Download or read book Hate the War Honor the Soldier written by Robert M. Givens and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert M. Givens grew up in the Midwest, graduating in 1966 from Millikin University in his hometown of Decatur, Illinois, and from Indiana University in 1968. He married his college sweetheart, Connie, and by age twenty-four worked as assistant to the dean of students at the University of Connecticut. His wife was a schoolteacher, and they both were hopeful that his job at a respected university and his age would help him avoid the draft. However, as the US increased its military involvement in Vietnam, more bodies were needed to fight in this unpopular war. Robert received his draft notice in early 1969, and, after five months of training, he was sent to serve in the infantry in South Vietnam. The war experiences were intensely personal for Robert. He thought his education somehow made him intellectually superior to most soldiers; he thought his age and marital status gave him some vocational privilege; he felt secure in his religious agnosticism. All of these views were challenged during his time in Vietnam. The war-time experiences were life changing for him. He and his fellow soldiers came home from a war in the fields of Vietnam to a war of protests raging in the streets of our cities. This story tells in poignant ways how these experiences eventually reformed Robert’s life including a new-found faith in the Lord. And years later, he found heroes who emerged and encouraged him and other returning soldiers, helping both them and our country to heal.
Download or read book Wiser in Battle written by Ricardo S. Sanchez and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The former commander of coalition forces in Iraq reports back from the front lines of the global war on terror to provide a comprehensive and chilling exploration of America's historic military and foreign-policy blunder. With unflinching candor, Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez describes the chaos on the Iraqi battlefield caused by the Bush administration's misguided command of the military, as well as his own struggle to set the coalition on the path toward victory. Sanchez shows how minor insurgent attacks grew into synchronized operations that finally ignited into a major insurgency and all-out civil war. He provides an insider's account of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, explaining the circumstances that led to the abuses, who perpetrated them, and what the formal investigations revealed. Sanchez also details the cynical use of the Iraq War for political gain in Washington and shows how the pressure of an around-the-clock news cycle drove and distorted critical battle decisions. The first book written by a former on-site commander in Iraq, Wiser in Battle is essential reading for all who wish to understand the Iraqi incursion and the role of America's military in the new century.
Download or read book The Untold War Inside the Hearts Minds and Souls of Our Soldiers written by Nancy Sherman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Brilliant . . . a must read for veterans and those who seek to understand them."—Huffington Post The Untold War draws on revealing interviews with servicemen and -women to offer keen psychological and philosophical insights into the experience of being a soldier. Bringing to light the ethical quandaries that soldiers face—torture, the thin line between fighters and civilians, and the anguish of killing even in a just war—Nancy Sherman opens our eyes to the fact that wars are fought internally as well as externally, enabling us to understand the emotional tolls that are so often overlooked.
Download or read book The Warrior Ethos written by Steven Pressfield and published by Black Irish Entertainment LLC. This book was released on 2011-03-02 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WARS CHANGE, WARRIORS DON'T We are all warriors. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in. Do we fight by a code? If so, what is it? What is the Warrior Ethos? Where did it come from? What form does it take today? How do we (and how can we) use it and be true to it in our internal and external lives? The Warrior Ethos is intended not only for men and women in uniform, but artists, entrepreneurs and other warriors in other walks of life. The book examines the evolution of the warrior code of honor and "mental toughness." It goes back to the ancient Spartans and Athenians, to Caesar's Romans, Alexander's Macedonians and the Persians of Cyrus the Great (not excluding the Garden of Eden and the primitive hunting band). Sources include Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, Vegetius, Arrian and Curtius--and on down to Gen. George Patton, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan.
Download or read book Thank You for Your Service written by David Finkel and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a Major Motion Picture Directed by American Sniper Writer Jason Hall and Starring Miles Teller No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel embedded with the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous “surge”. Now, in Thank You for Your Service, Finkel tells the true story of those men as they return home from the front-lines of Baghdad and struggle to reintegrate--both into their family lives and into American society at large. Finkel is with these veterans in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover, and in doing so, he creates an indelible, essential portrait of what life after war is like--not just for these soldiers, but for their wives, widows, children, and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done. Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding, and it offers a more complete picture than we have ever had of two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for? “Finkel sketches a panoramic view of postwar life....A book that every American should read.” —Jake Tapper, Los Angeles Times Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. One of Ten Favorite Books of 2013 by Michiko Kakutani (The New York Times), a Washington Post Top Ten Book of the Year, and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
Download or read book Soldier No More written by Anthony Price and published by Murder Room. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the CWA Gold Dagger award-winning author of Other Paths to Glory David Roche, a young double agent, is assigned to recruit British Intelligence Chief Dr David Audley into Soviet service. It isn't long before Roche begins to doubt the information he has been given . . . and it isn't long before he sees how he might use than information to free himself of his obligations to both sides. Roche joins Audley and two friends at an ancient tower in the French countryside, and also meets with Lady Alexandra Champeney-Perowne - who shows him why it is so vital that he get out. And out he goes, in an exciting denouement involving the KGB, British Intelligence and - out of the blue - a team of Algerian terrorists.
Download or read book A Long Long War written by Ken Wharton and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2008-05-16 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Bloody Belfast delivers “a vivid and unforgettable record” of the Northern Irish conflict that captures the “true horrors of war” (Best of British). There are stories from some of the most seminal moments during the troubles in Northern Ireland—the Crossmaglen firefights, the 1988 corporals killings, the Ballygawley bus bombing, and more—told from the perspective of the British soldiers who served there between 1969 and 1998. This was a war against terrorists who knew no mercy or compassion; a war involving sectarian hatred and violent death. Over 1,000 British lives were lost in a place just thirty minutes flying time away from the mainland. The British Army was sent into Northern Ireland on August 14, 1969, by the Wilson government as law and order had broken down and the population (mainly Catholics) and property were at grave risk. Between then and 1998, some 300,000 British troops served in Northern Ireland. This is their story—in their own words—from first to last. Receiving a remarkable amount of cooperation from Northern Ireland veterans eager to tell their story, the author has compiled a vivid and unforgettable record. Their experiences—sad and poignant, fearful and violent, courageous in the face of adversity, even downright hilarious—make for compelling reading. Their voices need to be heard. “One of the first and only books to offer the perspective of regular British soldiers serving in the Northern Irish conflict . . . a valuable addition to the extensive literature about the Irish Troubles.” —Choice
Download or read book Once an Eagle written by Anton Myrer and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 1312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Once an Eagle is simply the best work of fiction on leadership in print.” —General Martin E. Dempsey, 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Required reading for West Point and Marine Corps cadets, Once An Eagle is the story of one special man, a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self-interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power. Beginning in the French countryside during the Great War, the conflict between these adversaries solidifies in the isolated garrison life marking peacetime, intensifies in the deadly Pacific jungles of World War II, and reaches its treacherous conclusion in the last major battleground of the Cold War—Vietnam. Now reissued with a new foreword by acclaimed historian Carlo D'Este, here is an unforgettable story of a man who embodies the best in our nation—and in us all.
Download or read book Un American written by Erik Edstrom and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-05-19 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Eloquent, devastating . . . packed with gimlet-eyed analysis - cultural, economic, historical - of how American life came to look the way it does . . . Edstrom's keen observational powers encompass both the physical world and social nuance." -Los Angeles Review of Books A manifesto about America's unchallenged war machine, from an Afghanistan veteran and new kind of military hero. Before engaging in war, Erik Edstrom asks us to imagine three, rarely imagined scenarios: First, imagine your own death. Second, imagine war from “the other side.” Third: Imagine what might have been if the war had never been fought. Pursuing these realities through his own combat experience, Erik reaches the unavoidable conclusion about America at war. But that realization came too late-the damage had been done. Erik Edstrom grew up in suburban Massachusetts with an idealistic desire to make an impact, ultimately leading him to the gates of West Point. Five years later, he was deployed to Afghanistan as an infantry lieutenant. Throughout his military career, he confronted atrocities, buried his friends, wrestled with depression, and struggled with an understanding that the war he fought in, and the youth he traded to prepare for it, was in contribution to a bitter truth: The War on Terror is not just a tragedy, but a crime. The deeper tragedy is that our country lacks the courage and conviction to say so. Un-American is a hybrid of social commentary and memoir that exposes how blind support for war exacerbates the problems it's intended to resolve, devastates the people allegedly being helped, and diverts assets from far larger threats like climate change. Un-American is a revolutionary act, offering a blueprint for redressing America's relationship with patriotism, the military, and military spending.
Download or read book What This Cruel War Was Over written by Chandra Manning and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using letters, diaries, and regimental newspapers to take us inside the minds of Civil War soldiers—black and white, Northern and Southern—as they fought and marched across a divided country, this unprecedented account is “an essential contribution to our understanding of slavery and the Civil War" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). In this unprecedented account, Chandra Manning With stunning poise and narrative verve, Manning explores how the Union and Confederate soldiers came to identify slavery as the central issue of the war and what that meant for a tumultuous nation. This is a brilliant and eye-opening debut and an invaluable addition to our understanding of the Civil War as it has never been rendered before.
Download or read book War Stories written by Gordon Korman and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Restart, a story of telling truth from lies -- and finding out what being a hero really means. There are two things Trevor loves more than anything else: playing war-based video games and his great-grandfather Jacob, who is a true-blue, bona fide war hero. At the height of the war, Jacob helped liberate a small French village, and was given a hero's welcome upon his return to America.Now it's decades later, and Jacob wants to retrace the steps he took during the war -- from training to invasion to the village he is said to have saved. Trevor thinks this is the coolest idea ever. But as they get to the village, Trevor discovers there's more to the story than what he's heard his whole life, causing him to wonder about his great-grandfather's heroism, the truth about the battle he fought, and importance of genuine valor.
Download or read book I Shall Not Hate written by Izzeldin Abuelaish and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER Search for Common Ground Award Middle East Institute Award Finalist, Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought Stavros Niarchos Prize for Survivorship Nobel Peace Prize nominee "A necessary lesson against hatred and revenge" -Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate "In this book, Doctor Abuelaish has expressed a remarkable commitment to forgiveness and reconciliation that describes the foundation for a permanent peace in the Holy Land." -President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Prize laureate By turns inspiring and heart-breaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is Izzeldin Abuelaish's account of an extraordinary life. A Harvard-trained Palestinian doctor who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and "who has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians" (New York Times), Abuelaish has been crossing the lines in the sand that divide Israelis and Palestinians for most of his life - as a physician who treats patients on both sides of the line, as a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East. And, most recently, as the father whose daughters were killed by Israeli soldiers on January 16, 2009, during Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip. His response to this tragedy made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, Abuelaish called for the people in the region to start talking to each other. His deepest hope is that his daughters will be "the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis."
Download or read book Home of the Brave written by Caspar Weinberger and published by Forge Books. This book was released on 2007-05-29 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Home of the Brave, former Secreatary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger brings us a chronicle of heroism in the War on Terror. They are nineteen of the most highly decorated soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in the United States military, and yet most Americans don't even know their names. In this riveting, intimate account, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Wynton C. Hall tell stories of jaw-dropping heroism and hope in Afghanistan and Iraq. Home of the Brave takes readers beyond the bullets and battles and into the hearts and minds of the men and women who are fighting terrorists overseas so that America doesn't have to fight them at home. These are the powerful, true-life stories of the hopes, fears, and triumphs these men and women experienced fighting the War on Terror. But more than that, these are the stories of soldiers who risked everything to save lives and defend freedom. Including: *Lieutenant Colonel Mark Mitchell, the Green Beret leader whose 15-man Special Forces team took 500 Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, and posthumously repatriated the body of the first American to die in combat in the War on Terror, CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann. *Army National Guard Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester, the first woman ever to be awarded the Silver Star for combat, whose sharp-shooting and bravery played an enormous role in fighting off over fifty Iraqi insurgents while her ten-person squad protected a convoy of supplies on the way to fellow soldiers. *Sergeant Rafael Peralta, a Mexican immigrant, enlisted in the Marines the same day he received his green card. Wounded from enemy fire, Peralta used his body to smother the blast of an enemy grenade and gave his life so that his marine brothers could live. These real-life heroes remind us of American history's most enduring lesson: Ours would not be the land of the free if it were not also the home of the brave. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book Edge of Honor written by Gilbert Morris and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2008-04 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling author Gilbert Morris has created an epic story of war, regret, love, and forgiveness set in the post-Civil War South.
Download or read book Standing Up Against Hate written by Mary Cronk Farrell and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Cronk Farrell’s Standing Up Against Hate tells the stories of the African American women who enlisted in the newly formed Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in World War II. Foreword by Major General Marcia M. Anderson, U.S. Army (Ret.) The African American women who joined WAAC quickly discovered that they faced as many obstacles in the armed forces as they did in everyday life. However, they refused to back down. They interrupted careers and left family, friends, and loved ones to venture into unknown and sometimes dangerous territory. They survived racial prejudice and discrimination with dignity, succeeded in jobs women had never worked before, and made crucial contributions to the military war effort. The book centers around Charity Adams, who commanded the only black WAAC battalion sent overseas and became the highest ranking African American woman in the military by the end of the war. Along with Adams’s story are those of other black women who played a crucial role in integrating the armed forces. Their tales are both inspiring and heart-wrenching. The book includes a timeline, archival images, a bibliography, and index.
Download or read book Paul Revere s Ride written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1994 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the events leading up to Paul Revere's ride, and reinforces his importance in the history of the Revolutionary War.
Download or read book For Cause and Comrades written by James M. McPherson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-04-03 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, "You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that." Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War? It is to this question--why did they fight--that James McPherson, America's preeminent Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of the American Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--"the best Government ever made"--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. "I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard," one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, "My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace." Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. "While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I should be willing to make the sacrifice," one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, "I still love my country." McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left for the first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades lets these soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war. Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers' own words combine to create both an important book on an often-overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it.
