laotian skies and re-creates his struggle to navigate the frustrating Air Force bureaucracy, the deprivations of a remote base far from home and his young wife, and his fight to preserve his sanity. The resulting nonfiction narrative vividly captures not only the intricate, distorted culture of war but also the essence of the Vietnam veteran's experience of this troubled era. A powerhouse fusion of pathos and humor, brutal realism and intimate reflection, Flying Through Midnight is a landmark contribution to war literature, revealing previously top-secret intelligence on the 606th's night missions. Fast-paced, thrilling, and bitingly intelligent, Halliday illuminates it all: the heart-pounding air battles, the close friendships, the crippling fear, and the astonishing final escape that made the telling of it possible.
Military hero and beloved Dancing with the Stars alum Noah Galloway shares his life story and how losing his… arm and leg in combat forced him to relearn how to live--and live to the fullest Inspirational humorous and thought provoking Noah Galloway s LIVING WITH NO EXCUSES sheds light on his upbringing in rural Alabama his military experience and the battle he faced to overcome losing two limbs during Operation Iraqi Freedom From reliving the early days of life to his acceptance of his new normal after losing his arm and leg in combat Noah reveals his ambition to succeed against all odds Noah s gripping story is a shining example that with laughter and the right amount of perspective you can tackle anything Whether it be overcoming injury conquering the Dancing with the Stars ballroom or taking the next steps forward in life with his young family - Noah demonstrates how to live life to the fullest with no excuses
"A stunning tale of a little-known figure in history. Robert Smalls' astounding heroism during the Civil War helped convince Lincoln… and the country that African Americans were extraordinarily capable of fighting for their freedom. Lineberry has produced a triumph in this heroic story that illuminates our country's ongoing struggles with race." —Henry Louis Gates, Jr, Professor in American History Harvard University and Executive Producer of Finding Your Roots“Be Free or Die makes you want to stand up and cheer. Cate Lineberry has done us all a great service by telling this incredibly moving, thrilling, and important story about an American hero who deserves to be remembered, and admired.” —Candice Millard, author of Hero of the EmpireFacing death rather than enslavement—a story of one man's triumphant choice and ultimate rise to national heroIt was a mild May morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1862, the second year of the Civil War, when a twenty-three-year-old slave named Robert Smalls did the unthinkable and boldly seized a Confederate steamer. With his wife and two young children hidden on board, Smalls and a small crew ran a gauntlet of heavily armed fortifications in Charleston Harbor and delivered the valuable vessel and the massive guns it carried to nearby Union forces. To be unsuccessful was a death sentence for all. Smalls’ courageous and ingenious act freed him and his family from slavery and immediately made him a Union hero while simultaneously challenging much of the country’s view of what African Americans were willing to do to gain their freedom. After his escape, Smalls served in numerous naval campaigns off Charleston as a civilian boat pilot and eventually became the first black captain of an Army ship. In a particularly poignant moment Smalls even bought the home that he and his mother had once served in as house slaves.Be Free or Die is a compelling narrative that illuminates Robert Smalls’ amazing journey from slave to Union hero and ultimately United States Congressman. This captivating tale of a valuable figure in American history gives fascinating insight into the country's first efforts to help newly freed slaves while also illustrating the many struggles and achievements of African Americans during the Civil War.
From the author of the prizewinning New York Times bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon comes a thrilling account of… how Civil War general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson became a great and tragic American hero.Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. As much as any person in the Confederate pantheon, even Robert E. Lee, he embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous lost cause. Jackson is also considered, without argument, one of our country's greatest military figures. His brilliance at the art of war tied Abraham Lincoln and the Union high command in knots and threatened the ultimate success of the Union armies. Jackson's strategic innovations shattered the conventional wisdom of how war was waged; he was so far ahead of his time that his techniques would be studied generations into the future. In April 1862 Jackson was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. By June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western world. He had, moreover, given the Confederate cause what it had recently lacked--hope--and struck fear into the hearts of the Union. Rebel Yell is written with the swiftly vivid narrative that is Gwynne's hallmark and is rich with battle lore, biographical detail, and intense conflict between historical figures. Gwynne delves deep into Jackson's private life, including the loss of his young beloved first wife and his regimented personal habits. It traces Jackson's brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War, the period that encompasses his rise from obscurity to fame and legend; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero.
The dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II where… thousands of families--many US citizens--were incarcerated From 1942 to 1948 trains delivered thousands of civilians from the United States and Latin America to Crystal City Texas a small desert town at the southern tip of Texas The trains carried Japanese German Italian immigrants and their American-born children The only family internment camp during World War II Crystal City was the center of a government prisoner exchange program called quiet passage During the course of the war hundreds of prisoners in Crystal City including their American-born children were exchanged for other more important Americans--diplomats businessmen soldiers physicians and missionaries--behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany Focusing her story on two American-born teenage girls who were interned author Jan Jarboe Russell uncovers the details of their years spent in the camp the struggles of their fathers their families subsequent journeys to war-devastated Germany and Japan and their years-long attempt to survive and return to the United States transformed from incarcerated enemies to American loyalists Their stories of day-to-day life at the camp from the ten-foot high security fence to the armed guards daily roll call and censored mail have never been told Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet The Train to Crystal City reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America the secrets of FDR s tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan and how the definition of American citizenship changed under the pressure of war
From an award-winning meticulously observant The New Yorker and masterful Booklist… writer comes a groundbreaking account of three women deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and how their military service affected their friendship their personal lives and their families America has been continuously at war since the fall of 2001 This has been a matter of bitter political debate of course but what is uncontestable is that a sizeable percentage of American soldiers sent overseas in this era have been women The experience in the American military is it s safe to say quite different from that of men Surrounded and far outnumbered by men imbedded in a male culture looked upon as both alien and desirable women have experiences of special interest In Soldier Girls Helen Thorpe follows the lives of three women over twelve years on their paths to the military overseas to combat and back home and then overseas again for two of them These women who are quite different in every way become friends and we watch their interaction and also what happens when they are separated We see their families their lovers their spouses their children We see them work extremely hard deal with the attentions of men on base and in war zones and struggle to stay connected to their families back home We see some of them drink too much have illicit affairs and react to the deaths of fellow soldiers And we see what happens to one of them when the truck she is driving hits an explosive in the road blowing it up She survives but her life may never be the same again Deeply reported beautifully written and powerfully moving Soldier Girls is truly groundbreaking
A Green Beret’s gripping memoir of American Special Forces in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. In 1970, on his… second tour to Vietnam, Nick Brokhausen served in Recon Team Habu, CCN. Officially, it was known as the Studies and Observations group. In fact, this Special Forces squad, which Brokhausen calls “an unwashed, profane, ribald, joyously alive fraternity,” undertook some of the most dangerous and suicidal reconnaissance missions ever in the enemy-controlled territory of Cambodia and Laos. But they didn’t infiltrate the jungles alone. They fought alongside the Montagnards—oppressed minorities from the mountain highlands, trained by the US military in guerilla tactics, armed, accustomed to the wild, and fully engaged in a war against the North Vietnamese. Together this small unit formed the backbone of ground reconnaissance in the Republic of Vietnam, racking up medals for valor—but at a terrible cost. “In colorful, military-jargon-laced prose leavened by gallows humor, Brokhausen pulls few punches describing what it was like to navigate remote jungle terrain under the constant threat of enemy fire. A smartly written, insider’s view of one rarely seen Vietnam War battleground.” —Booklist
Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator Cesare Pavese (1908-1950) is generally recognized as one of the most important writers… of his period. Between the years 1929 and 1933, Pavese enjoyed a rich correspondence with his Italian American friend, the musician and educator Antonio Chiuminatto (1904-1973). The nature of this correspondence is primarily related to Pavese's thirst to learn about American culture, its latest books, its most significant contemporary writers, as well as its slang. This volume presents an annotated edition of Pavese and Chiminatto's complete epistolary exchange.Mark Pietralunga's brilliant introduction provides historical and cultural context for the letters and traces Pavese's early development as a leading Americanist and translator. The volume also includes an appendix of Chiuminatto's detailed annotations and thorough explanations of colloquial American terms and slang, drawn from the works of Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, and William Faulkner. A lively and illuminating exchange, this collection ultimately corroborates critical opinion that America was the igniting spark of Pavese's literary beginnings as a writer and translator.
The only comprehensive, firsthand account of the fourteen hour firefight at the Battle of Keating by Medal of Honor recipient… Clinton Romesha, for readers of Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.<P><P> "'It doesn't get better.' To us, that phrase nailed one of the essential truths, maybe even the essential truth, about being stuck at an outpost whose strategic and tactical vulnerabilities were so glaringly obvious to every soldier who had ever set foot in that place that the name itself—Keating—had become a kind of backhanded joke."<P> In 2009, Clinton Romesha of Red Platoon and the rest of the Black Knight Troop were preparing to shut down Command Outpost (COP) Keating, the most remote and inaccessible in a string of bases built by the U.S. military in Nuristan and Kunar in the hope of preventing Taliban insurgents from moving freely back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three years after its construction, the army was finally ready to concede what the men on the ground had known immediately: it was simply too isolated and too dangerous to defend. <P> On October 3, 2009, after years of constant smaller attacks, the Taliban finally decided to throw everything they had at Keating. The ensuing 14-hour battle—and eventual victory—cost 8 men their lives. <P> Red Platoon is the riveting first-hand account of the Battle of Keating, told by Romesha, who spearheaded both the defense of the outpost and the counter-attack that drove the Taliban back beyond the wire, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
As an RAF medical officer Aidan MacCarthy served in France survived Dunkirk and was interned by the… Japanese in Java where his ingenuity helped his fellow prisoners through awful conditions While en route to Japan in 1944 his ship was torpedoed sending him into the Pacific Miraculously MacCarthy was rescued by a whaling boat only to be re-interned in Japan Ironically it was the dropping of the atomic bomb at Nagasaki that saved his life though it also meant being an eyewitness to the horror and devastation it caused Long out of print this remarkable war memoir was rediscovered during a journey through Ireland by Pete McCarthy author of McCarthy s Bar who describes it as jaw-dropping
This gripping autobiography is at once a heart-pounding adventure story a moving recollection of a larger-than-life father and… an important account of the Czech resistance Radomir Luza s father was a revered army general when the Nazis stormed into Czechoslovakia After his father went underground to avoid arrest and torture the nineteen-year-old Radomir spent weeks in a Gestapo prison Upon his release he joined his father in hiding General Luza became the military commander of the Czech resistance while Radomir secretly helped organize the country s largest resistance network Luza s narrative makes palpable the terror of being constantly hunted and nearly snared by betrayals and Gestapo raids The Hitler Kiss is a portrait of courage tenderness optimism and sheer survival
<P>"It's a terrible feeling to see the fate of thousands of people dependent on a single person. . . .… It seems like a mass judgment to me: life or death." <P>On December 17, 1941, twenty-year-old Eva Mándlová arrived at the Nazi's "model" concentration camp, Theresienstadt. From that day until she was freed three and a half years later, she kept a diary. At times sweet and personal, at times agonized and profound, Eva is a human voice amidst inhuman evil. <P>Through Eva's eyes, the camp sometimes "even resembles normal life," as she makes friends and talks with Benny, or Egon, or Otto. But at any moment, anyone may be "selected" for a transport to "Poland." No one ever returns from "Poland."Never before published, Eva's diary is a true-life Sophie's Choice in which each day brings impossible decisions. As a Gentile man inexplicably helps her, Eva must decide who should share her bounty. As close friends and loved ones are sent away, she has to decide, over and over again, whether to ask to join them on their final journey.
A true and touching human tale of survival and achievement.When John Stoessinger was ten years old, Adolf Hitler annexed his… homeland of Austria, ripping the boy from his home and his friends in Vienna. His grandparents encouraged his mother and stepfather to take young John somewhere safe. "You must have a future,” his grandfather told him before he and his parents boarded the train and waved goodbye.As they trekked across the country, from Vienna to Prague and then finally settling in Shanghai, there was never a single moment Stoessinger was not afraid-he lived in constant fear that he and his family would be found and killed. However, even in Hitler-ruled Nazi Germany, there were plenty of people who refused to cower to absolute evil and who did everything they could to usher families like Stoessinger’s to freedom.In From Holocaust to Harvard, Stoessinger recalls heartbreaking moments from his childhood and of living a life of secrets in Shanghai. He then presents the second part of his story-the part where he attempts to untangle himself from his previous life and devastating memories and is able to relocate to America, earn a graduate-level degree from a prestigious university, and later become a member of the Council on Foreign Relations despite making a decision that nearly lands him in prison and threatens his hard-earned freedom.Throughout his story, Stoessinger expresses his gratitude to those who helped him through the toughest parts of this life and put him on a path that led him to a Harvard education, a successful career, and inner peace.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Theodore Knell went through hell in the SAS - but his biggest battle began when he left A Hell… for Heroes is a searingly honest autobiography about what life in the military service is really like This is my life story and the story of my time in the SAS I hope that any soldier who reads it will find some sort of connection with their own I have tried to share my experiences honestly and as such all of the incidents portrayed within this book are true some so dark and painful that I often questioned whether I wanted to remain part of the human race I hope it will provide you an insight into the life and mind of a soldier - what makes us the way we are what drives us on when other men would fold what binds us together like no other brotherhood on earth what makes us laugh and what scares us shitless Watching men die violently for the first time is not something I would wish on any young man Yes many who have not served will say It will make a man out of you son but what do they know In reality it will destroy far more men than it makes leaving many dead or crippled for life some with wounds you can see but far more with wounds which you cannot
The fires on Bataan burned on the evening of April 9, 1942--illuminating the white flags of surrender against the nighttime… sky. Woefully outnumbered, outgunned, and ill-equipped, battered remnants of the American-Philippine army surrendered to the forces of the Rising Sun. Yet amongst the chaos and devastation of the American defeat, US Army Captain Donald D. Blackburn refused to lay down his arms. With future Army Special Forces legend Russell Volckmann, Blackburn escaped from Bataan and fled to the mountainous jungles of North Luzon, where they raised a private army of more than 22,000 men against the Japanese. Once there, Blackburn organized a guerrilla regiment from among the native tribes in the Cagayan Valley. "Blackburn's Headhunters," as they came to be known, devastated the Japanese 14th Army within the western provinces of North Luzon and destroyed the Japanese naval base at Aparri--the largest enemy anchorage in the Philippines. After the war, Blackburn remained on active duty and played a key role in initiating Army Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia. In 1958, as commander of the 77th Special Forces Group, he spearheaded Operation White Star in Laos--the first major deployment of Army Special Forces to a country with an active insurgency. Seven years later, Blackburn took command of the highly classified Studies and Observations Group (SOG), charged with performing secret missions now that main-force Communist incursions were on the rise. In the wake of the CIA's disastrous Leaping Lena program, in 1964 Blackburn revitalized the Special Operations campaign in South Vietnam. Sending cross-border reconnaissance teams into Cambodia and North Vietnam, he discovered the clandestine networks and supply nodes of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail. Taking this information directly to General Westmoreland, Blackburn received authorization to conduct full-scale operations against the NVA and Viet Cong operating in Laos and Cambodia. In combats large and small, the Communists realized they had met a master of insurgent tactics--and he was on the US side. Following his return to the United States, Blackburn was appointed "Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities," where he was the architect of the infamous Son Tay Prison Raid. Officially termed Operation Ivory Coast, the Son Tay raid was the largest prisoner-of-war rescue mission--and indeed, the largest Army Special Forces operation--of the Vietnam War. During a period when United States troops in Southeast Asia faced guerrilla armies on every side, it has been little recognized today that America had a superb covert commander of its own, his guerrilla skills honed in resistance against Japan. This book follows Donald D. Blackburn through both his youthful days of desperate combat against an Empire, and through his days as a commander, imparting his lessons to the newly realized ranks of America's own Army Special Forces.
Called the "Great Pathfinder", Daniel Boone is most famous for opening up the West to settlers through Kentucky. A symbol… of America's pioneering spirit Boone was a skilled outdoorsman and an avid reader although he never attended school. <P><P>Sydelle Kramer skillfully recounts Boone's many adventures such as the day he rescued his own daughter from kidnappers.