Download or read book The Twins Platoon written by Christy W. Sauro and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2006-03-20 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the evening of June 28, 1967, 150 young Americans were sworn into the Marine Corps as part of the pre-game ceremonies of a Minnesota Twins baseball game. Before the end of the fourth inning these volunteers were being hustled on to buses, on their way to boot camp. It was a journey that would take them from a boyhood of baseball in the American heartland to manhood on the killing fields of Vietnam. Christy Sauro was one of the Twins Platoon, and in this book he tells what it was like-from the pomp and ceremony of induction to the all-too-real initiation by fire that would shortly follow: in mere months, he and most of the Twins Platoon were on the ground in Vietnam and promptly faced with some of the toughest fighting of the war, the Siege of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive, including the brutal Battle for Hue. From baseball to boot camp to brutal combat, his is a firsthand story of American life being lived at the limits-and changed forever.

Download or read book The Twins Platoon written by Christy W. Sauro and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2010-11-10 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A US Marine veteran recounts the experiences of his platoon in the Vietnam War following their enlistment at a Minnesota Twins baseball game. In the evening of June 28, 1967, 150 young Americans were sworn into the Marine Corps as part of the pre-game ceremonies of a Minnesota Twins baseball game. Before the end of the fourth inning these volunteers were being hustled on to buses, on their way to boot camp. It was a journey that would take them from a boyhood of baseball in the American heartland to manhood on the killing fields of Vietnam. Christy Sauro was one of the Twins Platoon, and in this book, he tells what it was like—from the pomp and ceremony of induction to the all-too-real initiation by fire that would shortly follow. In mere months, he and most of the Twins Platoon were on the ground in Vietnam and promptly faced with some of the toughest fighting of the war: the Siege of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive, including the brutal Battle for Hue. From baseball to boot camp to brutal combat, his is a firsthand story of American life being lived at the limits—and changed forever. Praise for The Twins Platoon “[Sauro’s] jarring memoir takes you to some of the craziest fighting in the war. . . . The tales of Marines falling to the bullets and artillery of the enemy are truly heartbreaking.” —Military Book Club “Sauro’s modest study of 150 men from Minnesota who enlisted in 1967 adds respectably to the literature of the Vietnam War. . . . Based on extensive interviews with a cross section of the surviving veterans, the book makes rather grim reading. But then, it’s about young Americans in a rather grim war.” —Booklist “The Twins Platoon is a remarkable achievement, and Christy W. Sauro Jr. is to be commended for the single-mindedness and determination that enabled him to write it.” —Leatherneck Magazine

Download or read book The Things They Carried written by Tim O'Brien and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Download or read book Three Junes written by Julia Glass and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2002-09-03 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An astonishing novel that traces the lives of a Scottish family over a decade as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillments and betrayals of love in all its guises. In June of 1989 Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage.... Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home. Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion. Far from his straitlaced expatriate life as a bookseller in Greenwich Village, Fenno is stunned by a series of revelations that threaten his carefully crafted defenses.... Four years farther on, in yet another June, a chance meeting on the Long Island shore brings Fenno together with Fern Olitsky, the artist who once captivated his father. Now pregnant, Fern must weigh her guilt about the past against her wishes for the future and decide what family means to her. In prose rich with compassion and wit, Three Junes paints a haunting portrait of love’s redemptive powers.

Download or read book Too Like the Lightning written by Ada Palmer and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the winner of the 2017 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Ada Palmer's 2017 Compton Crook Award-winning political science fiction, Too Like the Lightning, ventures into a human future of extraordinary originality Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer--a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away. The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labelling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world's population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life. And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destablize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life... Terra Ignota 1. Too Like the Lightning 2. Seven Surrenders 3. The Will to Battle At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Future Value written by Eric Longenhagen and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unprecedented look inside the world of baseball scouting and evaluation from two of the industry's top prospect analysts For the modern Major League team, player evaluation is a complex, multi-pronged, high-tech pursuit. But far from becoming obsolete in this environment—as Michael Lewis' Moneyball once forecast—the role of the scout in today's game has evolved and even expanded. Rather than being the antithesis of a data-driven approach, scouting now represents an essential analytical component in a team's arsenal. Future Value is a thorough dive into baseball's changing world of talent acquisition and development, a world with its own language, methods, metrics, and madness. From rural high schools to elite amateur showcases, from the back fields of spring training to major league draft rooms, Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel break down the key systems and techniques used to assess talent. It's a process that has moved beyond the quintessential stopwatches and radar guns to include statistical models, countless measurable indicators, and a broader international reach. ?Practical and probing, discussing wide-ranging topics from tool grades to front office politics, this is an illuminating exploration of how to watch baseball and see the future.

Download or read book Return Via Rangoon written by Philip Stibbe and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 1994-06-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is one young officer's war story about training and inspiration in the Burmese jungle behind enemy lines. Beaten up and water tortured, yet only giving his captors false information, Stibbe was moved around Burma until he was eventually imprisoned in Rangoon jail. Now stricken with Parkinson's disease, probably as a result of his prison diet, Stibbe with his eldest son, also a soldier, has revised his book and this edition published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Wingate's second triumphant Chindit expedition.

Download or read book On Hallowed Ground written by Bill McWilliams and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Brilliantly reveals the extraordinary courage of those who fought the final, bitter, bloody, costly days of the Korean War” (Gen. Jack I. Gregory, USAF Ret.). By the summer of 1953, the Korean War had long since reached a stalemate. As peace negotiations dragged on, units of the US 7th Infantry Division rebuilt the defenses of Hill 255, one of numerous outposts in front of the Main Line of Resistance extending across the peninsula. Better known by its nickname, Pork Chop Hill, the outpost had twice been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the spring. Now, the soldiers tasked with its rebuilding and defense hoped they would not be the last men to die in what had already become known as “the Forgotten War.” On the night of July 6th, under the cover of a heavy monsoon rainstorm, forces of the Chinese 23rd Army attacked. For five hellish days, the opposing forces engaged in devastating artillery assaults, brutal hand-to-hand fighting, and round-the-clock attacks and counterattacks. Less than three weeks after the smoke on Pork Chop Hill cleared, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. On Hallowed Ground is the riveting story of this epic battle. Drawing on previously classified documents, interviews, and letters from survivors, author Bill McWilliams details the strategy and tactics behind the conflict and pays stirring tribute to the heroic soldiers and medics who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to hold “the Chop.”

Download or read book The Real Team written by Richard Marcinko and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The retired naval commander chronicles the real-life exploits of the Navy SEALs who inspired the characters in his best-selling Rogue Warrior series, profiling the members of his team, their training, their combat missions, and the characteristics that made them successful warriors.

Download or read book Takedown written by Jim Lacey and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every one of the division's armored vehicles was hit by rockets - some taking more than a dozen hits - and the fighting was so fierce at times that entire battalions ran out of ammunition. Nevertheless, when the fighting was finally over, the 3rd ID had destroyed two Iraqi Regular Army divisions and three divisions of the much vaunted Republican Guard.".

Download or read book The Battle of Anzio written by T. R. Fehrenbach and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major turning point of WWII: The incredible true story of Allied forces who held a strip of Italian beach against Nazi bombardment. The Battle of Anzio was among the most bloody of the World War II conflicts. T. R. Fehrenbach’s accurate account stunningly depicts the reality of the Allied forces’ fight for survival on an Italian beach as they stormed what Winston Churchill called the soft underbelly of the Axis powers. In one of the turning points of the war, the allies clung to a narrow strip of sand while German planes swooped in from above and artillery shells and mortar fire pounded them on the ground. This is a true and dramatic account of the battle from the perspective of a soldier and military historian, told with pride, compassion, and spirit. T. R. Fehrenbach’s account of war needs no embellishing and brings you into the thick of the action.

Download or read book Give Me Tomorrow written by Patrick O'Donnell and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-11-05 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If I were God, what would you want for Christmas?'' With a thousand-yard stare, a haggard and bloodied Marine looked incredulously at the war correspondent who asked him this question. In an answer that took ''almost forever,'' the Marine responded; ''Give me tomorrow.'' After nearly four months of continuous and bloody combat in Korea, such a wish seemed impossible. For many of the men of George Company, or ''Bloody George'' - one of the Forgotten War's most decorated yet unrecognized companies - this would be their last day. This is the epic story of ''Bloody George,'' Spartans for the modern age. After storming ashore at Inchon and fighting house-to-house in Seoul, George Company, America's last reserve unit, found itself on the frozen tundra of the Chosin Reservoir facing an entire division of Chinese troops. Little did this small band of men - green troops who had been rushed through training to bring fresh forces to the war - know, they would soon be saviors. This is their story, and it will never again be forgotten.

Download or read book Counterstrike written by Eric Schmitt and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-08-16 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inside the Pentagon's secretive and revolutionary new strategy to fight terrorism--and its game-changing effects in the Middle East and at home In the years following the 9/11 attacks, the United States waged a "war on terror" that sought to defeat Al Qaeda through brute force. But it soon became clear that this strategy was not working, and by 2005 the Pentagon began looking for a new way. In Counterstrike, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker of The New York Times tell the story of how a group of analysts within the military, at spy agencies, and in law enforcement has fashioned an innovative and effective new strategy to fight terrorism, unbeknownst to most Americans and in sharp contrast to the cowboy slogans that characterized the U.S. government's public posture. Adapting themes from classic Cold War deterrence theory, these strategists have expanded the field of battle in order to disrupt jihadist networks in ever more creative ways. Schmitt and Shanker take readers deep into this theater of war, as ground troops, intelligence operatives, and top executive branch officials have worked together to redefine and restrict the geography available for Al Qaeda to operate in. They also show how these new counterterrorism strategies, adopted under George W. Bush and expanded under Barack Obama, were successfully employed in planning and carrying out the dramatic May 2011 raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed. Filled with startling revelations about how our national security is being managed, Counterstrike will change the way Americans think about the ongoing struggle with violent radical extremism.

Download or read book How It Feels to Float written by Helena Fox and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Profoundly moving . . . Will take your breath away." —Kathleen Glasgow, author of Girl in Pieces "Give this to all your friends immediately . . . It tackles mental health, depression, sexual identity, and anxiety with beauty and empathy." —Cosmopolitan.com A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best of the Year Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface—normal okay regular fine. She has her friends, her mom, the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who shouldn't be here but is. So Biz doesn't tell anyone anything—not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And not about seeing her dad. Because her dad died when she was seven. But after what happens on the beach, the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Her dad disappears and, with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe—maybe maybe maybe—there's a third way Biz just can't see yet. Debut author Helena Fox tells a story about love, grief, and inter-generational mental illness, exploring the hard and beautiful places loss can take us, and honoring those who hold us tightly when the current wants to tug us out to sea. "I haven't been so dazzled by a YA in ages." —Jandy Nelson, author of I'll Give You the Sun (via SLJ) "Mesmerizing and timely." —Bustle "Nothing short of exquisite." —PopSugar "Immensely satisfying" —Girls' Life * "Lyrical and profoundly affecting." —Kirkus (starred review) * "Masterful...Just beautiful." —Booklist (starred review) * "Intimate...Unexpected." —PW (starred review) * "Fox writes with superb understanding and tenderness." —BCCB (starred review) * "Frank [and] beautifully crafted." —BookPage (starred review) "Deeply moving...A story of hope." —Common Sense Media "This book will explode you into atoms." —Margo Lanagan, author of Tender Morsels "Helena Fox's novel delivers. Read it." —Cath Crowley, author of Words in Deep Blue "This is not a book; it is a work of art." —Kerry Kletter, author of The First Time She Drowned "Perfect...Readers will be deeply moved." —Books+Publishing

Download or read book Road of 10 000 Pains written by Otto J. Lehrack and published by Zenith Imprint. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an epic oral history of Vietnam's bloodiest campaign, fought for seven months in a series of battles, most of them within four miles of each other, along Route 534. Staring in October 1967, orders came down to the 2nd North Vietnamese Army Division commanding them to join with the local Viet Cong and seize the city of Danang in the Tet Offensive. After fighting for seven months in the Que Son Valley, the division was so battered that it failed to carry out its mission, with only one platoon making it inside the city limits. This is the true-life accounts of what fighting was like in that narrow, bloody valley from the veteran's own mouths, and how that saved Danang from suffering the same fate as Hue City

Download or read book Boots on the Ground by Dusk written by Mary Tillman and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2008-04-29 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 22, 2004, Lieutenant David Uthlaut received orders from Khost, Afghanistan, that his platoon was to leave the town of Magarah and "have boots on the ground before dark" in Manah, a small village on the border of Pakistan. It was an order the young lieutenant protested vehemently, but the commanders at the Tactical Command Center disregarded his objections. Uthlaut split his platoon into two serials, with serial one traveling northwest to Manah and serial two towing a broken Humvee north toward the Khost highway. By nightfall, Uthlaut and his radio operator were seriously wounded, and an Afghan militia soldier and a U.S. soldier were dead. The American soldier was Pat Tillman. The Tillman family was originally informed that Pat, who had given up a professional football career to serve his country, had been shot in the head while getting out of a vehicle. At his memorial service twelve days later, they were told that he was killed while running up a hill in pursuit of the enemy. He was awarded a Silver Star for his courageous actions. A month and two days after his death, the family learned that Pat had been shot three times in the head by his own troops in a "friendly fire" incident. Seven months after Pat's death, the Tillmans requested an investigation. Boots on the Ground by Dusk is a chronicle of their efforts to ascertain the true circumstances of Pat's death and the reasons why the Army gave the family and the public a false story. Woven into the account are valuable and respectful memories of Pat Tillman as a son, brother, husband, friend, and teammate, in the hope that the reader will better comprehend what is really lost when our sons and daughters are killed or maimed in war. In the course of three and a half years, there have been six investigations, several inquiries, and two Congressional hearings. The Tillmans are still awaiting an outcome.

Download or read book Tom Clancy Presents Act of Valor written by Dick Couch and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Navy SEALs have been fighting terrorists around the world for over a decade. And for all that time, the Bandito Platoon SEALS from SEAL Team Seven have been on continuous combat rotation. Now they have drawn a shipboard assignment off Central America—an easy day. But for a Navy SEAL, the only easy day was yesterday. In a powerful story of global anti-terrorism inspired by real life missions, Act of Valor combines stunning combat scenes, up-to-the minute battlefield technology, and heart-pumping emotion for the ultimate action adventure. Act of Valor takes you deep into the secretive world of today’s most elite, highly trained group of warriors. When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a deadly terrorist plot against the United States, a team of SEALs is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt. As the men of Bandito Platoon race to stop a coordinated attack that could kill and wound thousands of American civilians, they must balance their commitments to country, team, and their families back home. But each time they accomplish their mission, a new piece of intelligence reveals another shocking twist to the plot, which stretches from Chechnya to the Philippines and from Ukraine to Somalia. The widening operation sends the SEALs across the globe as they track the terrorist ring to the U.S.-Mexico border—where they engage in an epic firefight with potentially unimaginable consequences for America…