Download or read book When We Walked Above the Clouds written by H. Lee Barnes and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is the mythology of the Green Berets, of their clandestine, special operations as celebrated in story and song. And then there is the reality of one soldier’s experience, the day-to-day loss and drudgery of a Green Beret such as H. Lee Barnes, whose story conveys the daily grind and quiet desperation behind polished-for-public-consumption accounts of military heroics. In When We Walked Above the Clouds, Barnes tells what it was like to be a Green Beret, first in the Dominican Republic during the civil war of 1965, and then at A-107, Tra Bong, Vietnam. There, he eventually came to serve as the advisor to a Combat Recon Platoon, which consisted chiefly of Montagnard irregulars. Though “nothing extraordinary,” as Barnes saw it, his months of simply doing what the mission demanded make for sobering reading: the mundane business of killing rats, cleaning guns, and building bunkers renders the intensity of patrols and attacks all the more harrowing. More than anything, Barnes’s story is one of loss—of morale lost to alcoholism, teammates lost to friendly fire, missions aborted, and missions endlessly and futilely repeated. As the story advances, so does the attrition—teammates transferred, innocence cast off, confidence in leadership whittled away. And yet, against this dark background, Barnes still manages to honor the quiet professionals whose service, overshadowed by the outsized story of Vietnam, nonetheless carried the day.
Download or read book To Reach the Clouds written by Philippe Petit and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1974, 100,000 people on the ground watched 24-year-old high wire artist Petit make eight crossings between the World Trade Towers. In this visually and verbally stunning book, Petit tells for the first time the story of his walk, from conception and clandestine planning to the performance and its aftermath. 140 illustrations.
Download or read book Above the Clouds written by Anatoli Boukreev and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A breathtaking and lavishly illustrated autobiography in essays on Anatoli Boukreev, the late world-famous mountaineer and author of The Climb. When Anatoli Boukreev died on the slopes of Annapurna on Christmas day, 1997, the world lost one of the greatest adventurers of our time. In Above the Clouds, both the man and his incredible climbs on Mt. McKinley, K2, Makalu, Manaslu, and Everest-including his diary entries on the infamous 1996 disaster, written shortly after his return-are immortalized. There also are minute technical details about the skill of mountain climbing, as well as personal reflections on what life means to someone who risks it every day. Fully illustrated with gorgeous color photos, Above the Clouds is a unique and breathtaking look at the world from its most remote peaks.
Download or read book Walking the Clouds written by Grace L. Dillon and published by Sun Tracks. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first-ever anthology of Indigenous science fiction Grace Dillon collects some of the finest examples of the craft with contributions by Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori authors. The collection includes seminal authors such as Gerald Vizenor, historically important contributions often categorized as "magical realism" by authors like Leslie Marmon Silko and Sherman Alexie, and authors more recognizable to science fiction fans like William Sanders and Stephen Graham Jones. Dillon's engaging introduction situates the pieces in the larger context of science fiction and its conventions. Organized by sub-genre, the book starts with Native slipstream, stories infused with time travel, alternate realities and alternative history like Vizenor's "Custer on the Slipstream." Next up are stories about contact with other beings featuring, among others, an excerpt from Gerry William's The Black Ship. Dillon includes stories that highlight Indigenous science like a piece from Archie Weller's Land of the Golden Clouds, asserting that one of the roles of Native science fiction is to disentangle that science from notions of "primitive" knowledge and myth. The fourth section calls out stories of apocalypse like William Sanders' "When This World Is All on Fire" and a piece from Zainab Amadahy's The Moons of Palmares. The anthology closes with examples of biskaabiiyang, or "returning to ourselves," bringing together stories like Eden Robinson's "Terminal Avenue" and a piece from Robert Sullivan's Star Waka. An essential book for readers and students of both Native literature and science fiction, Walking the Clouds is an invaluable collection. It brings together not only great examples of Native science fiction from an internationally-known cast of authors, but Dillon's insightful scholarship sheds new light on the traditions of imagining an Indigenous future.
Download or read book Bloody Sixteen written by Peter Fey and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2018-05 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strategy and reality collide in Peter Fey's gripping history of aircraft carrier USS Oriskany's three deployments to Vietnam with Carrier Air Wing 16 (CVW-16). Its tours coincided with the most dangerous phases of Operation Rolling Thunder, the ill-fated bombing campaign against North Vietnam, and accounted for a quarter of all the naval aircraft lost during Rolling Thunder--the highest loss rate of any carrier air wing during Vietnam. The Johnson administration's policy of gradually applied force meant that Oriskany arrived on station just as previous restrictions were lifted and bombing raids increased. As a result CVW-16 pilots paid a heavy price as they ventured into areas previously designated "off limits" by Washington DC. Named after one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, the Oriskany lived up to its name. After two years of suffering heavy losses, the ship caught fire--a devastating blow given the limited number of carriers deployed. With only three months allotted for repairs, Oriskany deployed a third and final time and ultimately lost more than half of its aircraft and more than a third of its pilots. The valor and battle accomplishments displayed by Oriskany's aviators are legendary, but the story of their service has been lost in the disastrous fray of the war itself. Fey portrays the Oriskany and its heroes in an indelible memorial to the fallen of CVW-16 in hopes that the lessons learned from such strategic disasters are not forgotten in today's sphere of war-bent politics.
Download or read book Death Zones and Darling Spies written by Beverly Deepe Keever and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-02-17 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chosen for 2015 One Book One Nebraska In 1961, equipped with a master's degree from famed Columbia Journalism School and letters of introduction to Associated Press bureau chiefs in Asia, twenty-six-year-old Beverly Deepe set off on a trip around the world. Allotting just two weeks to South Vietnam, she was still there seven years later, having then earned the distinction of being the longest-serving American correspondent covering the Vietnam War and garnering a Pulitzer Prize nomination. In Death Zones and Darling Spies, Beverly Deepe Keever describes what it was like for a farm girl from Nebraska to find herself halfway around the world, trying to make sense of one of the nation's bloodiest and bitterest wars. She arrived in Saigon as Vietnam's war entered a new phase and American helicopter units and provincial advisers were unpacking. She tells of traveling from her Saigon apartment to jungles where Wild West-styled forts first dotted Vietnam's borders and where, seven years later, they fell like dominoes from communist-led attacks. In 1965 she braved elephant grass with American combat units armed with unparalleled technology to observe their valor--and their inability to distinguish friendly farmers from hide-and-seek guerrillas. Keever's trove of tissue-thin memos to editors, along with published and unpublished dispatches for New York and London media, provide the reader with you-are-there descriptions of Buddhist demonstrations and turning-point coups as well as phony ones. Two Vietnamese interpreters, self-described as "darling spies," helped her decode Vietnam's shadow world and subterranean war. These memoirs, at once personal and panoramic, chronicle the horrors of war and a rise and decline of American power and prestige.
Download or read book Firebird written by Brent McCorkle and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if God’s love were like the sun, constant and unchanging? What if one day you realized nothing could take that away? Firebird is a bright orange baby oriole who just loves the sunshine. But whenever a storm blows in, he frets and asks Mama why God allows the rain to take the sun away. When Firebird is finally old enough, his mother gently instructs him to fly up through the thunder and lightning to see what’s on the other side. It’s a rough flight, and just when he’s about to give up, Firebird rises above the storm to discover the sun shining where it always had been. God never lets the storm take the sun away. With that truth in his heart, Firebird continues to bask in the sunshine, but just as important, he learns to rejoice in the rain. Firebird is a children’s book that parallels the life of Samantha Crawford, a storybook artist in the inspiring new film Unconditional (scheduled for a theatrical launch in fall 2012) who has lost sight of God’s love.
Download or read book To Reach the Clouds written by Philippe Petit and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1974, a young Frenchman secretly - and illegally - rigged a tightrope between the Twin Towers. He made eight crossings in an hour, while 100,000 people watched in the streets of New York. Here, Petit recreates his six-and-a-half-year quest to realize his dream.
Download or read book Cat in the Clouds written by Eric Pinder and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tale familiar to 1,000s of New Hampshire school children told and illustrated by locals Eric Pinder & T.B.R. Walsh. Stray cat Nin drifts from house to house until he meets a meteorologist named Mark. Then Nin begins his greatest journey yet--to the top of Mount Washington. Follow Nin to a land where the wind howls, snow swirls and wild bears roam. At the Mount Washington Observatory, Nin learns that the best friends--and a wonderful home--can be found anywhere, even high above the clouds.
Download or read book Walking in Clouds written by Kavitha Yaga Buggana and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-12-30 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will we make it? That's the question Kavitha and her cousin, Pallu, ask themselves as they trek through Himalayan pine forests and unforgiving mountains in Nepal and Tibet. Their goal: to reach Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. The two women walk to ancient monasteries, meditate on freezing slopes, dance on the foothills of Kailash, and confront death in the thin mountain air. In Kailash and Manasarovar, the holiest of Hindu and Buddhist sites, they struggle to reconcile their rationalist views with faith and the beloved myths of their upbringing. Remarkably, it is this journey that helps them discover the meaning of friendship. Walking in Clouds is a beautifully crafted memoir of a journey to far-away places and to the places within. It mixes lyrical, descriptive storytelling with stunning photographs to bring to life a unique travelogue.
Download or read book Some Days from a Hill Diary written by Adam Watson and published by Paragon Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author presents extracts from his hill diary in Scotland, Iceland and Norway, including hill-walking, rock and snow climbing, ski-mountaineering, observing wildlife, and being with mountaineering companions and local people. These diary days started in 1943 when he was 13. They continued through a personal exploration of hill country, often solo, until 1951. The book portrays his excitement as he trod his beloved hills at first in summer and then in winter snow, and his joy at the beauty of nature. In his diary he caught his experiences of long days on the hills, describing views, wildlife, weather and local folk so vividly that readers easily imagine being there.
Download or read book Book of Clouds written by Chloe Aridjis and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tatiana, a young Mexican woman, is adrift in Berlin. Choosing a life of solitude, she takes a job transcribing notes for the reclusive Doktor Weiss. Through him she meets 'ant illustrator turned meteorologist' Jonas, a Berliner who has used clouds and the sky's constant shape-shifting as his escape from reality. As their three paths intersect and merge, the contours of all their worlds begins to change...
Download or read book Chasing Clouds written by Kristin Murray and published by Partridge Publishing Singapore. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book for young people thinking of travelling for the first time. Not your average guidebook to overseas travel. In it Ms Murray informally and honestly describes her experiences as a female backpacker in North Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia and South America.
Download or read book Walking with Stones written by William S. Schmidt and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William S. Schmidt is an associate professor of the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of two books and numerous articles in the fi elds of counseling and spirituality. He is the editor of the Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health published by Taylor and Francis.
Download or read book When We Walked Above the Clouds written by H. Lee Barnes and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is the mythology of the Green Berets, of their clandestine, special operations as celebrated in story and song. And then there is the reality of one soldier?s experience, the day-to-day loss and drudgery of a Green Beret such as H. Lee Barnes, whose story conveys the daily grind and quiet desperation behind polished-for-public-consumption accounts of military heroics. In When We Walked Above the Clouds, Barnes tells what it was like to be a Green Beret, first in the Dominican Republic during the civil war of 1965, and then at A-107, Tra Bong, Vietnam. There, he eventually came to serve as the advisor to a Combat Recon Platoon, which consisted chiefly of Montagnard irregulars. Though ?nothing extraordinary,? as Barnes saw it, his months of simply doing what the mission demanded make for sobering reading: the mundane business of killing rats, cleaning guns, and building bunkers renders the intensity of patrols and attacks all the more harrowing. More than anything, Barnes?s story is one of loss?of morale lost to alcoholism, teammates lost to friendly fire, missions aborted, and missions endlessly and futilely repeated. As the story advances, so does the attrition?teammates transferred, innocence cast off, confidence in leadership whittled away. And yet, against this dark background, Barnes still manages to honor the quiet professionals whose service, overshadowed by the outsized story of Vietnam, nonetheless carried the day.
Download or read book If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time written by Simon M. Matlou and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-11-17 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry is a wonderful stage that allows me an opportunity to enact aspects of my personal life, a helicopter vision that journeys back into my past and zoom those intense involvement and self discovery as silhouetted against the background of my family, my friends, my work, my hobbies, my challenges, my areas of development, the world, things I treasure, things I cherish and love and forces outside my control that continues to exert their influence and direct courses of my life. Poems in this book are carefully and specifically selected as they continue to invoke the bad and the lovely memories, mixed emotions and thoughts - a package of everyday life. Despite its challenges, unbearable pressures, unfairness, double standards and imperfection, it is still our beautiful life worth of praise!
Download or read book Above Clouds written by Jie Wu and published by via tolino media. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From soil to cloud, from valley to peak, From dark to bright, in this complex and changeable world, What one could take as life, What one could take as an enlightenment. The story revolves around two characters: Guang He and Sheng He: Guang He was abandoned by his mother and abused by his stepmother when he was a child, and after he grew up, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for injuring a person by mistake, and after his release from prison, he searched for the road to redemption; Sheng He was born in the darkness, but preferred to be bright, and was trapped in the valley, but his heart belonged to the mountains; she is a ray of light that shone through the jungle when Guang He sunk in the darkness of the fog, and she is a resilient straw when Guang He plunged into the dangerous shoals. She is a soft straw when Guang He falls into the dangerous shoals of the rapids. Do people who have made mistakes deserve to be forgiven? How can the goodness drowned by the prejudices of the world seek redemption? Please don't let your words become the knife that kills. How to achieve salvation for others and salvation for oneself? Who pays for the sins of all?
