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The U.S. Marine Corps' Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Companies--usually referred to as ANGLICOs--are the unsung heroes of the U.S. military. Small squads of these marines are inserted deep behind enemy lines to identify targets and direct fire from aircraft, ground artillery, and naval guns. They are among the best of the best, and their radio call sign "Lightning" is recognized throughout the military as the gold standard of qualification and capability.
Lt. Kara Hultgreen was just twenty-nine and the U.S. Navy's first fully qualified female fleet fighter pilot when her Tomcat slammed into the Pacific Ocean in October 1994. Her death was not only a tragic loss to her family but a serious blow to a navy struggling to redefine the role of women in its ranks. The image of this beautiful and vibrant young woman with her fierce warplane -- plastered across the front pages of newspapers around the world after the crash -- provoked strong emotions and gave new life to the controversy. Written by Kara's mother, Sally Spears, the book goes behind the headlines to tell the story of a remarkable woman who made history. Spears presents Kara's shortcomings along with her strengths -- the ups and downs in her personal life along with her professional career. She draws freely from Kara's journals, kept from the time Kara entered the navy, and from extensive interviews with her daughter's friends and peers as well as some of her commanding officers. From the athletic teenager who dreamed of becoming an astronaut to her pursuit of that dream earning a degree in aerospace engineering and joining the navy, this book chronicles Kara's efforts to become a navy pilot. It demonstrates how her outspokenness sometimes created problems in an environment hostile to women and how her sense of humor allowed her to cope. It describes how her ambition to fly combat aircraft collided with the customs of the navy, the mores of society -- and, until the repeal of the combat exclusion rules in 1991, with the laws of the United States.
Lightning from the Sky, Thunder from the Sea by Thomas Petri Pdf
ANGLICO: "Super Grunts" of 1st ANGLICO were deployed to all four tactical zones of Vietnam in small mobile fire control teams, providing support to U.S. Army and allied elements. This organization was the last tactical unit to stand down from the war and gained distinction as the only Marines in-country reporting directly to MACV. Working closely with Korean Marines, recounting several actions involving these legendary warriors from the Land of the Morning Calm, this little known but highly effective unit had an impact on the war far greater than their small numbers. Field radio operators and naval gunfire spotters composed the tactical membership of this unit. Both professions were cross trained in each competence, and each in turn was further qualified as tactical air controllers. An airborne capable platoon was established, mandating many ANGLICOs attend jump school and undertake other specialty training in the event they are called on to enter combat by unconventional means. Not being able to predict who they may be called on to support, training was pushed to the level of the most elite forces in the free world. BLUE DRAGONS: Most men of the Blue Dragon Brigade came of age during a war that raged fierce on their own homeland little more than a decade earlier. During a short lived occupation by North Korea, the people of the south endured extremely harsh treatment by would be conquerors. Events of recent history still burned in their hearts and haunted their dreams. They were mostly all children at the time leaving scarcely a man untouched by personal tragedy that could only be forged in a crucible of terror. Many were orphaned and all shared a thirst to settle a score that only those who drink deep from the same cup of dread can truly understand.
This "utterly spectacular" book weighs the impact modern medical technology has had on the author's life against the social and environmental costs inevitably incurred by the mining that makes such innovation possible (Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises). What if a lifesaving medical device causes loss of life along its supply chain? That's the question Katherine E. Standefer finds herself asking one night after being suddenly shocked by her implanted cardiac defibrillator. In this gripping, intimate memoir about health, illness, and the invisible reverberating effects of our medical system, Standefer recounts the astonishing true story of the rare diagnosis that upended her rugged life in the mountains of Wyoming and sent her tumbling into a fraught maze of cardiology units, dramatic surgeries, and slow, painful recoveries. As her life increasingly comes to revolve around the internal defibrillator freshly wired into her heart, she becomes consumed with questions about the supply chain that allows such an ostensibly miraculous device to exist. So she sets out to trace its materials back to their roots. From the sterile labs of a medical device manufacturer in southern California to the tantalum and tin mines seized by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a nickel and cobalt mine carved out of endemic Madagascar jungle, Lightning Flowers takes us on a global reckoning with the social and environmental costs of a technology that promises to be lifesaving but is, in fact, much more complicated. Deeply personal and sharply reported, Lightning Flowers takes a hard look at technological mythos, healthcare, and our cultural relationship to medical technology, raising important questions about our obligations to one another, and the cost of saving one life.
A raw, honest and evocative account of life as the most highly decorated serving soldier in the British Army. From the breakneck pace of an opening where he is in action in Helmand province, under fire from the Taliban, Mick Flynn pulls no punches. It's obvious that he is a trained killer. But how did it reach this point? The journey starts with his childhood, a working class lad, learning to fight and finding himself repeatedly on the wrong side of the law. Even after joining the Army he is found at fault and jailed, an experience that finally shocks him into behaving himself. From there, it is off to Northern Ireland and straight into hotspots where Mick's courage and determination are all that keep him alive. There's love too: his estranged wife, Denise, is being brought back into the picture, just as Mick tries to start a new life with his girlfriend Rachel. Can he manage to separate his ferocious soldiering persona from the real Mick? As things remain complicated, Mike flings himself into further tours of duty, in Bosnia, Iraq, the Falklands. Action-packed, shoots-from-the-hip narration from an engaging hero, this is gritty realism at its most shocking.
Months have passed since General Turner’s attack on Rapid City, and Dani’s group of resistance fighters are still grieving the loss of one of their own. Through tragedy and inner turmoil, Dani and Kate have finally found themselves on the same side of the war and fighting for control of the wasteland. When the rumor of a traitor among Dani’s inner circle is revealed and information about the past threatens to completely derail Kate, it makes staying hidden from the general and Simon all but impossible. With the help of an unexpected ally within the National Armed Forces, and a final showdown imminent, Dani and Kate must push past their grief and rely on each other more than ever if they have any chance of a future together.
Operation Anaconda by Lester W. Grau,Dodge Billingsley Pdf
Long before it became "Obama's War," the long-running conflict in Afghanistan was launched by President George W. Bush in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Only a few months later, Operation Anaconda sent American-led coalition forces into their most intensely brutal confrontation with Al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts in the Shar-i Kot Valley near the Pakistan border. The result was an unexpected set piece of conventional fighting in what has become an era of guerrilla warfare. Drawing upon previously unavailable or neglected sources, Lester Grau and Dodge Billingsley give us the most complete and accurate account of this thirteen-day firefight waged in mountainous terrain nearly two miles above sea level. They describe how allied troops fought a fierce and well-entrenched enemy to a standstill, close to an old Soviet battlefield, and then drove them completely out of Afghanistan. Grau and Billingsley's account also highlights problems encountered in Anaconda and the lessons we should learn from their in-depth study. The Army and Air Force operated under conflicting views regarding the appropriate application of Close Air Support, and airpower both crippled and aided the overall effort. In addition, severe shortages of transport, attack helicopters, and artillery hampered the effort, while the acquisition and timely sharing of intelligence barely occurred at all and coalition relations frayed under the intense pressures of combat. As an added bonus, the authors also include with the book a documentary on DVD that features interviews with soldiers who fought in Anaconda, provides additional information concerning major phases of the battle, and presents insightful commentary by Grau and by Billingsley, who was on the ground with U.S. forces for the operation. Providing the richest description and critique of all the forces involved-including those that fought on the enemy side-the combined book-and-DVD surpasses all previous accounts of this landmark engagement and is an essential volume in the literature on our war in Afghanistan.
"Shelby Stanton has emerged as the leading military historian on the war in Southest Asia." COL. CHARLES B. MacDONALD Author of COMPANY COMMANDER and A TIME FOR TRUMPETS One of the toughest and most challenging jobs in Vietnam was to be a U.S. Army Ranger running Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols. The LRRPs took volunteers only, and training was designed to weed out all but the best. What emerged was an elite outfit of warriors in the finest sense of the word. Now Shelby Stanton, renowned military authority on the war in Southeast Asia, presents the first and only definitive history of the LRRPs and the U.S. Army Rangers in Vietnam. They're all here: the Screaming Eagle Patrollers, Cochise Raiders, Charlie Rangers, Cobra Lightning Patrollers, and more.
The Sacred Magic of the Angels by David Goddard Pdf
Humanity shares a universal belief in the existence of spiritual guides and messengers. This book mixes esoterica and practical information to teach the reader to contact and benefit from angels in their life. It empowers readers with the knowledge to deal with health, employment and home.
Winner of the 2023 W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction: A gripping tale of anti-submarine warfare in the World War II Pacific Theater, by a master of military adventure fiction. The Last Paladin by P.T. Deutermann is based on the true story of the USS Holland (DE-24), a World War II Atlantic Fleet destroyer escort which has spent the past two years in the unforgiving battle for survival against the German U-boats of the North Atlantic. Summoned to relieve destroyers that are bogged down by escort duty in the escalating Pacific Theater, the Holland is met with a rather cold reception. In the eyes of Pacific Fleet sailors, North Atlantic convoy duty pales in comparison to the bloody, carrier-sinking battles of Savo Island and Guadalcanal. However, Atlantic Fleet ships have had to specialize in one thing: anti-submarine warfare. The Holland is sent off into remote South Pacific operating areas with orders to find and destroy Japanese submarines—but with little expectation of success. Her commanders take the mission literally; using radio intercepts that are being ignored at higher levels, they determine that the Japanese have set up a 1000-mile-long picket line of six submarines, an entire squadron's worth, to act as a moveable barrier against the expected American advance into the next set of islands. These submarines are poised to sink every American aircraft carrier and destroyer and to change the course of the war. What happens next is one of the legendary stories of the US Navy. The Last Paladin is high stakes naval warfare at its best, told with utter authenticity and a former ship captain's understanding of dramatic, intense combat. P. T. Deutermann continues his acclaimed series of WWII thrillers in this unforgettable novel.
Using archival photographs sourced directly from Vietnam, specially commissioned diagrams and combat accounts from veterans, István Toperczer reveals how the MiG-21 defended Vietnam between 1966 and 1968. One of the most successful communist jet fighters ever built, the MiG-21 "Fishbed" was involved in a series of deadly duels with American fighters over North Vietnam as the USAF and US Navy ramped up strike missions during Operation Rolling Thunder, culminating in the destruction of over 70 US aircraft for the loss of 35 "Fishbeds." Having honed their skills on the subsonic MiG-17, pilots of the Vietnam People's Air Force received their first examples of the legendary MiG-21 supersonic fighter in 1966. Soon thrown into combat over North Vietnam, the guided-missile-equipped MiG-21 proved a deadly opponent for the American crews striking at targets deep into communist territory. Although the communist pilots initially struggled to come to terms with the fighter's air search radar and weapons systems, the ceaseless cycle of combat operations quickly honed their skills. The best fighter then available to the VPAF, more than 200 MiG-21s (of various sub-types) were supplied to the North Vietnamese. In this study, leading VPAF authority István Toperczer analyzes the tactics used by the MiG-21 pilots over the bitter fighting in North Vietnam during Rolling Thunder. The highspeed 'hit and run' attacks employed by the communist pilots proved to be very successful, with both R-3S air-to-air missiles and heavy-caliber cannon inflicting a rising toll on American jets. Using first-hand accounts from MiG-21 pilots, battlescene artwork, combat ribbon diagrams, and armament views, the author details the important role played by the "Fishbed" in the defense of North Vietnam.
Hank Rudzinski always wanted to be a hero. He fi nds Amy, a partner in his quest, and joins the Army. From Pennsylvania to West Germany; from a Georgia Army Post to a Mississippi Air Force Base; from an Infantry Division in Missouri to the deserts of Iraq in 1991they realize that heroes are made of something different than rank or medals. They also discover that great causes bring out the best but also the very worst of people. This novel pulls aside the curtain to reveal the grandeur and grittiness of such pursuits. It is also a novel of love and hate; highlighting the lifelong permanence of soul searing choices. This book is part of the Good Fight Series and overlaps times and characters of Marx & Ford and the upcoming Fear & Hope.
“Timeless and absorbing. . . . An astonishing and authentic portrayal of the military academy experience.” —Jerry Pournelle, New York Times–bestselling, Nebula and Hugo Award–winning author of Lucifer’s Hammer The Officer continues the historical saga chronicling the United States Air Force Academy. Unveiling the arduous training of America’s leaders, The Officer showcases empathetic, larger-than-life characters set against a fascinating tapestry of historical fact—vivid, history-changing events that affect the course of the nation, ranging from cheating scandals at the USAF Academy to the Cuban missile crisis to the jungles of Vietnam. Praise for the Wild Blue U saga: “Doug Beason has captured the essence of the lives of the early cadets and graduates of the Air Force Academy.” —General Ron Fogleman, USAFA Class of 1963, 15th Chief of Staff, USAF: first Academy graduate to become USAF Chief of Staff. “Doug Beason has distilled the first years of the Air Force Academy into a compelling and fascinating novel. . . . The closest and most intimate account that exists in print, with all the turbulence and exuberance captured through the lens of fiction.” —Lt. Gen Brad Hosmer, USAF (ret), #1 Graduate of the USAFA Class of 1959, Rhoades Scholar and USAFA Superintendent
The Lockheed Plant in Marietta has been building many of the world's most legendary aircraft for the past 60 years--and that doesn't even count its service building B-29 bombers for the Bell Aircraft Company during World War II. Lockheed's six decades have seen the plant build jet bombers, like the B-47 Stratojet; the world's most dominant fighter jet (the F-22 Raptor); and the most vaunted cargo planes (C-130 Hercules, C-141 StarLifter, and C-5 Galaxy). In Images of America: The Lockheed Plant, readers will learn about those planes, the people who designed and assembled them, and the plant in which they were built. The striking images in this book were shared by Lockheed Martin and the Marietta Daily Journal and depict the plant from its construction through today.
