Download or read book Bury Us Upside Down written by Rick Newman and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They had the most dangerous job n the Air Force. Now Bury Us Upside Down reveals the never-before-told story of the Vietnam War’s top-secret jet-fighter outfit–an all-volunteer unit composed of truly extraordinary men who flew missions from which heroes are made. In today’s wars, computers, targeting pods, lasers, and precision-guided bombs help FAC (forward air controller) pilots identify and destroy targets from safe distances. But in the search for enemy traffic on the elusive Ho Chi Minh Trail, always risking enemy fire, capture, and death, pilots had to drop low enough to glimpse the telltale signs of movement such as suspicious dust on treetops or disappearing tire marks on a dirt road (indicating a hidden truck park). Written by an accomplished journalist and veteran, Bury Us Upside Down is the stunning story of these brave Americans, the men who flew in the covert Operation Commando Sabre–or “Misty”–the most innovative air operation of the war. In missions that lasted for hours, the pilots of Misty flew zigzag patterns searching for enemy troops, vehicles, and weapons, without benefit of night-vision goggles, infrared devices, or other now common sensors. What they gained in exhilarating autonomy also cost them: of 157 pilots, 34 were shot down, 3 captured, and 7 killed. Here is a firsthand account of courage and technical mastery under fire. Here, too, is a tale of forbearance and loss, including the experience of the family of a missing Misty flier–Howard K. Williams–as they learn, after twenty-three years, that his remains have been found. Now that bombs are smart and remote sensors are even smarter, the missions that the Mistys flew would now be considered no less than suicidal. Bury Us Upside Down reminds us that for some, such dangers simply came with the territory.
Download or read book Misty written by Don Shepperd and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Single mother Janeen Flare has had a rough road so far with her beautiful children, Donovan and Tina. The choice to leave her worthless boyfriend Sean was obvious. Sean's rage came to a head and he tried to slash Janeen's throat. Coming to his senses he decided not to kill Janeen. In desperation, Janeen escaped with only an eighth of a tank of gas and her two babies. Her children are now seven and four years old and they seem to have their lives back on track. She is going to graduate from school soon and is working as a topless dancer to support her two children. Just as her life is looking up, she is challenged to make her dream come alive with Pete. He is the man she has fallen in love with, but his reluctance to love her children, and the shame her family holds over her head, put her into a tailspin. She fosters a friendly relationship with Jake, who is always there for her in times of need. Jake whole-heartedly tries to show her some goodness but Janeen denies him. Every moment she grows more and more blind to the few good things remaining in her life. His effort to get closer to Janeen ends up wasted. As she becomes ever more oblivious, she chooses to be with Pete. The path she follows grows darker and more violent, and may never lead her back to the light.
Download or read book American Patriot written by Robert Coram and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2007-05-03 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the course of his military career, Bud Day won every available combat medal, escaped death on no less than seven occasions, and spent 67 months as a POW in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, along with John McCain. Despite sustained torture, Day would not break. He became a hero to POWs everywhere -- a man who fought without pause, not a prisoner of war, but a prisoner at war. Upon his return, passed over for promotion to Brigadier General, Day retired. But years later, with his children grown and a lifetime of service to his country behind him, he would engage in another battle, this one against an opponent he never had expected: his own country. On his side would be the hundreds of thousands of veterans who had fought for America only to be betrayed. And what would happen next would make Bud Day an even greater legend.
Download or read book Firefight written by Patrick Creed and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2008-05-27 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amid all the stories of tragedy and heroism on September 11, there is one tale that has yet to be told–the gripping account of ordinary men and women braving the inferno at the Pentagon to rescue friends and co-workers, save the nation’s military headquarters, and defend their country. Pentagon firefighters Alan Wallace and Mark Skipper had just learned the shocking news that planes had struck the World Trade Center when they saw something equally inconceivable: a twin-engine jetliner flying straight at them. It was American Airlines Flight 77, rushing toward its target. In his Pentagon office, Army major David King was planning a precautionary evacuation when the room suddenly erupted in flames. Arlington firefighters Derek Spector, Brian Roache, and Ron Christman, among the first responders at the scene, were stunned by the sight that met them: a huge flaming hole gouged into the Pentagon’s side, a lawn strewn with smoking debris, and thousands of people, some badly injured, stumbling away from what would become one of the most daunting fires in American history. For more than twenty-four hours, Arlington firefighters and other crews faced some of the most dangerous and unusual circumstances imaginable. The size and structure of the Pentagon itself presented unique challenges, compelling firefighters to devise ingenious tactics and make bold decisions–until they finally extinguished the fire that threatened to cripple America’s military infrastructure just when it was needed most. Granted unprecedented access to the major players in the valiant response efforts, Patrick Creed and Rick Newman take us step-by-step through the harrowing minutes, hours, and days following the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon’s western façade. Providing fascinating personal stories of the firefighters and rescuers, a broader view of how the U.S. national security command structure was held intact, and a sixteen-page insert of dramatic photographs, Firefight is a unique testament to the fortitude and resilience of America.
Download or read book When Thunder Rolled written by Ed Rasimus and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ed Rasimus straps the reader into the cockpit of an F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber in his engaging account of the Rolling Thunder campaign in the skies over North Vietnam. Between 1965 and 1968, more than 330 F-105s were lost—the highest loss rate in Southeast Asia—and many pilots were killed, captured, and wounded because of the Air Force’s disastrous tactics. The descriptions of Rasimus’s one hundred missions, some of the most dangerous of the conflict, will satisfy anyone addicted to vivid, heart-stopping aerial combat, as will the details of his transformation from a young man paralyzed with self-doubt into a battle-hardened veteran. His unique perspective, candid analysis, and the sheer power of his narrative rank his memoir with the finest, most entertaining of the war.
Download or read book The Next Five Minutes written by Dick Rutan and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a cold December morning in 1986, Dick Rutan and co-pilot Jeana Yeager, against all odds, made aviation history when they successfully completed the first ever non-stop and non-refueled flight around the world in a homebuilt airplane! They had traversed 26,358 statute miles, returning with only 18.3 of the 1200 gallons of gas they had taken off with nine days prior. Following their arduous takeoff, Dick's younger brother, Burt, watched the plane of his design disappear over the vast Pacific, believing it improbable he would ever see his brother alive again. Dick had always been a risk-taker, possessing both a talent and passion for flying. Even at a young age he knew he wanted to achieve something of significance as a pilot. Although his motivation was strong, Dick struggled academically with what he learned decades later was undiagnosed dyslexia. With determination, he painfully devised ways to transcend those academic limitations and attain his goals. Little did he realize that the setbacks he experienced along the way would provide him with the exact skill-set he needed. This young man who had been deemed unfit for college would repeatedly succeed despite the odds. He rose through the ranks of the military and became a highly decorated fighter pilot who flew 105 combat missions over North Vietnam. Following his Air Force career, he set numerous aviation records, many of which remain unbroken. An inductee of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, he was the recipient of aviation's most coveted awards and was presented the Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan. Throughout his life, Dick sought adventure and welcomed challenge, frequently finding himself at "danger's door" wondering what THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES of his life would be like. In his words, "It's great to be an American¿to live in a free country where, if you can dream it, you can do it. The only way to fail is if you quit."
Download or read book Rebounders written by Rick Newman and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "U.S. News & World Report" journalist Newman examines the rise and fall--and rise again--of some of our most prolific and productive figures in order to demystify the anatomy of resilience.
Download or read book Rivers written by Michael Farris Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx, “a wonderfully cinematic story” (The Washington Post) set in the post-Katrina South after violent storms have decimated the region. It had been raining for weeks. Maybe months. He had forgotten the last day that it hadn’t rained, when the storms gave way to the pale blue of the Gulf sky, when the birds flew and the clouds were white and sunshine glistened across the drenched land. The Gulf Coast has been brought to its knees. Years of catastrophic hurricanes have so punished and depleted the region that the government has drawn a new boundary ninety miles north of the coastline. Life below the Line offers no services, no electricity, and no resources, and those who stay behind live by their own rules—including Cohen, whose wife and unborn child were killed during an evacuation attempt. He buried them on family land and never left. But after he is ambushed and his home is ransacked, Cohen is forced to flee. On the road north, he is captured by Aggie, a fanatical, snake-handling preacher who has a colony of captives and dangerous visions of repopulating the barren region. Now Cohen is faced with a decision: continue to the Line alone, or try to shepherd the madman’s prisoners across the unforgiving land with the biggest hurricane yet bearing down—and Cohen harboring a secret that poses the greatest threat of all. Eerily prophetic in its depiction of a Southern landscape ravaged by extreme weather, Rivers is a masterful tale of survival and redemption in a world where the next devastating storm is never far behind.“This is the kind of book that lifts you up with its mesmerizing language then pulls you under like a riptide” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
Download or read book The Friday Pilots written by Don Shepperd and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2014-11-10 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book of first-person stories written by old pilots, those who flew the old airplanes in the old air force. These are personal stories of growing up in a different America, their lives before political correctness, back when airplanes were dangerous but flying was fun. The group calls themselves the Friday Pilots. They gather at McMahon's Prime Steakhouse in Tucson, Arizona, every Friday for lunch. There are those who finished careers as generals and colonels and majors and captains and even first lieutenants. They laugh. They exchange stories, some true. They have become legends in their own minds. There are fighter pilots, bomber pilots, airline pilots, corporate pilots, and astronauts. They have run large companies and been on boards. They have been rich and they have been poor. They have landed gear up and gear down. They have ridden huge rockets into space. They have crashed and burned. They have been to war. They have been blown from the skies, have run through jungles, and have parachuted into oceans. They have been captured and imprisoned as POWs and horribly tortured. There are heroes at the table, but none will admit it. They will tell you they have flown with those who were. It seems everyone talks about writing a book. The Friday Pilots have done something few do: they have written their stories for their families and friends. Strap in, hold on, and enjoy the ride!
Download or read book The World Turned Upside Down written by Melanie Phillips and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2011-12-13 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In what we tell ourselves is an age of reason, we are behaving increasingly irrationally. An astonishing number of people subscribe to celebrity endorsed cults, Mayan armageddon prophecies, scientism, and other varieties of new age, anti-enlightenment philosophies. Millions more advance popular conspiracy theories: AIDS was created in a CIA laboratory, Princess Diana was assassinated, and the 9/11 attacks were an inside job. In The World Turned Upside Down, Melanie Phillips explains that the basic cause of this explosion of irrationality is the slow but steady marginalization of religion. We tell ourselves that faith and reason are incompatible, but the opposite is the case. It was Christianity and the Hebrew Bible, Phillips asserts, that gave us our concepts of reason, progress, and an orderly world on which science and modernity are based. Without its religious traditions, the West has drifted into mass derangement where truth and lies, right and wrong, victim and aggressor are all turned upside down. Scientists skeptical of global warming are hounded from their posts, Israel is demonized, and the US is vilified over the war on terror—all on the basis of blatant falsehoods and obscene propaganda. Worst of all, asserts Phillips, this abandonment of rationality leaves the West vulnerable to its legitimate threats. Faced with the very real challenges of spiraling demographics and violent, confrontational Islamism, the West is no longer willing or able to defend the modernity and rationalism that it once brought into being.
Download or read book It s Not About the Shark written by David Niven, PhD and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spirit of The Tipping Point and Freakonomics, David Niven presents a new way of decoding the riddles of the everyday choices we make. It's Not About the Shark opens the door to the groundbreaking science of solutions by turning problems—and how we solve them—upside down. When we have a problem, most of us zero in, take it apart, and focus until we have it solved. David Niven shows us that focusing on the problem is exactly the wrong way to find an answer. Putting problems at the center of our thoughts shuts down our creative abilities, depletes stamina, and feeds insecurities. It's Not About the Shark shows us how to transform our daily lives, our work lives, and our family lives with a simple, but rock-solid principle: If you start by thinking about your problems, you'll never make it to a solution. If you start by thinking about a solution, you'll never worry about your problems again. Through real-life examples and psychology research, Niven shows us why: *Focusing on the problem first makes us 17 times less likely to find an answer *Being afraid of a problem is natural: we're biologically primed to be afraid *Finding a problem creates power – which keeps you from finding a solution *Working harder actually hides answers *Absolute confidence makes you less likely to find the answer *Looking away from a problem helps to see a solution *Listening only to yourself is one of the best ways to find an answer Combining hard facts, good sense, and a strong dose of encouragement, Niven provides fresh and positive ways to think about problem solving.
Download or read book Dear Mom written by Joseph T. Ward and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 1991-08-31 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Vietnam's jungle war, only one group of men was feared more than death itself—the Marine Scout Snipers. . . . The U.S. Marine Scout Snipers were among the most highly trained soldiers in Vietnam. With their unparalleled skill, freedom of movement, and deadly accurate long-range Remington 700 bolt rifles, the Scout Snipers were sought after by every Marine unit—and so feared by the enemy that the VC bounty on the Scout Snipers was higher than on any other elite American unit. Joseph Ward's letters home reveal a side of war seldom seen. Whether under nightly mortar attack in An Hoa, with a Marine company in the bullet-scarred jungle, on secret missions to Laos, or on dangerous two-man hunter-kills, Ward lived the war in a way few men did. And he fought the enemy as few men did—up close and personal.
Download or read book Saving June written by Hannah Harrington and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2023-07-12 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes and excerpt from Speechless by Hannah Harrington.
Download or read book Lucky in Love written by Eleni N. Gage and published by Clarkson Potter. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every engaged couple wants two things: a meaningful wedding and a lifetime of happiness. This great gift book is a cross-cultural collection of marriage folklore that will help you achieve both. Create your own lucky traditions with nods to each other’s heritage, customs from places you’ve visited together, and auspicious rituals that just feel special. Whether you are just engaged or you’re days away from tying the knot, you’ll gain insight every step of the way. With this book as your guide, you can make your own luck in love.
Download or read book Touching History written by Lynn Spencer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-06-03 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the azure blue morning of 9/11 the skies were pronounced "severe clear," in the parlance of airline pilots; a gorgeous day for flying. Nearly 5,000 flights were cruising the skies over America when FAA Operations Manager Ben Sliney arrived at the Command Center for his first day on that job. He could never have anticipated the historic drama that was about to unfold as Americans who found themselves on the front lines of a totally unprecedented attack on our homeland sprang into action to defend our country and save lives. In this gripping moment-to-moment narrative, based on groundbreaking reporting, Lynn Spencer brings the inspiring true drama of their unflinching and heroic response vividly to life for the first time, taking us right inside the airliner cockpits and control towers, the fighter jets and the military battle cabs. She makes vital corrections to the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report, and reveals many startling, utterly unknown elements of the story. As a commercial pilot herself, for whom the attacks hit terribly close to home, she knew that the true scope and nature of the response so brilliantly improvised that morning by those in the thick of the action -- with so little guidance from those at the highest levels -- had not at all been captured by the news coverage or the 9/11 Commission. To get to the truth, she went on a three-year quest, interviewing hundreds of key players, listening to untold hours of tapes and pouring through voluminous transcripts to re-create each heart-stopping moment as it happened through their eyes and in their words as the drama unfolded. From the shocking moment at 7:59 a.m. that American 11 fails to respond to a controller's call, until the last commercial flight has safely landed and military jets rule the skies, all Americans will find themselves deeply moved and amazed by the grace and fierce determination of these steely men and women as they draw on all of their exquisite training to grasp, through the fog of war, what is happening, put their lives on the line, and mount an astonishing response. This beautifully crafted and deeply affecting account of the full story of their courageous actions is a vital addition to the country's understanding of a day that has forever changed our nation.
Download or read book The Life and Adventures of an Old Bold Pilot written by Mick Greene and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This action-filled autobiography by former test pilot and decorated Vietnam veteran Mick Greene, with introduction by retired General Ron Fogleman, 15th Chief of Staff of the USAF, is a must read for military aviation historians and aviation enthusiasts worldwide. Greene knew at an early age what he wanted to be --a fighter pilot. But as the youngest of a family struggling to get along, his options were limited. Still, he persisted and managed to get an appointment to the Naval Academy. It was a start. But when he learned that upon graduation from the Academy, he could transfer into the Air Force and directly into pilot training, he knew this was what he wanted to do. Years passed, as Greene honed his flying skills in fighter squadrons and later as a test pilot. Then came the ultimate challenge. A combat tour in Vietnam as a "Misty FAC", a then classified, extremely dangerous mission, directing airstrikes against targets along the Ho Chi Minh trail in North Vietnam and Laos. All pilots were volunteers and the losses were high. In his simple, plain spoken way, author Mick Greene describes how he survived in the flak filled skies over North Vietnam.
Download or read book US Navy A 1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War written by Rick Burgess and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-20 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicknamed the 'flying dump truck', the A-1 was a key component in naval air wings from the end of World War II into the 1960s, allowing the aircraft to play its part in the escalating conflict in Vietnam. Both A-1 attack and EA-1F airborne early warning aircraft saw action in Southeast Asia from 1960 through 1969, when the last examples were finally retired from carrier decks. The A-1s in particular bombed targets in both North and South Vietnam, despite the aircraft being highly vulnerable to enemy flak and fighters. Co-written by a two-tour Vietnam War combat veteran in the A-1, this is the first book that focuses exclusively on the aircraft's service in Vietnam.