Download or read book The Junior Officer Bunkroom written by J. J. Zerr and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is 1970, and Jon Zachery is a young United States Navy pilot who wants nothing more than to gain combat experience during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, his patriotic sacrifice is of no value to the navy or the nation. His squadron has been slated to decommission with most of its pilots destined for dead-end jobs. As the pro-war lieutenant awaits his orders and drowns his sorrows in whiskey, his wife, Teresa, prays and hopes for a better tomorrow. Navy Lieutenant Amos Kane is a natural stick-and-throttle jockey who is known as Cool Hand Duke in the air and a prankster on the ground. As his dreams of being an attack pilot in Nam are taken away, he begins dating Charlotte Wilkins, who convinces him to adopt an antiwar philosophy. When orders cause Zachery and Kanes paths to converge in a bunkroom aboard an aircraft carrier in the Tonkin Gulf, it quickly becomes evident that the two lieutenants have vastly different viewpoints. As tragedy strikes and antagonism escalates, everyone discovers just how quickly life can change. In this military thriller, the paths of two navy pilots come together in a JO bunkroom during the Vietnam War where their perspectives clash, instigating life-changing consequences.
Download or read book The Restless Wave written by Admiral James Stavridis, USN and published by Random House Large Print. This book was released on 2024-10-08 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Restless Wave is not only a stirring and gripping story of the sea, but also of love and war and leadership. Admiral Stavridis’s sweeping knowledge of history and life in the Navy shines on every page, imbuing this work with authenticity and power.” —David Grann, #1 NYT bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon “In the engaging tradition of Herman Wouk and Patrick O’Brian, Admiral James Stavridis has given us a fascinating novel of one young man’s—and one great nation’s—war at sea. The book is at once entertaining and illuminating, touching on the most fundamental of human themes with deftness and an appreciation of the immense achievements of the United States Navy in the deadliest of eras.” —Jon Meacham From the New York Times bestselling former NATO commander comes a riveting historical novel that charts the coming-of-age of a gifted but immature young naval officer as he is tested in the crucible of World War II in the Pacific Scott Bradley James arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, as a plebe in the class of 1941 without a terribly good idea why he wants to be a naval officer, other than that his father was a sailor, and he wants to see the world, whatever that means. Scott and his roommate become fast friends, and, after surviving scrapes of their own making, the two fetch up at Pearl Harbor. War is brewing, and their class has graduated early. They have been sent to battle stations. Admiral James Stavridis is an acclaimed novelist, a decorated military leader, and a great student of military history. He draws on it all to capture the experience of being storm-tossed by the bloody first years of the Second World War. Scott Bradley James is a talented young officer, but he has a lot to learn. And war will have a lot to teach him. The Restless Wave offers a gripping account of the U.S. Navy’s astonishing progress through the first three years of the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor through to Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Coral Sea. A story of character under pressure in the harshest of proving grounds, it is written with careful fidelity to the truths of war that have made sea stories essential to the art of storytelling since Odysseus.
Download or read book The Eagle and the Osprey written by David G. Weaver and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-05-02 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WWII 1944 The Pacific War Zone In the Pacific Fleet Replacement Pilot Pool at Pearl Harbor, Ensign Bruce Weber receives training in the new Grumman Hellcat fighter planes. He is then assigned to a fighter squadron aboard a carrier. Bruce demonstrates exceptional airmanship skills, shooting down several enemy aircraft. After he has accounted for more than a dozen enemy planes, squadron enlisted personnel repaint their heros plane with white engine speedring and tail to resemble a bald eagle. During the first few months of the deployment, three of Bruces close friends are shot down by Kenji Okada, a Japanese super ace known as The Osprey. Okada flies a Distinctively painted Zero. Bruce swears vengeance and searches for the Osprey on every flight. The two aces eventually meet. The dogfight is long and difficult but Bruce finally shoots Okada down. Returning to the carrier, Bruce lands almost out of fuel just before the ship is disabled by a Kamikaze. Fire decimates the aircraft and the ship is out of action. Both are ordered back to the states, their fighting days over at least for a while.
Download or read book First Man written by James R. Hansen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 755 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 20, 1969, the world stood still to watch American astronaut Neil A. Armstrong become the first person ever to step on the surface of another heavenly body. Upon his return to Earth, Armstrong was celebrated for his monumental achievement. He was also--as NASA historian Hansen reveals in this authorized biography--misunderstood. Armstrong's accomplishments as an engineer, a test pilot, and an astronaut have long been a matter of record, but Hansen's access to private documents and unpublished sources and his interviews with more than 125 subjects (including more than fifty hours with Armstrong himself) yield the first in-depth analysis of this elusive, reluctant hero.
Download or read book Intrepid written by Bill White and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first official history of the legendary aircraft carrier that fought in World War II and Vietnam and continues to serve as a major air and space museum in New York City The USS Intrepid is a warship unlike any other. 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.
Download or read book South Pacific Destroyer written by Estate of R S Crenshaw and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today only a select few know firsthand what it is like to feel their ship shudder from the blast of their own guns, watch enemy guns flash back, and see friendly ships erupt in flames. Russell Crenshaw is one of those few. His riveting account of the savage night battle for the Solomon Islands in early 1943 offers readers a unique insider’s perspective from the decks of one of the destroyers that bore the brunt of the struggle. Russell Crenshaw was a gunnery officer on the USS Maury. His vivid, balanced, and detailed narrative includes the Battle of Tassafarounga in November 1942 and Vella Gulf in August 1943, actions that earned his warship a Presidential Unit Citation and sixteen battle stars. Crenshaw also discusses the impact of radar and voice radio, the shortcomings of U.S. torpedoes and gunfire, and the devastating effectiveness of Japan’s super torpedo.
Download or read book Flying Warrior written by Jules Harper and published by Morgan James Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Vietnam veteran takes you into the cockpit and shares true stories of his flying career in this compelling memoir. In this action-packed memoir, Jules Harper recounts the unique process of becoming a naval aviator, revealing his experiences as a brand new pilot in a combat squadron and, finally, a flying warrior. He survived two combat cruises aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from 1966–1968, compiled 332 career carrier takeoffs and landings, and was shot at daily by enemy fire while completing 200 combat missions over Vietnam, and shares the views of the aviators who flew along with him on these missions while fighting this unpopular war. A recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, twenty-one Air Medals, and many other accolades, he offers readers a new understanding and appreciation of the warriors who protect not only their comrades in arms, but the defense of the nation as well.
Download or read book Well Done written by Nancy Hungerford and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2021-03-22 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a courageous act of self-reflection, a firsthand meditation on one man’s surviving humanity as experience transforms to tales recited and truths gained, weaving his own path in an evolving voice into the fabric of America’s efforts in WWII, his pursuit to realize childhood dreams—the battle between the time we get in life and the earned wisdom we take from it in the ever-important hunt for what it all should mean. — Charles Clayton, screenwriter We follow a boy’s passion for flying to become one of the unsung heroes of World War II—his extensive flight training, earning navy wings of gold, being an aviator aboard the USS Franklin in the Pacific theater, deaths of friends, destruction of his ship while being the agent of destruction of the enemy (a toll he keeps to himself), the eye-opening July 4 mission, being hit, returning safely to the Franklin, only to fly two more missions that day. A must read. — John Holzapfel, past Southold Town trustee, past Oysterponds Historical Society president, educator US Navy lieutenant Robe r t Hungerford’s boyhood dream of flying led to flight training, his life on the line as a fighter aviator aboard the USS Franklin, and major battles against the Japanese war machine. The final tribute to Lieutenant Hungerford will leave you with tear-fi led eyes. A tender memoir from our greatest generation. — Edward Wellington Webb, navy veteran, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, retired senior VP of American Heart Association (Heritage Affiliate) As a former CWO who flew army aviation with the 117th Assault Helicopter Company during the Vietnam era, reading my pal Bob’s memoir put me in his cockpit, on board the Franklin, and in the squadron ready room and added some good laughs at his barstool. A tender tale of a flying dream accomplished. — Richard Constant, former CWO, USAR, Third Platoon (Sidewinder 5)
Download or read book Carrier Daze written by Dick Maltzman and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1951, as tensions escalate on the Korean Peninsula, a Stanford freshman who prefers a dry ship to a wet foxhole, and who has a ferocious fear of flying, joins the Stanford NROTC on the promise of a Marine Colonel that he never has to fly in the Navy. The Colonel of course meant fly like at the controls of an airplane. Our young hero thought he meant fly like in an airplane. And thus began the hysterical adventures of he who didnt want to fly but ended up in the air. Four years later, he is commissioned an ensign after graduating from Stanford and completing two years of law school. He then receives orders for Japan and nervously boards a cargo plane, beginning an unforgettable adventure to keep America safe for democracy with a laugh a minute. When Dick finally arrives on his assigned ship, the USS Oriskany, he is appointed temporary legal officer and even more temporarily, a lieutenant commander. In the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, he handles legal cases, makes new friends, and learns how to survive life on an aircraft carrier. His adventures eventually lead him to the girl of his dreams, literally, and onto the deck of the USS Lake Champlain where more hysterical and some very moving events await. Carrier Daze shares tales of a nave naval officers entertaining adventures on the water and beyond as he serves his country and becomes a man.
Download or read book Flight of the Intruder written by Stephen Coonts and published by St. Martin's Paperbacks. This book was released on 2006-06-27 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A smash bestseller that spent over six months on the New York Times bestseller list, Flight of the Intruder became an instant classic. No one before or since ever captured the world of Navy carrier pilots with the gripping realism of Vietnam veteran Stephen Coonts, who lived the life he wrote about. More than a flying story, Flight of the Intruder is also one of the best novels ever written about the Vietnam experience. It's all here—the flying, the dying, the blood and bombs and bullets, and the sheer joy—and terror—of life at full throttle. "Gripping...Smashing. —The Wall Street Journal Grazing the Vietnam treetops at night at just under the speed of sound, A-6 Intruder pilot Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton knows exactly how precarious life is. Landing on a heaving aircraft carrier, dodging missiles locked on his fighter, flying through clouds of flak—he knows each flight could be his last. Yet he straps himself into a cockpit every day. "Extraordinary!"—Tom Clancy Then a bullet kills his bombardier while they're hitting another ‘suspected' truck depot. Jake wonders what his friend died for—and why? Hitting pointless targets selected by men piloting desks just doesn't make sense. Maybe it's time to do something worthwhile. Something that will make a difference... "Superbly written." — Washington Times Jake and his new bombardier, ice-cold Tiger Cole, are going to pick their own target and hit the enemy where it hurts. But to get there and back in one piece is going to take a lot of nerve, even more skill, and an incredible amount of raw courage. Before it's over, they're going to fly into hell.
Download or read book The Chess Players a Novel of the Cold War at Sea written by Francis J. Partel and published by Navy Log LLC. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chess Players is both a naval story and a love story and opens with an audacious, espionage mission, a Soviet submarine penetration of Stavanger, Norway, and closes with a thrilling, bizarre episode between a missile-equipped, Russian nuclear submarine and a US Navy destroyer escort in the Mediterranean Sea. Commander Pebbles, Operations Officer of anti-submarine carrier, Essex, on a career track for admiral, mentors the well-educated and competent, but inexperienced young Ensign Cannon. Based in part on untold, historical events typical of the Cold War at sea, their task group encounters several provocative incidents at the hands of the Russian Bear above the Arctic Circle and in the Mediterranean Sea prior to and after the 1967 Six Day Arab-Israeli War. The love story begins when beautiful Laetitia Martin, a Ph. D. candidate in art history, meets Ensign Cannon, both members of a wedding on Martha's Vineyard, shortly before Essex deploys for NATO exercises in the Eastern Atlantic. She is a consummate "belonger" with a growth motive and catches a whiff of the women's movement and begins to find her upper-class life stifling. Cannon doesn't flinch at women's liberation, but he has other anxiety-producing issues related to women. Her research into the turbulent life of the painter, Caravaggio, the novel's fourth character, if you will, will also take her to Europe in the summer of 1967 and provides the opportunity for their romance to bud and bloom in London and in Malta as she succeeds in explaining Caravaggio's self-destructive behavior in modern psychological terms.
Download or read book Need to Know and Other Stories from North Carolina written by Richard McLawhorn and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Dream Warrior written by Anthony Chibbaro and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2008-07-14 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With elements of suspense and emotion, The Dream Warrior is designed to capture the imagination as well as to provoke serious thought and reflection about one's life. It continually asks the question: "Does a man have but one destiny?" How does a man or woman get to be the person they become? What unknown forces determine what a person feels; what a person thinks; and what life a person gets to live? How does a person handle their thoughts and feelings? How does a person handle the adversities and challenges that they face throughout their life? And when a person reaches the "September of their years", what gives them satisfaction when they look back at their life?
Download or read book The Fightin est Ship written by Hugh B. Cave and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Military history. The story of the World War II warship dubbed "The Fightin'est Ship" -- the cruiser "Helena."
Download or read book Shellback written by Stuart Landersman and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-04-17 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shellback is a naval and maritime action novel including Middle East intrigue, Cold War naval action, Korean War search and rescue, semi-pro baseball, romance and Washington high-level machination. All this is set in a tense web of high-seas drama focused on an attack against the Maritime Prepositioning Ships at Diego Garcia and on a Convoy Commodore who has a peculiar knack of getting himself into situations that require special judgment, decision making, innovation and determination. Martin Shielbrock is a retired Navy captain who has been recalled to active duty to conduct a routine exercise with the prepositioned ships at Diego Garcia. We have learned about Shielbrock in a series of his experiences leading up to this exercise and we have seen that he is not your everyday retiree, he has a way of figuring out what has to be done and doing it no matter what, even if told not to do it. Martin Shielbrock got his nickname Shellback early in his navy career and he is one stubborn guy. When he sets his mind to something and knows hes right, he does it regardless of consequences and regardless of advice or orders. He meets and marries the beautiful and elegant Barbara Muir, they have children and we learn of a possible compromise involving Barbaras wealthy former lover. Moses Farscian is a Kurdish Iraqi soldier to whom lifes adventure has been a series of disasters. We meet him in a complex situation of Middle Eastern intrigue in which the mission and cause of his operation are clouded by questions no one can answer, no one including some of the top intelligence sources in the world. The web of intrigue eventually brings Moses Farscian into contact with Martin Shielbrock. There are U.S. admirals and generals that influence the situations that Shellback finds himself in and there are Kurds, ayatollahs, Iranians, and Iraqis that hate, love, depend or dont care about Moses Farscian and his team mates or their operation. The story covers people from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to a sailor who loses his favorite knife, old and young men and women, soldiers, sailors, and ball players, all trying to make their way through lifes complications and some make it while others dont. Theres technical detail, romance, violence, gunfire, missiles, helicopters, artillery, flame and death as well as love, as Shellback does what he does best he does what he thinks is right. But who knows whats right? Moses Farscian has a similar problem. Written by Stu Landersman, who spent 30 years in the U.S. Navy, Shellback is in no way autobiographical and Stu vows that he did none of the things that Martin Shielbrock does in this book, but admits to wishing he had.
Download or read book A Ticket to Hell written by J. J. Zerr and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2020-12-16 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is 1971 and US Navy Lieutenant Jon Zachery is aboard the aircraft carrier USS Solomons, flying combat missions over Vietnam. Now as he departs on one last hop over North Vietnam with his flight lead, RT, Zachery is looking forward to returning home to his pregnant wife, Teresa, and their two children. Unfortunately instead of the milk run expected, all hell breaks loose. As SAMs are fired at Zachery and two other squadron planes, the threat warning systems in Zachery’s plane remain silent. Although Zachery and RT survive, two other pilots are shot down and presumed KIA. After it is discovered the warning systems were sabotaged, two of Zachery’s friends discover the identity of the saboteur, kill him, and dump his body over the side of the carrier. When Zachery learns of the violent act, he faces a monumental moral dilemma: rat out his friends or consider justice has been served? As he grapples to resolve the moral puzzle, the squadron learns they must return to Vietnam in six months where more ethical quandaries await. In this military thriller set in Vietnam, Lieutenant Jon Zachary must determine the right thing to do after two US Navy pilots are shot down and his friends exact revenge.
Download or read book Encore written by Paul Gillcrist and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2005-12 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spine-tingling story of an experiment by the Department of Defense to increase the useful life of U.S. tactical pilots. Four 65-year-old retired U.S. Navy fighter pilots volunteer for an experimental program conducted at the Naval Aeromedical Institute in Pensacola, Florida using a cocktail of wonder drugs developed by the National Institute of Health. These crusty aviators advance through the increasingly demanding phases of the experiment, achieving spectacular results. They are put back into training airplanes and proceed to "burn up the course". The reversal of their aging process also has some interesting side-effects on their family relationships. Their wives threaten to end their husbands' participation unless they are included in the experiment. Next, the pilots advance to fleet fighter planes and end up deploying on an aircraft carrier to the Western Pacific flying Tomcat fighters. In an action-packed "incident" over the Sea of Japan they tangle with Nort Korean SU-27 fighters they realize the culmination of their wildest dreams. The story is an enlightening look at what happens when the aging process is reversed in four people involved in one of the world's most hazardous professions; and what happens when their wives become part of the experiment.
