There are Gurkhas from the Himalayan foothills and Fijians from the South Sea Islands. There are men who learned their skills with the Japanese antiterrorist paramilitaries and many from southern Africa. There was even one guy who'd served in the Chinese People's Army and Chilean commandos and Sri Lankan antiterrorist experts who joined the mercenary gold rush to Iraq. They don't share a common ideology or common loyalty, but what they do share is a thirst for adventure and a hunger for big bucks; Iraq is the one place they are certain to find both..."For the first time a private military contractor delivers a frontline report on life as a hired gun in Iraq. ""Anyone entering Iraq must travel the road from Amman to Baghdad along the Fallujah bypass and around the Ramadi Ring Road. It's the most dangerous trunk route in the world, used as a personal fairground shooting gallery by insurgents and Islamists with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs. For newcomers to the country it's terrifying - but hell only really begins when that first journey ends...""" "Amidst the ongoing controversy over the widespread employment of private military contractors in Iraq, "Highway to Hell" is a mercenary's graphic, first-person expose of life in "the second biggest army in Iraq." Not since the days when the East India Company used soldiers of fortune to depose fabulously wealthy maharajas and conquer India for Great Britain, and mercenaries fought George Washington's Continental Army for King George, has such a large and lethal independent fighting force been assembled. Hired to do everything from securing American bases and supply routes to guarding the thousands of government officials, executives, aid workers, journalists, and other civilians now populating the Middle East's most notorious target range, today's clandestine soldiers of fortune earn up to $1,000 a day, while remaining almost entirely immune from government oversight, military authority, or Iraqi law John Geddes, a former warrant officer in Britain's elite SAS and veteran of several wars, became a private military contractor in Iraq immediately following President George W. Bush's declaration of the end of hostilities in early May 2003. In "Highway to Hell "Geddes gives an unsparing account of his harrowing, often bloody, and occasionally absurd adventures in the wild west of Iraq. After a chaotic chase on the Ramadi Ring Road, he takes out insurgents with a sniper rifle (while nursing the mother of all hangovers). He provides security to a cameraman during to a shootout on the rooftop of a Baghdad hotel alongside Kalashnikov-wielding Iraqi waiters (and accepts a marriage proposal that is almost drowned out by RPG fire). He witnesses American contractors shooting and pushing other vehicles off the road first and asking questions later (or, rather, not at all). From rushing a TV crew into the mayhem of a suicide bombing's aftermath to accompanying an oil executive to a meeting in the heart of darkness of Sadr City, Geddes presents a stunning, chilling inside look at the face of contemporary warfare.

    Control stick hard left into a sharp left turn and let the nose drop quickly but smoothly to 40° down. Down. My heart is pumping hard. I'm in a sharp dive. I have to do it right and fast. Line up the target in the sight. It's getting bigger as I get closer to the ground. Airspeed is increasing! Quick! Right there! Pickle at 8,000 feet, only 2,000 feet from roll-in altitude. Not much time. NOW! Pull out! Pull hard, but don't over G! All the remaining ordnance is trying to pull the airplane toward the ground. Smoothly pull to four Gs. Watch the artificial horizon. It's the only visual reference I can count on. Pull! Get the nose up! Don't go below 7,000 feet because rocks can be anywhere below seven. There's level. Bring it on up. Twenty-five degrees nose high. I have plenty of speed, so keep the nose up. Here comes 8,000 feet. Then 9,000. I can let the nose down a little now and look around to see if anyone is shooting. It is 1969 and Dick Diller is on his way to flying warplanes in the Vietnam conflict. He is commissioned to fly A-1 Skyraiders in sometimes harrowing nighttime missions over Laos-surviving not only the danger of the missions he flew, but also the bureaucracy of the air force, from fitness testing to additional duties assigned, to attacking impossible-to-find targets in the dead of night-with minimal fuel supplies. At once entertaining and riveting, as well as thought-provoking, Firefly is the story of one man's journey in a world at war, and a day-to-day description of the fighting force that was flying A-1 Skyraiders in combat. Firefly contains actual transcriptions of dialogue of pilots locating a target and making a strike in northern Laos.

    Air Force Lt. Col. (Ret) Bob Reneau began writing this story as his autobiography for his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and succeeding generations. However, he was convinced by many friends to turn it into book form for anyone. Bob has spent twenty-five years as an Air Force pilot. He was an original AC-130 pilot in Laos and Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. As an Airlifter flying the C-130, Bob was stationed and flew out of Sewart AFB, Tennessee, Evreux AB in France, Naha AB; Okinawa (now Japan), and Patrick AFB, Florida, where he flew Gemini Space Mission support. He was on top of all but one splashdown as telemetry and voice relay. Bob was also stationed at Ubon AB, Thailand, Rhein-Main, Germany, and Pope AFB, North Carolina. He flew all over Europe, Southeast Asia, North Africa, South Africa, Australia, and the United States. He has flown around the world two times, He was also a Reconnaissance and Special Operations pilot, logging over 8000 flying hours. He has served in most of the major air commands. His medals include the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, twelve Air Medals, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry (individual award), and many other awards and decorations. Bob hopes to leave more information for his progeny than his father did. Although he talked freely to his sons about his war experiences, Bob’s father neglected to mention them in his limited biography. He served as an unarmed chaplain during WWII. He went ashore onto Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion where his landing craft was blown out from under him. He made it onto the beach on a floating pontoon and served through many famous battles including the Battle of the Bulge, The Ardennes Forest and others. This is Bob’s interesting, funny, poignant, and informative story.

    This program will ensure you increase your value in the most fundamental way that will enable you to enhance those employability skills, take control of your career, and find true happiness at work while shaping your own destiny.

    Donovan Gray answers that question in Dude, Where's My Stethoscope? - a laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreaking and sometimes poignant collection of true-life medical short stories. We follow Dr. Gray through medical school and two decades of unforgettable ER and family practice. Humorously written in an engaging mash-up of formal prose and informal medical slang with a nod to pop culture and ancient mythology, Dude is a powerful book that captures the essence of what it is to be an emergency room doctor.

    Many people simply do not understand what it is, how to avoid it, and what can be done to help the holy souls there. For most Catholics, it's been years since their catechism training and they simply forgot what was taught. Purgatory 101 will bring back the knowledge that you forgot. It will show what Purgatory is and how you can help yourself and the holy souls. Armed with knowledge, you can make a positive difference for the suffering saints in Purgatory.

    

    They can begin to create their own pictures of sea life, placing them in an ocean that they imagine. The book can be used for school projects to get ideas that are related to science and Earth. Children can also use the information to come up with ideas about new animals that might live in the ocean.

    Local friendships and bonds of loyalty that she and her family formed during their gradual renovation of their once derelict farmhouse have now deepened. The children, both hers and her neighbours', are now adults and the close-knit community celebrates and prepares for the new generation. The wedding festivities and banquets are beautifully described in mouth-watering detail and the tastes and smells of Lot-et-Garonne seem to float from the page. An unforgettable and enriching story of Ruth and her family, and their continuing love for their home in the sunflowers.

    Remember! is an autobiography which recounts Marcel Scharfstein's life experience in the Warsaw Ghetto and in Nazi concentration camps of Poland and Germany during World War II.

    Great cinematic appeal. Hollywood should grab it fast."-- Ivor Davis / New York Times Syndicate An intimate, Humorous Tale of a Thrilling Escape From childhood. He wanted a party, they threw him a circumcision. He wanted sour cream, he got bugs. Stealing the Borders is a witty survivor story about a boy who grew up experiencing German bombs, chills of Siberia, and life in a refugee camp. - Then came the real test - the chaotic streets of New York. As he had no schooling till the age of 16, Rais developed an extraordinary instinct for survival and an uncanny perspective that allows him to see the wry side of every situation. Laugh with him, as you read the inspiring story of his escape from war-torn Europe and eventual success in the United States. Don't try to tell him he had a deprived childhood he's convinced it was a privilege! Follow his hilarious antics in his warm and touching autobiography. - He stole the border, he'll steal your heart.

    This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to shed off some extra weight without counting calories. Click buy now with 1-click to own your copy today!

    This is the first in a series of true stories about a young helicopter pilot’s tour of duty in Vietnam.

    1500 General Knowledge Quiz Questions and Answers100 x 15 questions together with answersWritten by a member of the High IQ Society MENSA

    Though competing against one another for the flying assignments of their dreams, like the fearsome F-15 and F-16 fighters, a good mission sometimes takes a backseat to a good party or punch line in this classroom of cut-ups. The high stakes, however, loom over Lt. Wright. In a program where one out of three students fails, not everybody who starts UPT will finish it. And not everybody who does finish will get a desirable flying assignment. Some won’t even escape the Columbus Air Force Base. Will Lt. Wright get his dream assignment flying a C-141 cargo plane based out of beachside Charleston, South Carolina? Or be forced to perpetuate the If you ain’t a pilot… system as the dreaded FAIP (First Assignment Instructor Pilot) in Columbus, Mississippi? Though a military memoir, IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT… is a story of youthful innocence, a happy tale of the best of friends. Beneath the story’s surface layer of how an Air Force officer’s aeronautical rating determines his worth, similar thematic layers unfold around gender, race, and other ways people define each other. At its core, this story is about people, our relationships, and how we choose to treat each other. While 30 years have passed since the memoir’s events—and our aircraft, our enemy, and our pop-culture ties have changed—we still struggle with our differences. IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT taps into the mystic of Top Gun, the satirical wryness of Candide and Catch-22, and the allure of the air-travel genre captured by Mark Vanhoenacker’s recent Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot (2015), Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff, and James Salter’s The Hunters. Set at the end of the Cold War in the heart of Dixie, IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT…crosses Top Gun adrenaline with Pee-Wee’s Playhouse antics at a flight training base where Air Force idealism collides with Deep South heritage. Complete at 142,000 words, this comedic memoir written for a general audience charts the year when a newly commissioned officer is challenged not only by flight school but also by the Air Force dictum If you ain’t a pilot, you ain’t $#!+. That said, the primary mission for IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT...is to make readers laugh. While the story is written for a non-military audience, military pilots, civilian pilots, and any person who ever dreamed about flying as a kid will love IF YOU AIN’T A PILOT….