Book picks similar to
Some Gave it All: Through the Fire of the Vietnam War by Danny Lane
war
adult-non-fiction
available
military-heroes
Cold War Navy SEAL: My Story of Che Guevara, War in the Congo, and the Communist Threat in Africa
James M. Hawes - 2018
Sometime in 1965, James Hawes landed in the Congo with cash stuffed in his socks, morphine in his bag, and a basic understanding of his mission: recruit a mercenary navy and suppress the Soviet- and Chinese-backed rebels engaged in guerilla movements against a pro-Western government. He knew the United States must preserve deniability, so he would be abandoned in any life-threatening situation; he did not know that Che Guevara attempting to export his revolution a few miles away. Cold War Navy SEAL gives unprecedented insight into a clandestine chapter in US history through the experiences of Hawes, a distinguished Navy frogman and later a CIA contractor. His journey began as an officer in the newly-formed SEAL Team 2, which then led him to Vietnam in 1964 to train hit-and-run boat teams who ran clandestine raids into North Vietnam. Those raids directly instigated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The CIA tapped Hawes to deploy to the Congo, where he would be tasked with creating and leading a paramilitary navy on Lake Tanganyika to disrupt guerilla action in the country. According to the US government, he did not, and could not, exist; he was on his own, 1400 miles from his closest allies, with only periodic letters via air-drop as communication. Hawes recalls recruiting and managing some of the most dangerous mercenaries in Africa, battling rebels with a crew of anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and learning what the rest of the intelligence world was dying to know: the location of Che Guevara. In vivid detail that rivals any action movie, Hawes describes how he and his team discovered Guevara leading the communist rebels on the other side and eventually forced him from the country, accomplishing a seemingly impossible mission. Complete with never-before-seen photographs and interviews with fellow operatives in the Congo, Cold War Navy SEAL is an unblinking look at a portion of Cold War history never before told.
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.
Snake Pilot: Flying the Cobra Attack Helicopter in Vietnam
Randy R. Zahn - 2003
First deployed in Vietnam in 1967 and loaded with a formidable arsenal of weaponry, the Cobra was the first helicopter designed from inception as an attack aircraft. It dramatically changed the nature of the war in Vietnam by offering the Army, for the first time, its own powerful and highly accurate weapons platform for close-air-support missions. Randy Zahn arrived in Vietnam shortly before the 1970 U.S. invasion of Cambodia, one of the most impressive demonstrations by the Cobra in the war. He describes his stunning transformation from a naive, middle-class teenager from southern California to a hardened killer during his tour in Vietnam. Unlike the pilots who flew the fast-moving strike jets, Zahn experienced the war “up close and personal,” witnessing the grisly effects of the Cobra’s firepower on enemy soldiers. The author does not glorify killing but rather explains in sharp relief the kaleidoscope of emotions associated with combat: fear, revenge, hate, remorse, pity, and even ecstasy. He captures many of the ironies and nuances inherent in Vietnam, especially during the final years of the conflict. Zahn displays a sensitivity rarely found in memoirs written by battle-hardened warriors. This human element, combined with the vast amount of archival research and interviews with members of his former unit, ensures that Snake Pilot will become the definitive account of the role helicopters played in Vietnam.
Death in the A Shau Valley: L Company LRRPs in Vietnam, 1969-70
Larry Chambers - 1998
But his unit's mission stayed the same: act as the eyes and ears of the 101st deep in the dreaded A Shau Valley--where the NVA ruled.Relentless thick fog frequently made fighter bombers useless in the A Shau, and the enemy had furnished the nearby mountaintops with antiaircraft machine guns to protect the massive trail network that snaked through it. So, outgunned, outmanned, and unsupported, the teams of L Company executed hundreds of courageous missions. Now, in this powerful personal record, Larry Chambers recaptures the experience of the war's most brutal on-the-job training, where the slightest noise or smallest error could bring sudden--and certain--death. . . .
God’s Gift to Love Again
Chloe Carley - 2020
Will they put their trust in God?Innocent - Romantic - Mighty!Amie Davison is a kind-hearted, beautiful woman that would do anything to protect the children at the church shelter. Even though recently orphaned, Amie chooses to see the best in people, although people with dark secrets surround her. Despite her innocent character, she will face everyone threatening the church and stand by the side of anyone that would help it. Like the new deputy. How will her faith guide her through this new challenge?Josh Morgan is a reserved and repentant deputy. He is grateful for the opportunity he was given to turn his life around, and he would do anything to prevent going back to a life of crime. But now that he is starting to realize that people are not who they claim to be, he will have to make a choice. Will he look after the people that need him the most, even if that means losing everything?When the truth about Amie’s father comes to light, she will need him to fight beside her. How can Amie and Josh save the church and revenge the murder of her father while safeguarding their love?"God’s Gift to Love Again" is a stand-alone Christian Historical Romance Novel with no cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.
Everly / Sarah / Beth / Maggie's Gift
Kay P. Dawson - 2015
Dawson Inside, you will get the following books: Everly Sarah Beth Maggie's Gift - Short Story EVERLY The terms of her father's will leave Everly with no choice but to marry before her 21st birthday in order to ensure the security of her family. Will she be able to get over her anger towards men in enough time to find someone to marry? Answering an ad for a mail order bride, she finds Ben - a man who needs a woman to help him raise his two nieces left in his care. Can they find love while dealing with both a vindictive stepmother who wants to stop her from marrying, and a meddling woman who is determined to take the children from Ben? They will both have to learn to trust, even as the past threatens to ruin everything. SARAH Always optimistic Sarah believes in happily ever after, even after her own heartbreak. After overhearing a conversation that will affect her future, she decides to take fate into her own hands and answer an ad for a mail order bride. However, imagine her shock when she arrives in Wyoming only to discover the very man who broke her heart is standing there, determined to save her from the man she was coming to marry. Jake swore he would never marry after being left at the alter, but as a favor to his cousin, he meets the train carrying a woman he has vowed to put his distance between. In order to save her from having to follow through with a marriage to the most dangerous man in the state, Jake ends up having to marry her himself. Angry about being forced into a marriage he never wanted, Jake is determined not to make this easy. But, Sarah is also determined, promising to show him that happily ever after isn't just in fairy tales. Sarah and Jake will be put to the test as they struggle to understand their feelings, until something happens that threatens to take away everything they have together. Will Jake be able to realize his love for Sarah before it's too late? BETH Determined not to be a burden on her mother, Beth takes a job working with the local sheriff. Hoping to use her position to help take down the much hated Barlow men, she doesn’t plan on the feelings she will start to have for the man she is working beside. When she is charged with a crime she didn’t commit, can the man she has started to care for help her? Or, will it be even too much for him to save her? Nate Dixon has his own score to settle with the Barlow’s, and doesn’t need interference from a woman getting in his way. As if one woman working with him wasn’t enough to deal with, now he has another woman arriving with the expectation of marriage. Trouble is, she isn’t the woman he is in love with. What will happen when he discovers something from the past that can change everything? And, will this new woman get between what is starting to grow between him and Beth? Together, Nate and Beth will have to find a way to get through the pain of the past and learn to trust each other, while they deal with circumstances that seem determined to keep them apart. MAGGIE'S GIFT - Short Story Fleeing from a man determined to make her his own after the death of her husband, Emma finds herself in Mulder Creek, Wyoming with only her dog for company.
The Serpent's Egg
J.J. Toner - 2016
But this is Germany, 1938. Their union is against Nazi laws, as Anna is part-Jewish. A Gestapo officer agrees to authorize the marriage, but only if Max infiltrates and betrays a Marxist resistance cell, the Red Orchestra. This is not an assignment that Max can refuse. If he succeeds, Anna will get the wedding she longs for, but many brave resistance fighters will die… What early reviewers are saying about the book: JJ Toner does a fabulous job of lacing fact and fiction together. I do not often give a five-star rating, but this story surprised me, educated me, and entertained me. There was never a dull moment. Well done. JJ Toner captures perfectly the sense of paranoia and fear that prevailed in Berlin during the Third Reich, especially in the years 1938 to 1945. The convoluted intermingling of different agencies, organizations and ministries, and over all the terror of the SS and its departments, is well set out. It was really a matter of who you knew, not what you knew, if you wanted to progress. The fact that the novel is based on the actual story of the Rote Kapelle only adds to the tension
Nightingale (Crimson Romance)
Sharon Ervin - 2013
Two years younger than Queen Victoria, Jessica is the well-educated daughter of a deceased professor. Sole support of her widowed mother and avoiding an unacceptable marriage prospect, Jessica has secretly collected a flock of cast-off hens, and is supplementing her income hoping to improve her future.Jessica is alarmed when horsemen race headlong through the twilight on the footpath she has inadvertently cut to the henhouse. She stops the charge short of disaster to find the threat is not many horses, but one magnificent, riderless runaway. Ignorant of the dangers in handling an overwrought stallion, Jessica calms the animal. She calls him “Sweetness.”Backtracking, Jessica finds the missing rider, twenty-eight-year-old Devlin Miracle, the arrogant Twelfth Duke of Fornay, badly injured, and waiting for daylight. But, for this aristocrat, there will be no daylight. His injuries have left him blind.Struggling against their disparities, Devlin and Jessica resist, but sometimes love will not be ignored.Sensuality Level: Behind Closed Doors
War For the Hell of It: A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam
Ed Cobleigh - 2005
With well-crafted prose that puts you into the Phantom's cockpit, Cobleigh vividly recounts the unexplainable loss of his wingman, the useless missions he flew, the need to trust his reflexes, eyesight, and aggressiveness, and his survival instincts in the heat of combat. He discusses the deaths of his squadron mates and the contradictions of a dirty, semi-secret war fought from beautiful, exotic Thailand. This is an unprecedented look into the state of mind of a pilot as he experiences everything from the carnage of a crash to the joy of flying through a star-studded night sky, from the illogical political agendas of Washington to his own dangerous addiction to risk. Cobleigh gives a stirring and emotional description of one man's journey into airborne hell and back, recounting the pleasures and the pain. the wins and the losses. and ultimately, the return.
Crouching Beast: A United States Army Lieutenant's Account of the Battle for Hamburger Hill, May 1969
Frank Boccia - 2013
The Rakkasans, the 3/187th, are the most highly decorated unit in the history of the United States Army, and two of those decorations were awarded for these two battles. This vivid account of the author's first seven months in Vietnam gives special attention to the events at Dong Ap Bia, following the hard-hit 3/187th hour by hour through its repeated assaults on the mountain, against an unseen enemy in an ideal defensive position. It also corrects several errors that have persisted in histories and official reports of the battle. Beyond describing his own experiences and reactions, the author writes, "I want to convey the real face of war, both its mindless carnage and its nobility of spirit. Above all, I want to convey what happened to both the casual reader and the military historian and make them aware of the extraordinary spirit of the men of First Platoon, Bravo Company. They were ordinary men doing extraordinary things."
Brave Men Dark Waters
Orr Kelly - 1992
A detailed history of this elite and enigmatic military unit discusses the origins of the SEALs, their operations in every war since World War II, and their role in today's world.
Thirty Days with My Father: Finding Peace from Wartime PTSD
Christal Presley - 2012
. . an important part of the still unhealed wounds of war. Christal has given as much of her heart to this story as her father gave to his country."—Nikki Giovanni, world-renowned poet, writer, activist, and educator "Thirty Days with My Father is an important addition to the literature of trauma psychology, shining a beacon of hope for transformation and healing." —From the Foreword by Edward Tick, PhD, author, War and the Soul and founding co-director, Soldier's Heart "To me, post-traumatic stress disorder was just a bunch of words. All I knew was that it had something to do with my father's brain, and he seemed to be going crazy. And I knew it was bad because my mom told me that if anyone found out how sick he was, they'd come and take him away forever, and they'd take me away too, and she couldn't live like that. If he had to be that sick, I wanted him to have something everybody could understand. So I picked brain cancer."—From Thirty Days with My Father When Christal Presley's father was eighteen, he was drafted to Vietnam. Like many men of that era who returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he was never the same. Christal's father spent much of her childhood locked in his room, gravitating between the deepest depression and unspeakable rage, unable to participate in holidays or birthdays. At a very young age, Christal learned to walk on eggshells, doing anything and everything not to provoke him, but this dance caused her to become a profoundly disturbed little girl. She acted out at school, engaged in self-mutilation, and couldn't make friends. At the age of eighteen, Christal left home and didn't look back. She barely spoke to her father for the next thirteen years.To any outsider, Christal appeared to be doing well: she earned a BA and a master's, got married, and traveled to India. But despite all these accomplishments, Christal still hadn't faced her biggest challenge—her relationship with her father. In 2009, something changed. Christal decided it was time to begin the healing process, and she extended an olive branch. She came up with what she called "The Thirty Day Project," a month's worth of conversations during which she would finally ask her father difficult questions about Vietnam. Thirty Days with My Father is a gritty yet heartwarming story of those thirty days of a daughter and father reconnecting in a way that will inspire us all to seek the truth, even from life's most difficult relationships. This beautifully realized memoir shares how one woman and her father discovered profound lessons about their own strength and will to survive, shedding an inspiring light on generational PTSD.
Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam
Charles L. Templeton - 2020
Inspired by the author’s own experiences of US military operations during the Vietnam War, Boot is a debut literary novel that charts the journey of Marine George Orwell Hill, known affectionately as G. O. by his brothers-in-arms, as he comes to grips with the psychological impacts of war in the jungles and rice paddies of Southeast Asia. Faced with military life ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, G. O. must navigate the absurdity of warfare and suppress his humanity to survive psychologically. The war challenges his presuppositions—about the world, about life, about himself—as soon as he lands in Vietnam. And his pondering deep questions about humanity becomes a fruitless task in a situation forcing him to accept life for what it is in every gory, absurd detail. Boot is a credible contribution to new literary fiction about the Vietnam War, combining satire and psychology in historical fiction.
The Grunt Padre: Father Vincent Robert Capodanno Vietnam 1966-1967
Daniel L. Mode - 2003
Do you know of a Vietnam veteran struggling with his Faith after witnessing the horrors of war? Do you have a son or nephew serving in the military and facing an uncertain future in a troubled world? Here is a book to help them see how a Christian man lives and dies in service to God and country.
