Download or read book Ballad of the Green Beret written by Marc Leepson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rough-and-tumble life of Special Forces vet and Sixties pop star Barry Sadler The top Billboard Hot 100 single of 1966 wasn’t “Paint It Black” or “Yellow Submarine”--it was “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” a hyper-patriotic tribute to the men of the Special Forces by Vietnam vet Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. But Sadler’s clean-cut, all-American image hid a darker side, a Hunter Thompson-esque life of booze, girls, and guns. Unable to score another hit song, he wrote articles for Soldier of Fortune and pulp novels that made “Rambo look like a stroll through Disneyland.” He killed a lover’s ex-boyfriend in Tennessee. Settling in Central America, Sadler ran guns, allegedly trained guerrillas, provided medical care to residents, and caroused at his villa. In 1988 he was shot in the head by a robber on the streets of Guatemala and died a year later. This life-and-times biography of an American character recounts the sensational details of Sadler’s life vividly but soberly, setting his meteoric rise and tragic fall against the big picture of American society and culture during and after the Vietnam War.
Download or read book Colt Terry Green Beret written by Charles D. Patton and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through one man's career, "Colt Terry, Green Beret" portrays the birth and development of America's most elite fighting unit. The 10th Special Forces Group was the first of the Green Beret units.
Download or read book Casca written by Barry Sadler and published by Ace Books. This book was released on 1982 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What So Proudly We Hailed written by Marc Leepson and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-06-24 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What So Proudly We Hailed is the first full-length biography of Francis Scott Key in more than 75 years. In this fascinating look at early America, historian Marc Leepson explores the life and legacy of Francis Scott Key. Standing alongside Betsy Ross, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, and John Hancock in history, Key made his mark as an American icon by one single and unforgettable act, writing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Among other things, Leepson reveals: • How the young Washington lawyer found himself in Baltimore Harbor on the night of September 13-14, 2014 • The mysterious circumstances surrounding how the poem he wrote, first titled "The Defense of Ft. M'Henry," morphed into the National Anthem • Key's role in forming the American Colonization Society, and his decades-long fervent support for that controversial endeavor that sent free blacks to Africa • His adamant opposition to slave trafficking and his willingness to represent slaves and freed men and women for free in Washington's courts • Key's role as a confidant of President Andrew Jackson and his work in Jackson's "kitchen cabinet" • Key's controversial actions as U.S. Attorney during the first race riot in Washington, D.C., in 1835. Publishing to coincide with the 200th anniversary of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 2014, What So Proudly We Hailed reveals unexplored details of the life of an American patriot whose legacy has been largely unknown until now.
Download or read book Medal of Honor written by Roy P. Benavidez and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2005-03-31 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The powerful story of one man's fight against bigotry, paralysis, and his war enemy that led to the Medal of Honor
Download or read book The World s Worst Records Volume One written by Darryl W Bullock and published by Bristol Green Publishing. This book was released on 2015-02-04 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An affectionate look at some of the worst recordings ever made, The World’s Worst Records tells the extraordinary but true stories behind some of the most appalling audio crimes ever committed. Extensively researched, and featuring music by major stars, ‘outsider’ artists and almost forgotten singers and songwriters, read about how Elvis Presley came to record a rock ‘n’ roll version of the nursery rhyme Old Macdonald; discover the truth behind actor Peter Wyngarde’s one attempt at pop immortality; meet the beautifully bonkers Florence Foster Jenkins – possibly the most deluded singer in history; fi nd out which Paul McCartney record is most hated world over. Puzzle over why 60’s flower-power icon Donovan would record a song about the toilet habits of astronauts.
Download or read book The Only Thing Worth Dying For written by Eric Blehm and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a moonless night just weeks after September 11, 2001, a U.S. Special Forces team of Green Berets known as ODA 574 infiltrated the mountains of southern Afghanistan with a seemingly impossible mission: to foment a tribal revolt and force the Taliban to surrender. Armed solely with the equipment they could carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason Amerine and his ten men had no choice but to trust their only ally, a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai. Having returned from exile, Karzai—on the run from the Taliban—was traveling the countryside to raise a militia. The Only Thing Worth Dying For chronicles the most important mission in the early days of the Global War on Terror, when the men on the ground knew little about the enemy—and their commanders in Washington knew even less. With unprecedented access to surviving members of ODA 574, key war planners, and Karzai himself, award-winning author Eric Blehm cuts through the noise of politicians and high-level military officials to narrate for the first time a story of uncommon bravery and terrible sacrifice, intimately exposing the realities of unconventional warfare and nation-building in Afghanistan that continue to shape the region today.
Download or read book We Gotta Get Out of This Place written by Doug Bradley and published by UMass + ORM. This book was released on 2016-01-06 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The diversity of voices and songs reminds us that the home front and the battlefront are always connected and that music and war are deeply intertwined.” —Heather Marie Stur, author of 21 Days to Baghdad For a Kentucky rifleman who spent his tour trudging through Vietnam’s Central Highlands, it was Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” For a black marine distraught over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., it was Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools.” And for countless other Vietnam vets, it was “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die” or the song that gives this book its title. In We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Doug Bradley and Craig Werner place popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. They explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the World back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight. They also demonstrate that music was important for every group of Vietnam veterans—black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women, officers and “grunts”—whose personal reflections drive the book’s narrative. Many of the voices are those of ordinary soldiers, airmen, seamen, and marines. But there are also “solo” pieces by veterans whose writings have shaped our understanding of the war—Karl Marlantes, Alfredo Vea, Yusef Komunyakaa, Bill Ehrhart, Arthur Flowers—as well as songwriters and performers whose music influenced soldiers’ lives, including Eric Burdon, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Country Joe McDonald, and John Fogerty. Together their testimony taps into memories—individual and cultural—that capture a central if often overlooked component of the American war in Vietnam.
Download or read book Rescue written by Barry Sadler and published by Jove Books. This book was released on 1991 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Songs of America written by Jon Meacham and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A celebration of American history through the music that helped to shape a nation, by Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham and music superstar Tim McGraw “Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw form an irresistible duo—connecting us to music as an unsung force in our nation's history.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin Through all the years of strife and triumph, America has been shaped not just by our elected leaders and our formal politics but also by our music—by the lyrics, performers, and instrumentals that have helped to carry us through the dark days and to celebrate the bright ones. From “The Star-Spangled Banner” to “Born in the U.S.A.,” Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw take readers on a moving and insightful journey through eras in American history and the songs and performers that inspired us. Meacham chronicles our history, exploring the stories behind the songs, and Tim McGraw reflects on them as an artist and performer. Their perspectives combine to create a unique view of the role music has played in uniting and shaping a nation. Beginning with the battle hymns of the revolution, and taking us through songs from the defining events of the Civil War, the fight for women’s suffrage, the two world wars, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and into the twenty-first century, Meacham and McGraw explore the songs that defined generations, and the cultural and political climates that produced them. Readers will discover the power of music in the lives of figures such as Harriet Tubman, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and will learn more about some of our most beloved musicians and performers, including Marian Anderson, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, and more. Songs of America explores both famous songs and lesser-known ones, expanding our understanding of the scope of American music and lending deeper meaning to the historical context of such songs as “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” “God Bless America,” “Over There,” “We Shall Overcome,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” As Quincy Jones says, Meacham and McGraw have “convened a concert in Songs of America,” one that reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been, and what we, at our best, can be.
Download or read book Across the Fence written by John Stryker Meyer and published by . This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: QUOTE: "As the commander of SOG, I can say that "Across The Fence" accurately reflects why the secret war was hazardous for our troops and so deadly for the enemy. Major General John K. Singlaub (U.S. Army Ret.) ----------------------------------------- Far beyond the battlefields of Vietnam, across the fence in Laos and Cambodia, America fought a deadly secret war. Known only as SOG, the Special Forces men of the Studies and Operations Group didn't play by the rules. They used every trick in the book to defeat the communist forces and if those didn't work they made up new ones. SOG operators tapped into phone wires, ambushed enemy units and gathered some of the most important intelligence of the war. All of this came at a staggering price in terms of casualties. At one point the casualty rate exceeded one hundred percent. So, what kept these extraordinary men running missions that were sure to get them wounded or killed? Why did they return to Vietnam for a second tour of duty with SOG? The answers to those questions are in this book.
Download or read book Desperate Engagement written by Marc Leepson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-06-10 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marc Leepson, critically acclaimed author of Flag: An American Biography, examines the Battle of Monocacy---a crucial and singular moment in the Civil War---with his trademark historical detail and enlivening voice The Battle of Monocacy, which took place four miles south of Frederick, Maryland on a blisteringly hot day in 1864, was a full-field engagement between some 12,000 battle-hardened Confederate troops led by the controversial Jubal Anderson Early, and some 5,800 Union troops, many of them untested in battle, under the mercurial Lew Wallace. When the fighting ended, Early had routed Wallace in the northernmost Confederate victory of the war. Two days later, on another brutally hot afternoon, the foul-mouthed, hard-drinking Early sat astride his horse outside the gates of Fort Stevens in the upper northwestern fringe of Washington, D.C. He was about to make one of the war's most fateful, portentous decisions: whether or not to order his men to invade the nation's capital. Once manned by tens of thousands of experienced troops, Washington's ring of forts and fortifications that day were in the hands of a ragtag collection of walking wounded Union soldiers, the Veteran Reserve Corps, along with what were known as hundred days' men---raw recruits who had joined the Union Army to serve as temporary, rear-echelon troops. It was with great shock, then, that the city received news of the impending rebel attack. With near panic filling the streets, Union leaders scrambled to coordinate a force of volunteers. But Early did not pull the trigger. With his men exhausted after the fight at Monocacy and the ensuing march, Early paused before attacking the feebly manned Fort Stevens, giving Union General Ulysses Grant just enough time to send thousands of veteran troops up from Richmond. In the battle that followed, Abraham Lincoln became the only sitting president in American history to come so close to military action that he was fired upon by the enemy. Historian Marc Leepson shows that had Early arrived in Washington one day earlier, the ensuing havoc easily could have brought about a different conclusion to the war. He uses a vast amount of primary material, including memoirs, official records, newspaper accounts, diary entries and eyewitness reports in a reader-friendly and engaging description of the events surrounding what became known as "the Battle That Saved Washington."
Download or read book Flag written by Marc Leepson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thirteen-stripe, fifty-star flag is as familiar an American icon as any that has existed in the nation's history. Yet the history of the flag, especially its origins, is cloaked in myth and misinformation. Flag: An American Biography rectifies that situation by presenting a lively, comprehensive, illuminating look at the history of the American flag from its beginnings to today. Journalist and historian Marc Leepson uncovers scores of little-known, fascinating facts as he traces the evolution of the American flag from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. Flag sifts through the historical evidence to---among many other things---uncover the truth behind the Betsy Ross myth and to discover the true designer of the Stars and Stripes. It details the many colorful and influential Americans who shaped the history of the flag. "Flag," as the novelist Nelson DeMille says in his preface, "is not a book with an agenda or a subjective point of view. It is an objective history of the American flag, well researched, well presented, easy to read and understand, and very informative and entertaining." "Our love for the flag may be incomprehensible to others, but at least we now have a comprehensive guide to its unfolding." ---The Wall Street Journal "The fascination of history is in its details, and the author of Flag: An American Biography knows how to find them and turn them into compelling reading.... This book brings out the irony, humor, myth, and behind-the-scenes happenings that make our flag's 228-year history so fascinating." ---The Saturday Evening Post "Timely and insightful." ---The Dallas Morning News
Download or read book Four Ugly Ambush written by Linda Farell and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When author Linda Farell learned that her neighbor Ron Latham had been given only a few weeks to live, she asked him to tell her once more some of the stories about his service in the Vietnam War. At first hesitant to share, Latham eventually consented to twenty-one interviews, sharing incredibly vivid, honest, and poignant memories about his time as a Green Beret. Latham died on the day their twenty-second interview was scheduled. Farell transcribed and edited the stories, leaving the voice, sequence, and content of the stories intact, creating an important and irreplaceable first-person account of one man's service to his country in a hostile and foreign land. Four Ugly Ambush invites readers to walk with Ron as he remembers an unpopular war, fought by soldiers who believed in their mission, but were misunderstood and even less appreciated.
Download or read book Seppuku written by Barry Sadler and published by . This book was released on 1988-02-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colonel Green sends Rossen and Tommy to end a deadly hijacking in West Germany
Download or read book Soldier of Gideon written by Barry Sadler and published by Jove Publications. This book was released on 1988 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Casca returns to the Middle East in the 20th century, signed on to fight a religious war. He expects a slaughter, but how could he know that he has joined a devastatingly efficient army? For what begins as a massacre ends six days later in victory!
Download or read book Simple History Vietnam War written by Daniel Turner and published by . This book was released on 2015-11-26 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The war in Vietnam was a bitter and unpopular conflict for the American soldiers and people back home. It was also a war where the media played a big role. Both French colonial rule and the American intervention in Vietnam failed, but why?Find out inside! Discover a timeline telling the story of the conflict and explore the battles, technology and tactics of combat. Imagine you're in the humid jungles of Vietnam, the Vietcong ready to ambush your squad any minute and booby traps lay hidden across the ground and you're only a teenager. That was the experience for many Americans in the sixties.
