Book picks similar to
Melody Hill by Rick DeStefanis


military
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Twenty Tales From The War Zone: The Best Of John Simpson


John Cody Fidler-Simpson - 2007
    Whether dodging guerrillas at a cocaine market in Colombia, narrowly escaping a murderous Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, interviewing a flatulent Colonel Gadaffi, crossing the border into Afghanistan dressed in a fetching bright blue burka or being kidnapped at gunpoint - or was it a finger in a pocket - in the backstreets of Belfast at the height of the troubles, Simpson paints a vivid picture of what being a journalist on the front line is all about, from low comedy to high drama. It's a rollercoaster ride that is sure to thrill anyone who dares to join it.

Recall


David McCaleb - 2013
    . .   To a trio of muggers, Red looks like just another suburban dad. But when they demand his wallet at knifepoint, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, two muggers are dead, the third severely injured, and Red doesn't remember a thing. Once an elite member of the Det, a secret forces outfit whose existence is beyond classified, Red thought his active service was over.   But his memory is coming back--and a lethal killing machine is returning to duty . . .   Facing an unthinkable nuclear threat, a volatile international power play, and a personal attack against his family, Red has no choice. He must rejoin his old team, infiltrate the enemy camp, and complete the biggest mission of his life . . .

Xin Loi, Viet Nam: Thirty-one Months of War: A Soldier's Memoir


Al Sever - 2005
    He volunteered for the job well aware that hanging out of slow-moving choppers over hot LZs blazing with enemy fire was not conducive to a long life. But that wasn’t going to stop Specialist Sever.From Da Nang to Cu Chi and the Mekong Delta, Sever spent thirty-one months in Vietnam, fighting in eleven of the war’s sixteen campaigns. Every morning when his gunship lifted off, often to the clacking and muzzle flashes of AK-47s hidden in the dawn fog, Sever knew he might not return. This raw, gritty, gut-wrenching firsthand account of American boys fighting and dying in Vietnam captures all the hell, horror, and heroism of that tragic war.From the Paperback edition.

Kiss The Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POWs In Vietnam


Monika Jensen-Stevenson - 1990
    government has knowingly suppressed evidence of American soldiers still held captive in Southeast Asia. Over the course of a five-year investigation, the authors became convinced that the safety and interests of these prisoners and their families were being sacrificed to American foreign policy. 16 pages of photographs.

Flying Low


B.K. Bryans - 2012
    Navy fighter/attack pilot from 1956 to 1980. (What it was like to fly jets off aircraft carriers in the days before smart bombs, GPS, and automated carrier landing systems.) After two years at the University of Arizona, the author entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in Pensacola, Florida, and became a carrier-qualified jet pilot at age twenty. As a naval aviator, he flew 3,669 hours in thirteen different types of aircraft, made 652 carrier landings (163 of them at night), and flew 183 combat missions during the Vietnam War. He was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and thirteen Air Medals. He went on to command Attack Squadron 35 aboard USS Nimitz.This is the story.

Blind Thrust


Samuel Marquis - 2015
    Somehow the cause of the unusual earthquakes must be unraveled and the cataclysms stopped before they result in more carnage and devastation. But are they the result of natural tectonic adjustments, hydro-fracking, conventional subsurface sequestering, or clandestine operations? Environmental Geologist Joe Higheagle is on a mission to find out the answer. But he soon finds himself in a deadly duel of wits against powerful forces and, with the cataclysms worsening, he may not have enough on his side to solve the mystery and save Colorado from more devastation. Can he solve the enigma of the earthquakes and gather enough evidence to stop those responsible? Will the tremors continue to wreak death and mayhem across the Front Range? Or will Higheagle and his outgunned team be defeated and ultimately crushed by their adversaries? If the earthquakes are not stopped, thousands more will perish and more towns and homes will be destroyed, leaving countless injured and homeless as well as untold financial damage across the Front Range. But can the resourceful Higheagle and his team stop those responsible? In the end, all they can do is try.

Dak to: America's Sky Soldiers in South Vietnam's Central Highlands


Edward F. Murphy - 1993
    Brings together interviews with more than eighty survivors to recount one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War, the 1967 campaign in the mountains of Dak To, during which members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade found themselves caught up in a deadly struggle against overwhelming odds, often cut off from supplies, communications, and reinforcements.

First Blood


David Morrell - 1972
    Then came the legend, as John Rambo sprang from the pages of First Blood to take his place in the American cultural landscape. This remarkable novel pits a young Vietnam veteran against a small-town cop who doesn't know whom he's dealing with—or how far Rambo will take him into a life-and-death struggle through the woods, hills, and caves of rural Kentucky. Millions saw the Rambo movies, but those who haven't read the book that started it all are in for a surprise—a critically acclaimed story of character, action, and compassion.

Cassius: The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog


Gordon Thorburn - 2009
    Things did not go according to plan in Sleightholm's first years as a police dog handler. The difficulties of finding and keeping the right dog were so great that he was ready to give up. Then Cass came along. The two of them quickly formed a bond, graduated as stars from the training school, and became an outstandingly effective working partnership. Cass became part of the Sleightholm family, too. Car thieves, armed robbers, drug dealers, murderers, burglars—Cassius learned to find them, contain them, intimidate, and attack if he had to. Sometimes it was dangerous for him. Usually it was more dangerous for the criminal. The story of Cassius is by turns thrilling, funny, and moving, and always a fascinating insight into the freemasonry of police dog training.

The Theseus Paradox


David Videcette - 2015
    July 2005: in the midst of Operation Theseus, the largest police investigation that the UK has ever known, Detective Inspector Jake Flannagan begins to ask difficult questions that lead to the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend and his sudden suspension from the Metropolitan Police.Who masterminded London's summer of terror? Why can't Flannagan make headway in the sprawling investigation?Is Jake's absent girlfriend really who she claims to be?While hunting for the answers to the most complex case in British history, one man will uncover the greatest criminal deception of our time.Terror, extremism and fear of the unknown,Sometimes the answer is much closer to home.

On The Black


Theo Cage - 2015
     One of the most decorated covert agents in U.S. history, Burroughs Rice, has been “on the black” for ten years, deep under cover and running for his life from some of the world's most dangerous power brokers. When a mysterious government agency stumbles onto the ex-agent in the wilds of Washington State, they force Rice to deal with a terrible secret. What follows is a harrowing road trip across the American heartland with Rice at war with an army of International mercenaries, an organized crime family, and an ultra-violent biker gang. Complicating his mission is a young hitchhiker he rescues, and a trauma nurse who becomes an unwitting ally. ON THE BLACK comes to a surprising climax in the nation's capital - an armed showdown in one of the country's most famous national treasures. Based on hundreds of hours of research, including interviews with actual intelligence operatives, ON THE BLACK is epic, suspenseful, and ultimately revealing. ABOUT REVIEWS - All of the reader feedback you see for ON THE BLACK comes from actual buyers and/or members of LibraryThing and Goodreads who provided honest reviews in return for the opportunity to see an early manuscript. "The author does a good job of hooking you from page one. The characters were unique and so was the plot line. It was brilliantly written and a must read..." "I very quickly realized this book was a cut above the ordinary. Actually quite a bit above the majority of books. The writing is gripping, the characters amazingly interesting, and the storyline is quite mesmerizing" "characters...are all well-crafted and interlock beautifully to present a smooth and realistic story, albeit one with so many twists, turns and surprises it had me guessing to the end" "What a ride! This book is fast paced from beginning to end"

Fortune's Soldier


Alex Rutherford - 2018
    On board, he meets the spirited and mercurial Robert Clive, determined – at whatever cost – to make a fortune in a land of opportunity.Over the years that follow, their friendship sees many twists and turns as Clive’s restless hunger for wealth and power takes him from being a clerk to a commander in the Company’s forces, masterminding plans to snuff out rival French interests in Hindustan and eventually leading the company forces to victory at Plassey, the prelude to nearly two centuries of foreign rule in Hindustan.Brilliantly crafted, and bringing to life the momentous events that shook India in the mid-eighteenth century, Fortune’s Soldier is an epic tale of a fascinating era by a master storyteller.

The Conor McBride Series: Books 1-3: The Conor McBride Series Boxset


Kathryn Guare - 2017
    He's even more interesting than the trouble he gets into. Conor McBride is a talented Irish musician whose life is changed forever once he's recruited and trained for a mission to catch a criminal he knows all too well - his own brother. From one adventure to the next, he is a reluctant operative, but a natural talent, easily acquiring skills he never wanted to learn, but now must perfect to survive. The Conor McBride Series: Books 1-3 includes the first three stories in the series. Find out why readers are calling these captivating thrillers with adrenaline-pumping" plots one of the best series they've ever read.

The Dying Place


David A. Maurer - 1986
    So begins The Dying Place, David Maurer’s unflinching look at MACV-SOG, Vietnam, and a young man’s entry into war. Fresh from the folds of the Catholic Church, Sgt. Sam Walden is quickly embraced by another religion, jungle warfare. After four years there may be no resolution between the two; God knows Sam has tried. But how many Hail Mary’s will absolve him of what he has done in Laos? Walden is a war-weary Green Beret, regularly tested beyond normal limits by the ever-changing priorities of the puzzle palace in Saigon. And yet he overcomes, staying alive to go on mission after mission with his one-one and his little people. To them he is everything – strength, compassion, courage. He will not let them down. David Maurer’s own experiences at MACV-SOG’s Command and Control North come to life in this tense action-packed story. The U.S. was not supposed to be in Laos during the Vietnam War and by all accounts, we weren’t. Some know better, and fortunately, Maurer is one of those. With a fine ear for dialogue Maurer takes you back and sets you down squarely on the LZ, where inner turmoil is quelled and external conflict takes over, if only for awhile. If you’re lucky, you just might make it out alive.

A Sniper in the Arizona: 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines in the Arizona Territory, 1967


John J. Culbertson - 1999
    The first was that we were still alive. . . ."In 1967, death was the constant companion of the Marines of Hotel Company, 2/5, as they patrolled the paddy dikes, mud, and mountains of the Arizona Territory southwest of Da Nang. But John Culbertson and most of the rest of Hotel Company were the same lean, fighting Marines who had survived the carnage of Operation Tuscaloosa. Hotel's grunts walked over the enemy, not around him. In graphic terms, John Culbertson describes the daily, dangerous life of a soldier fighting in a country where the enemy was frequently indistinguishable from the allies, fought tenaciously, and thought nothing of using civilians as a shield. Though he was one of the top marksmen in 1st Marine Division Sniper School in Da Nang in March 1967--a class of just eighteen, chosen from the division's twenty thousand Marines--Culbertson knew that against the VC and the NVA, good training and experience could carry you just so far. But his company's mission was to find and engage the enemy, whatever the price. This riveting, bloody first-person account offers a stark testimony to the stuff U.S. Marines are made of.