This is his story, from the first day of the war to the last, of how he became one of history’s leading fighter aces. Starting out flying Spitfires for 416 (Canadian) Squadron and then for an RAF Eagle Squadron, Goodson transferred over to the Thunderbolts and Mustangs of the Fourth Fighter Group when the U.S. joined the war. Mixing it up with the Luftwaffe’s very best pilots accompanying bombing runs into the heart of Germany, Goodson scored thirty kills. But the “King of the Strafers” finally got shot down trying to attack a Me 163 rocket plane. Captured by the Gestapo and only hours away from execution, he managed to buy himself more time by showing the commandant how to blow smoke rings!—and was moved to Berlin, just as Allied bombers besieged the city… With breathtaking descriptions of aerial dogfights and vivid portraits of the men who fought, Tumult in the Clouds is a dramatic, gripping story of courage and sacrifice—and a stunningly personal account of war.

    Kyle was involved in every stage of the Iran hostage rescue operation. As Desert-1 Commander, he alone bore responsibility for the courageous mission. Now Colonel Kyle spares no one, including himself, in this riveting account that takes readers from the initial brainstorming sessions and training camps to the desert rehearsals, the forward staging areas in Egypt and Oman, and finally to the desert refueling site, where he decided to abort.Colonel Kyle provides honest answers to tough questions: Why were the pilots caught totally off guard by the weather? How did the CIA contribute to the mission’s breakdown? And could such a failure happen again? The Guts to Try is a thrilling true-life adventure story–exploring America’s ability to react quickly, forcefully, and effectively to acts of terrorism.From the Paperback edition.

     October 24, 1944: As World War II raged, six young American torpedo bombers were sent on a search-and-destroy mission in the Sibuyan Sea. Their target: the superbattleship Musashi, the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The pilots were tasked with preventing the immense enemy warship from inflicting damage on American supply ships. Little did these men know that they had embarked on the opening round of history’s greatest—and last—epic naval battle. Two bomber crews launched in the first wave of attackers were shot out of the sky. Only pilot Will Fletcher survived the crash landing. Adrift at sea, Will made his way to land and escaped into the jungles of the Philippines, where he eluded capture by the Japanese with the help of Filipino guerrillas, whose ranks he joined to fight against their common enemy. Intrepid Aviators is the thrilling true story of these brave bomber pilots, their daring duel with the Musashi, and Will Fletcher’s struggle to survive as a guerrilla soldier. The sinking of Musashi inflicted a crucial blow in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and marked the first time in history that aviators sank a Japanese battleship on the high seas. MAIN SELECTION OF THE MILITARY BOOK CLUB INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

    Navy destroyer, the USS Dee (based on the author's experiences while serving aboard the USS Decatur in the North Atlantic). The ships' mission is to locate and destroy German submarines while protecting an aircraft carrier. The book details life aboard the destroyer and the inevitable conflicts that arise between men at sea for long periods. The ship also encounters and engages enemy submarines, receiving slight damage. Following author Wirt Williams' service aboard the USS Decatur, he was transferred to the Pacific theater where he captained a Landing Ship. After the war, Williams worked as a reporter, then became an English professor in California. He continued to write and published six novels, and was nominated for three Pulitzer Prizes, once for his reporting and twice for his novels. The Enemy was his first novel. Williams passed away in 1986 at the age of 64.

    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.

    In fact, the mysteries surrounding her fate often overshadows her accomplishments as a pilot and author. Who was this high-flying woman who lived as if she were invincible but understood she was anything but? Here, from historian Nancy Nahra, is her inspiring story.

    Bonaparte had returned, and it would be just one hundred days before he met his enemies in a final, epic battle. In Napoleon and the Hundred Days, Stephen Coote vividly re-creates the rise and fall of Bonaparte's empire, and brings to life the characters who shaped it. With the eye of an historian and the dramatic style of a novelist, Coote describes how the path to war became inevitable and how, at the Battle of Waterloo, the fatigued but ever arrogant Napoleon met his match. This is a dazzling portrait of the legendary emperor, whose genius, courage, and tenacity won--and lost--him a vast empire.

    Since her launching in 1943, the 27,000-ton, Essex-class aircraft carrier has sailed into harm’s way around the globe. During World War II, she fought her way across the Pacific—Kwajalein, Truk, Peleliu, Formosa, the Philippines, Okinawa—surviving kamikaze and torpedo attacks and covering herself with glory. The famous ship endured to become a Cold War attack carrier, recovery ship for America’s first astronauts, and a three-tour combatant in Vietnam. In a riveting narrative based on archival research and interviews with surviving crewmen, authors Bill White and Robert Gandt take us inside the war in the Pacific. We join Intrepid’s airmen at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, as they gaze in awe at the apparitions beneath them: five Japanese battleships, including the dreadnoughts Yamato and Musashi, plus a fleet of heavily armored cruisers and destroyers. The sky fills with multihued bursts of anti-aircraft fire. The flak, a Helldiver pilot would write in his action report, “was so thick you could get out and walk on it.” Half a dozen Intrepid aircraft are blown from the sky, but they sink the Musashi. A few months later, off Okinawa, they again meet her sister ship, the mighty Yamato. In a two-hour tableau of hellfire and towering explosions, Intrepid’s warplanes help send the super-battleship and 3,000 Japanese crewmen to the bottom of the sea. We’re next to nineteen-year-old Alonzo Swann in Gun Tub 10 aboard Intrepid as he peers over the breech of a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun. He’s heard of kamikazes, but until today he’s never seen one. Swann and his fellow gunners are among the few African Americans assigned to combat duty in the U.S. Navy of 1944. Blazing away at the diving Japanese Zero, Swann realizes with a dreadful certainty where it will strike: directly into Gun Tub 10.The authors follow Intrepid’s journey to Vietnam. “MiG-21 high!” crackles the voice of Lt. Tony Nargi in his F-8 Crusader. It is 1968, and Intrepid is again at war. Launching from Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, Nargi and his wingman have intercepted a flight of Russian-built supersonic fighters. Minutes later, after a swirling dogfight over North Vietnam, Nargi—and Intrepid—have added another downed enemy airplane to their credit. Intrepid: The Epic Story of America’s Most Legendary Warship brings a renowned ship to life in a stirring tribute complete with the personal recollections of those who served aboard her, dramatic photographs, time lines, maps, and vivid descriptions of Intrepid’s deadly conflicts. More than a numbers-and-dates narrative, Intrepid is the story of people—those who sailed in her, fought to keep her alive, perished in her defense—and powerfully captures the human element in this saga of American heroism.

    Her escape is achieved just before the disastrous advent of Hitler, and there is further tragedy to come.Follow her through childhood and adolescence, then on into her twenties when, finally made whole, she wins her own battle for freedom, for love and for her own place in the world.

    Credible Witness is a collection of compelling accounts from members of the police family who have witnessed or have intimate knowledge of unexplained incidents. When the world of policing and the paranormal collide, even the most hardened sceptic might have to think again. However much we think we know about the world around us, perhaps we don’t know everything.

    ‘Flying the Knife Edge’ is the story of an ordinary man experiencing extraordinary things as a pilot in Papua New Guinea in the 1990s. After an untimely exit from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, New Zealander Matt McLaughlin took a leap into the unknown, travelling to Papua New Guinea to work as a missionary pilot. He soon switched from missionary to mercenary, and over the next three and a half years, as he built up the necessary experience to chase his goal of becoming an airline captain, his life was a rollercoaster ride of adventure, risk, near-misses, and tragedy. Matt lived on the knife edge of bush pilot ops in one of the world’s most dangerous flying environments. Along the way he soaked up some fascinating local history: the country's vital role in WWII’s Pacific Theatre; the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart; the chaos of the Bougainville civil war; the Morobe gold rush of the 1930s... “The gap in the cloud became smaller and smaller as I descended, a shrinking tunnel twisting down the gorge. In a matter of seconds I was so low my wheels barely cleared the trees on the valley floor as I passed, and jungle-clad walls closed in on me until I was a mere wingspan from both sides of the valley. And then, in an instant, the gap was gone and I was flying blind. In cloud. In the bottom of a gorge. With terrain on both sides rising thousands of feet above me. Time stopped. The passengers started screaming, anticipating the aircraft impacting the side of the mountain. And their deaths. I had the capacity for just one other thought: Will I hear the sound of the airframe smashing into the trees as we crash, or will I be dead before it registers?”

    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.

    It was closed, but I sensed there was something - someone - standing on the other side, staring straight at me. A prickling sensation ran through me... I was absolutely terrified, rooted to the spot and unable to breathe._____________________________________________________________________________________________His name is Jason Bray. He's your quintessential vicar: that guy in the long dress and poncho who stands at the front of the church and tells you God loves you. He's the person who will baptise your children, take your wedding, and conduct your Auntie Beryl's funeral.But then he's also the person you will call in when Auntie Beryl still keeps appearing on the landing in her nightie, or when things go bump and rattle and your shoes start moving on their own, or when you think your mother-in-law might be possessed.Jason is a deliverance minister, and this is a story of oppression and possession, of ghosts, poltergeists and other paranormal phenomena, and how to deal with them. He is the first Anglican deliverance minister to write a book about this ministry for the general reader. A warm, sympathetic and humorous character who sees it as his mission to serve the community and help families in distress, each true-life adventure is like a detective story. At times, it's a case of mental illness. At others, an energy or memory that has latched itself onto a place or property. At others, he's even encountered fraud!Welcome to his world.

    It is primarily a story to share with family and friends about my personal involvement in the conflict and the turbulent decade of the 60s and does not attempt to question the politics of the era. It begins with a brief description of my quest to gain admittance to the United States Air Force Academy, my four years at the Academy, and the subsequent year of pilot training. I flew three different types of aircraft in combat and the book provides insight into the training that took place for the C-130 Hercules, the F-105 Thunderchief, and the A-1 Skyraider. Each of the three tours in combat over Laos and Vietnam is described with emphasis on the more memorable flights including a bailout in the A-1 and the final crash on takeoff that ended my active duty Air Force career. My time in various hospitals is described at the end of the book and the epilogue tells briefly of my life after retirement from the United States Air Force. The book has been described as a combination of Band of Brothers, Top Gun, and Forrest Gump.

    Her stories will captivate you, make you laugh, warm your heart, shake your head, and just maybe... will inspire you, too. Step inside to go behind the scenes of a world unlike any other in the healthcare industry. "Cynics do not contribute. Skeptics do not create. Doubters do not achieve." - Gordon B. Hinckley "Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones." - Benjamin Disraeli • Download your Free Kindle App, now. Read Kindle books on any device (smartphone, tablet, pc).