Book picks similar to
Friendly Fire: The Untold Story of the U.S. Bombing That Killed Four Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan by Michael Friscolanti
military
non-fiction
husband-s-bookshelf
war
One Man's War
Robert Allison - 2012
The story begins with the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor, proceeds through enlistment and flight training, and finally into action against the enemy in the Pacific. Along the way he meets an endless stream of outrageous characters and is exposed to a much larger world than he ever could have imagined as a young boy in Des Moines. He also meets his wife to be, ditches two aircraft into the Pacific Ocean, completes 54 combat missions, and is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Joint Force Harrier
Ade Orchard - 2008
. their lives too often depended on the success of danger-close. pin-point attacks pressed home from the air. When 800 Naval Air Squadron - callsign 'Recoil' - arrived in theatre. their Boss. Commander Ade Orchard. knew there could be no slip-ups. Day and night. the Fleet Air Arm crews were on constant alert. ready to scramble their heavily armed Harrier attack jets at a moment's notice in support of the men on the ground. The call wasn't slow in coming. Just fifteen minutes after getting airborne for the first time. Orchard and his wingman were in the thick of it. called in when an Apache helicopter gunship was forced back by heavy fire...
My Brother in Arms: The Exceptional Life of Mark Andrew Forester, United States Air Force Combat Controller
Thad Forester - 2013
His heroic legacy of being shot down while preparing to rescue a fallen teammate began long before this tragic day.An Apache aviator said of Mark's final battle: ..."I have never witnessed such an act of heroism in my three years of fighting in combat. I have over 2,700 hours total time with 1,500 hours of combat time in both Iraq and Afghanistan...JAG 28 continued to advance on the enemy while taking intense enemy fire, and continuously fired his weapon in an attempt to get to his fallen teammate and destroy the enemy."Mark chose to enlist in the Air Force as a Special Operations Combat Controller after he received his Bachelor's degree from The University of Alabama. Because of his above average grades and near-photographic memory, his Business Finance degree would have done him well. But, he felt a higher calling; one that put him between us and the enemies bent on our destruction.Even though he had pledged that freedom must be preserved, his greatest desire was to marry the right girl and have a family-Mark never got that chance. Instead he selflessly gave his life for the country he loved.Since Mark's death, his family's eyes and hearts have been opened to multiple examples of selflessness and patriotism by meeting his teammates and leaders in the military. The family has witnessed first-hand the ability for them to turn off their stern, professional personae and turn on compassion, love, support and acceptance. The author feels a strong desire to Honor our Heroes. This book highlights one hero, SrA Mark A. Forester, and also helps recognize many other men and women who volunteer to fight for our freedom.My Brother in Arms is not a memorial in print, but a biography for continuing Mark's legacy of perseverance, determination and accomplishing our missions on earth. We each have different missions, but what's important is for us to recognize ours and work to accomplish it. In the end, don't we all want to go out while moving forward?
Just Another Day in Vietnam
Keith M. Nightingale - 2015
Examples of the many perspectives based on real-life characters include: Hu, a VC “informant” whose false information led the Rangers straight into the jaws of a ferocious ambush; General Tanh, the COSVN commander; Major Nguyen Hiep, the 52d Ranger Commander; and Ranger POWs later returned by the North.Nightingale moreover offers the point of view of an American advisor to elite Vietnamese troops, a vital perspective regrettably underrepresented in the literature of Vietnam, including Burns’ documentary. Added to this are well-informed conjecture of enemy psychology; insight into the dedication and often misunderstood role of the elite Vietnamese Ranger forces; the intelligence acquired from debriefing captured Rangers, whose captors had told them that the entire battle had been a carefully staged attack planned by COSVN as part of a larger Total War strategy developed by the leadership of the North Vietnamese Army; and an eyewitness account by a gifted author who is a rare survivor of one of the most vicious—and heretofore forgotten—battles of the war.
The Wars of the Green Berets: Amazing Stories from Vietnam to the Present Day
Robin Moore - 2007
They take us from firefights on the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War to the streets and alleyways of Iraq today. They teach us what it was really like to patrol the streets of Mogadishu in the days of Black Hawk Down. They show the horror that was Saddam’s Iraq during the first Gulf War. They take us to the moonscape that is Afghanistan in search of the Taliban. The Wars of the Green Berets continues the saga of Moore’s classic The Green Berets, revealing more than a few tantalizing secrets and anecdotes for the first time.
The Radio Operator: Robert Ford's Last Stand in the Fight to Save Tibet (Kindle Single)
James McGrath Morris - 2015
Ford put together a radio communications network for a nation that had up to this time relied on messages carried by foot over the highest mountains on the globe. More important, his radio connected the secluded nation to the outside world. When in October 1950 the Communist Chinese army began its march to subjugate Tibet, Ford risked his life by staying behind to send out reports over his radio to let the world know of the attack. The Radio Operator is an overdue and gripping recounting of Ford’s valiant effort to save Tibet from Chinese domination and his subsequent capture and imprisonment.James McGrath Morris is the author of the New York Times bestselling Eye on the Struggle as well as two other acclaimed biographies. His previous Kindle Single, Revolution by Murder, was selected as one of the Best Kindle Singles of 2014. His next book, The Ambulance Drivers, will be published in 2017.Cover design by Kerry Ellis.
B-24 Co-Pilot: First Lieutenant John F. Lance
Kathryn Lance - 2016
A short book detailing: The most terrifying missions: The first mission to Balikpapan, an important Japanese fuel depot, and why it was considered impossible to achieve. Coping with boredom and fear: How joking and calculating survival odds helped deal with the realities. The snafus: The time a temporary Group Commander tried to bomb the US Seventh Fleet. True stories from a man who was there--as dictated toward the end of his life.
BRAVE AND FUNNY MEMORIES OF WWII: By a P-38 Fighter Pilot
Lyndon Shubert - 2017
Always afraid he was about to die, he climbed into the cockpit anyway ... and lived to tell you about it. How would you feel if you were a new guy in the sky ... attacked by four Messerschmitts? Let me tell you, no matter how much you prepare, no matter how much you read, how much you train, no matter how much you think of yourself as a 'Hot Shot Pilot,' you are never ready for life and death combat! How did it feel to say a 'last goodbye' to your bride believing you would never see her again, as you left to fight WWII? Author's Facebook page at: facebook.com/P38Flyer/ As reviewed by A. L. Hanks, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Ret) who said it perfectly: In "Brave and Funny Memories of WWII" Lyndon Shubert, to our great benefit, tells us his story, an engaging tale of his WWII experience as a fighter pilot in WWII. A member of the "greatest generation" he recounts his days (and nights) flying P-38 fighters in the wartime skies of Europe. The tale is told in a relaxed, conversational style, honest and personal. The reader will appreciate the authenticity and the easy humor. He tells us a story that is at once delightfully humorous and deadly serious. He shares that unfettered sense of flying a powerful aircraft free in the vast expanse of the sky. The special sense that pilots have when they "can reach out and touch the face of God". Shubert relates the feelings of men in combat, that gripping apprehension in your gut when you know you're going to die, your senses at full maximum intensity, and then that striking after mission fear when you look back and realize that you cheated death once again. Shubert was indeed a special fellow. We are indebted to him for his service and his book. He captures a special piece of the American character and our history that is essential to pass on to our children and grandchildren. Lt Shubert was exceptional, a USAF officer and a fighter pilot who fought the war and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. The author reminds us once again why fighter pilots are special. Why they are ubiquitously viewed as swaggering "raconteurs", with big egos and big watches who can sometimes be insufferable. But his tale also captures the reality of one-on-one aerial combat, loser goes home.... to God.
The Outport People
Claire Mowat - 1983
There were no roads, no cars and no telephones. The tiny village that nestled among the rocky hills of Newfoundland's desolate southern coast had existed for generations with ancient customs and patterns of speech that still endured-while the modern world waited impatiently in the wings. Drawing on a wealth of first-hand experience-the Mowats lived in the outport community for five years-Claire Mowat has written a fictional memoir that beautifully recreates an almost vanished world. A world where life revolved tightly around the home and neighbours watched over one another. A world where one's kitchen was open to anyone who might drop in, day or night. A world that Claire Mowat grew to love.
Run to the Sound of the Guns: The True Story of an American Ranger at War in Afghanistan and Iraq
Nicholas Moore - 2018
He served for over a decade with the US Army's 75th Ranger Regiment on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, Nicholas participated in the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, hunted Iraq's Most Wanted and experienced brutal street combat, including 160 night-time missions over one 90-day deployment in the insurgent stronghold of Mosul. While serving in Afghanistan, he was also part of the search and rescue operation for Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell (author of Lone Survivor), and was on the ground again when a Chinook helicopter was shot down resulting in the death of 38 men and one military working dog. It was the single greatest loss of special operations personnel to date.
Always Fresh
Ron Joyce - 2006
Many know that it was hockey legend Tim Horton who opened the first restaurant, but few know the inside story of Ron Joyce, who, after the death of Horton, grew the company into a colossal North American enterprise. Always Fresh is Joyce’s own story about the much-loved business that has become a cultural tradition, from 1964 and the first almost-failed Tim Hortons to Joyce’s decision to sell the company to Dave Thomas of Wendy’s.Along the way, Joyce provides an account of the strategy behind the chain’s phenomenal expansion, the Tim Hortons philosophy of freshness and quality, and the company’s successful launch of such products as Timbits. This is a candid look at the successes and failures of a business empire and the determined passion of a man who changed our morning routines forever.
Reluctant Pioneer: How I Survived Five Years in the Canadian Bush
Thomas Osborne - 1995
The view 16-year-old Thomas Osborne first had of Muskoka was at night, trudging alone with his even younger brother along unmarked primitive roads to find their luckless father who, in 1875, had decided to make a new start for his beleaguered family on some "free land" in the bush east of the pioneer village of Huntsville, Ontario. The miracle is that Thomas lived to tell the tale.For the next five years Thomas endured starvation, falling through the ice and freezing, accidents with axes and boats, and narrow escapes from wolves and bears. Many years later, after returning to the United States, Osborne wrote down all his adventures in a graphic memoir that has become, in the words of author and journalist Roy MacGregor, "an undiscovered Canadian classic."Reluctant Pioneer provides a brooding sense of adventure and un- sentimental realism to deliver a powerful account of pioneer life where tragedies arrive as naturally as rain and where humour resides in irony.
The Tip of the Sword (Raiding Forces Book 13)
Phil Ward - 2020
Brutal Enemy (Sgt. Dunn Novels Book 3)
Ronn Munsterman - 2014
Dunn World War II action thriller series picks up right where book two, Behind German Lines, left off.Colonel Frank Rogers, an American intelligence officer on the planning staff for the impending invasion of southern France, goes missing in northwest Italy. Sgt. Tom Dunn, recalled from his honeymoon, and his squad of lethal U. S. Army Rangers are tasked with the impossible: find and rescue the missing colonel before he is captured and gives up vital invasion intelligence. Meanwhile, British Sergeant Malcolm Saunders and his Commandos parachute into Italy north of the impenetrable Gothic Line in an attempt to deliver a crushing blow to the German supply line.While Dunn and his men race across Italy in search of Rogers, the rescue operation takes an unexpected direction. Suddenly, Dunn comes face-to-face with the brutal evil permeating the Nazis from Berlin to the occupied countries. In Brutal Enemy, Munsterman takes the reader on a terrifying journey into Nazi occupied Italy with his trademark page-turner pace.