Download or read book The Road to Firebase written by Robin Wieruch and published by Robin Wieruch. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Road to Firebase is your personal journey to master advanced React for business web applications in JavaScript whereas Firebase is used to replace everything that you would want from a backend application. Firebase enables you to connect your React application to a database, to authenticated users with your application with a login, logout and register mechanisms, and to authorize only certain users to access your application. It also comes with hosting capabilities and with social logins via Google, Facebook and more. Everything will be explained in the book while building a business web application yourself. I wrote the The Road to React with Firebase over the last two years. During this time, I came to understand the practical genius of Firebase, and how it dramatically reduces the tech stack to focus on getting sh*t done. Once you have set up your starter kit project -- that's what we are going to do together in this book -- you are ready to iterate fast on your personal ideas. There is no need to complicate things by adding a backend application with a database to your frontend application, because Firebase takes care of it with a well-designed API. I applied the same principles as my other books: Stay pragmatic Keep it simple Answer the why, not just the how Experience a problem, solve a problem This book is not intended to be an end-all reference for the Firebase API nor an in-depth guide about the internals of Firebase. Instead, its purpose is to journey through learning Firebase with React the pragmatic way, building an entire application on this tech stack yourself. The end result is the foundation to make your business application a reality. Requirements To get the most out of this book, you should be familiar with the basics of web development, which includes knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. You will also need to be familiar with the term API, because APIs are used frequently for the applications in this book. Editor/Terminal or IDE For the development environment, use a running editor/terminal (command line tool) or IDE with integrated terminal. I will provide a setup guide if you're unsure about which tools to use. The guide is set up for MacOS users, but you can find a Windows setup guide there as well. Node and NPM You will need to have node and npm installed, which are used to run the applications we'll build and manage the libraries we'll use along the way. In this book, you will install external node packages via npm (node package manager). These node packages can be libraries or whole frameworks. You can verify which node and npm versions you have in the command line: node --version v10.11.0 npm --version v6.5.0 These are the versions used for this publication. If you don't see output in your terminal, you will need to install node and npm. React My other book, called The Road to learn React, teaches the fundamentals about React by building a real world application. It is available for free, and after having read it, you should possess all the understanding necessary to work with the application(s) from this book. Also there will be many sidenotes to React articles that may be helpful.

Download or read book The Definitive Guide to Firebase written by Laurence Moroney and published by Apress. This book was released on 2017-11-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plan how to build a better app, grow it into a business, and earn money from your hard work using Firebase. In this book, Laurence Moroney, Staff Developer Advocate at Google, takes you through each of the 15 Firebase technologies, showing you how to use them with concrete examples. You’ll see how to build cross-platform apps with the three pillars of the Firebase platform: technologies to help you develop apps with a real-time database, remote configuration, cloud messaging, and more; grow your apps with user sharing, search integration, analytics, and more; and earn from your apps with in-app advertising. After reading The Definitive Guide to Firebase, you'll come away empowered to make the most of this technology that helps you build better cross-platform mobile apps using either native Android or JavaScript-based web apps and effectively deploy them in a cloud environment. What You'll Learn Use the real-time database for a codeless middleware that gives online and offline data for syncing across your users’ devices Master Firebase Cloud Messaging, a technology that delivers to connected devices in less than 500ms Grow your app organically with technologies such App Indexing, App Invites, and Dynamic Links Understand problems when they arise with crash reporting Fix user problems without direct access to users’ devices Tie it all together with analytics that give you great intelligence about how users interact with your app Who This Book Is For Experienced Android, mobile app developers new to Firebase. This book is also for experienced web developers looking to build and deploy web apps for smartphones and tablets, too, who may be new or less experienced with mobile programming.

Download or read book The Road to GraphQL written by Robin Wieruch and published by Robin Wieruch. This book was released on 2018-11-05 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Road to GraphQL is your personal journey to master pragmatic GraphQL in JavaScript. The book is full with applications you are going to build along the way with React.js and Node.js. Afterward, you will be able to implement full-stack JavaScript applications. I wrote the The Road to GraphQL over the last year, while building several GraphQL applications for my clients and for myself. During this time, I came to understand the practical genius of GraphQL, and how it dramatically improves communication in client-server architectures. Not only does it improve the interface between the client and the server, it also enhances client-side state management by eliminating remote data management. Sophisticated GraphQL libraries like Apollo Client provide powerful features like caching, optimistic UI, and data prefetching for free. This book covers the fundamentals of GraphQL itself, as well as its ecosystem. I applied the same principles as my other books: Stay pragmatic Keep it simple Answer the why, not just the how Experience a problem, solve a problem This book is not intended to be an end-all reference for GraphQL APIs, nor an in-depth guide about the internals of the GraphQL specification. Instead, its purpose is to journey through learning GraphQL with JavaScript the pragmatic way, building client and server applications yourself. The book covers lots of facets about GraphQL in JavaScript that are important for building modern applications, without just throwing the libraries like Apollo at problems before experiencing them. It starts with the basic HTTP requests to perform GraphQL queries first, then moves on to using dedicated GraphQL libraries for it. You will even get the chance to implement your own GraphQL client library, so you understand how these libraries work under the hood. There are no hidden abstractions in this book, just plenty of fundamentals for JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, and GraphQL. Requirements To get the most out of this book, you should be familiar with the basics of web development, which includes some knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. You will also need to be familiar with the term API, because they are discussed frequently. I encourage you to join the official Slack Group for the book, help or get help from others. React On the client-side, this book uses React to teach about GraphQL in JavaScript. My other book called The Road to learn React teaches you all the fundamentals about React. It also teaches you to make the transition from JavaScript ES5 to JavaScript ES6. The book is available for free and after having read the Road to learn React, you should possess all the knowledge to implement the GraphQL client-side application with this book. Node On the server-side, this book uses Node with Express as library to teach about GraphQL in JavaScript. You don't need to know much about those technologies before using them for your first GraphQL powered applications. The book will guide you through the process of setting up a Node application with Express and shows you how to weave GraphQL into the mix. Afterward, you should be able to consume the GraphQL API provided by your server-side application in your client-side application.

Download or read book React Cookbook written by Carlos Santana Roldán and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 66 hands-on recipes that cover UI development, animations, component architecture, routing, databases, testing, and debugging with React Key Features Use essential hacks and simple techniques to solve React application development challenges Create native mobile applications for iOS and Android using React Native Learn to write robust tests for your applications using Jest and Enzyme Book Description Today's web demands efficient real-time applications and scalability. If you want to learn to build fast, efficient, and high-performing applications using React 16, this is the book for you. We plunge directly into the heart of all the most important React concepts for you to conquer. Along the way, you’ll learn how to work with the latest ECMAScript features. You'll see the fundamentals of Redux and find out how to implement animations. Then, you’ll learn how to create APIs with Node, Firebase, and GraphQL, and improve the performance of our application with Webpack 4.x. You'll find recipes on implementing server-side rendering, adding unit tests, and debugging. We also cover best practices to deploy a React application to production. Finally, you’ll learn how to create native mobile applications for iOS and Android using React Native. By the end of the book, you'll be saved from a lot of trial and error and developmental headaches, and you’ll be on the road to becoming a React expert. What you will learn Gain the ability to wield complex topics such as Webpack and server-side rendering Implement an API using Node.js, Firebase, and GraphQL Learn to maximize the performance of React applications Create a mobile application using React Native Deploy a React application on Digital Ocean Get to know the best practices when organizing and testing a large React application Who this book is for If you’re a JavaScript developer who wants to build fast, efficient, scalable solutions, then you’re in the right place. Knowledge of React will be an advantage but is not required. Experienced users of React will be able to improve their skills.

Download or read book A Day in Hell on the DMZ written by Lou Pepi and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-08-12 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At "zero dark thirty" on January 30, 1971, units of the U.S. Fifth Mechanized Division left their firebases along the DMZ heading west along Provincial Route 9. The mission, called Dewey Canyon II, was to reopen the road from Khe Sahn Air Base to the Laotian border, in support of a South Vietnamese invasion of Laos (doomed from the start) to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Alpha Company of U.S. 61st Infantry performed commendably in keeping Route 9 open, with just one casualty killed by friendly fire. They returned to Firebase Charlie-2 in April, exhausted but hopeful--the Fifth would be leaving Vietnam in July. They patrolled the "western hills" through May as rocket attacks fell each evening. On the 21st, a direct hit on a bunker killed 30 of the 63 men inside--18 were from Alpha Co. This is their story, as told to Specialist Lou Pepi by members of his unit.

Download or read book Abandoned in Hell written by William Albracht and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An astonishing memoir of military courage at a remote outpost during the Vietnam War “A riveting, dead-true account in the tradition of Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers Once...and Young.”—Steven Pressfield, national bestselling author of The Lion’s Gate In October 1969, William Albracht, the youngest Green Beret captain in Vietnam, took command of a remote hilltop outpost called Firebase Kate held by only 27 American soldiers and 156 Montagnard militiamen. At dawn the next morning, three North Vietnamese Army regiments—some six thousand men—crossed the Cambodian border and attacked. Outnumbered three dozen to one, Albracht’s men held off the assault but, after five days, Kate’s defenders were out of ammo and water. Refusing to die or surrender, Albracht led his troops off the hill and on a daring night march through enemy lines. Abandoned in Hell is an astonishing memoir of leadership, sacrifice, and brutal violence, a riveting journey into Vietnam’s heart of darkness, and a compelling reminder of the transformational power of individual heroism. Not since Lone Survivor and We Were Soldiers Once...and Young has there been such a gripping and authentic account of battlefield courage. INCLUDES PHOTOS

Download or read book Mobile Deep Learning with TensorFlow Lite ML Kit and Flutter written by Anubhav Singh and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2020-04-06 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to deploy effective deep learning solutions on cross-platform applications built using TensorFlow Lite, ML Kit, and Flutter Key FeaturesWork through projects covering mobile vision, style transfer, speech processing, and multimedia processingCover interesting deep learning solutions for mobileBuild your confidence in training models, performance tuning, memory optimization, and neural network deployment through every projectBook Description Deep learning is rapidly becoming the most popular topic in the mobile app industry. This book introduces trending deep learning concepts and their use cases with an industrial and application-focused approach. You will cover a range of projects covering tasks such as mobile vision, facial recognition, smart artificial intelligence assistant, augmented reality, and more. With the help of eight projects, you will learn how to integrate deep learning processes into mobile platforms, iOS, and Android. This will help you to transform deep learning features into robust mobile apps efficiently. You’ll get hands-on experience of selecting the right deep learning architectures and optimizing mobile deep learning models while following an application oriented-approach to deep learning on native mobile apps. We will later cover various pre-trained and custom-built deep learning model-based APIs such as machine learning (ML) Kit through Firebase. Further on, the book will take you through examples of creating custom deep learning models with TensorFlow Lite. Each project will demonstrate how to integrate deep learning libraries into your mobile apps, right from preparing the model through to deployment. By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered the skills to build and deploy deep learning mobile applications on both iOS and Android. What you will learnCreate your own customized chatbot by extending the functionality of Google AssistantImprove learning accuracy with the help of features available on mobile devicesPerform visual recognition tasks using image processingUse augmented reality to generate captions for a camera feedAuthenticate users and create a mechanism to identify rare and suspicious user interactionsDevelop a chess engine based on deep reinforcement learningExplore the concepts and methods involved in rolling out production-ready deep learning iOS and Android applicationsWho this book is for This book is for data scientists, deep learning and computer vision engineers, and natural language processing (NLP) engineers who want to build smart mobile apps using deep learning methods. You will also find this book useful if you want to improve your mobile app’s user interface (UI) by harnessing the potential of deep learning. Basic knowledge of neural networks and coding experience in Python will be beneficial to get started with this book.

Download or read book Vietnam Firebases 1965 73 written by Randy E. M Foster and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-20 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artillery fire support bases of the Freeworld forces played a critical role in the conduct of operations during the Vietnam War. They served to lay down high-volume fire on enemy firing sites, supported friendly infantry operations, and executed harassing fire missions where exact targets were not known. But the firebases themselves which housed a range of other facilities such as troop shelters, surveillance radars and command centers had to be defended against ground attack, and as a result became significant fortifications in their own right. This book describes the design, development and operational history of the fire support bases throughout the conflict.

Download or read book Learning React written by Alex Banks and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you want to learn how to build efficient user interfaces with React, this is your book. Authors Alex Banks and Eve Porcello show you how to create UIs with this small JavaScript library that can deftly display data changes on large-scale, data-driven websites without page reloads. Along the way, you’ll learn how to work with functional programming and the latest ECMAScript features. Developed by Facebook, and used by companies including Netflix, Walmart, and The New York Times for large parts of their web interfaces, React is quickly growing in use. By learning how to build React components with this hands-on guide, you’ll fully understand how useful React can be in your organization. Learn key functional programming concepts with JavaScript Peek under the hood to understand how React runs in the browser Create application presentation layers by mounting and composing React components Use component trees to manage data and reduce the time you spend debugging applications Explore React’s component lifecycle and use it to load data and improve UI performance Use a routing solution for browser history, bookmarks, and other features of single-page applications Learn how to structure React applications with servers in mind

Download or read book Ripcord written by Keith Nolan and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 10, 1970, Hill 927 was occupied by troopers of the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division. By July, the activities of the artillery and infantry of Ripcord had caught the attention of the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and a long and deadly siege ensued. Ripcord was the Screaming Eagles’ last chance to do significant damage to the NVA in the A Shau Valley before the division was withdrawn from Vietnam and returned to the United States. At Ripcord, the enemy counterattacked with ferocity, using mortar and antiaircraft fire to inflict heavy causalities on the units operating there. The battle lasted four and a half months and exemplified the ultimate frustration of the Vietnam War: the inability of the American military to bring to bear its enormous resources to win on the battlefield. In the end, the 101st evacuated Ripcord, leaving the NVA in control of the battlefield. Contrary to the mantra “We won every battle but lost the war,” the United States was defeated at Ripcord. Now, at last, the full story of this terrible battle can be told.

Download or read book React Explained written by Zac Gordon and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: React Explained is a fun and enjoyable introduction to React, which is the Javascript framework of choice for WordPress, Drupal, Magento, and thousands of developers. Key Features Up-to-Date: Constantly updated, the material in React Explained is always current. Clear instruction: You will follow plain English, clear visuals, and enjoyable step-by-step instructions. Hands-on learning: You will master React by building a complete React application. What You'll Learn In React Explained, readers will dig deep into how React works and will learn how to build applications with it. While the focus is on building for the frontend on the web, many of the skills you will learn will also apply to writing React on the server side, for native applications and even for Virtual Reality environments. Table of Contents The Javascript You Should Know for React Helpful Developer Tools for React A High Level Overview of React React Elements and Components Explained 5 Exercises in Writing React With Elements and Components JSX Explained 5 Exercises in Writing React With JSX Create React App Explained 5 Exercises With Create React App Props in React Explained 5 Exercises in Working With Props State in React Explained 5 Exercises in Working With State The Component Lifecycle Explained 5 Exercises With the Component Lifecycle Project Introduction Step 1 - Listing Content from State Step 2 - Routing and Single Content Views Step 3 - Adding a Content Form Step 4 - Adding Flash Messages Step 5 - Updating Content Step 6 - Deleting Content Step 7 - Maintaining Persistent State With Local Storage Step 8 - Authenticating With a Firebase Database Step 9 - CRUD and Live Syncing With Firebase Step 10 - Deploying the Project Step 11 - Refactoring Your Code About the Author Zac Gordon is a professional educator, who currently focuses on JavaScript development with and alongside WordPress at javascriptforwp.com. Zac has years of experience teaching at high schools, colleges, bootcamps and online learning sites like Treehouse, Udemy and Frontend Masters. In addition to teaching, Zac also runs Web Hosting for Students, one of the world's largest hosting companies dedicated to students and teachers. You can also catch his free Office Yoga sessions on OfficeYoga.tv.

Download or read book The Outpost written by Jake Tapper and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 789 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The basis of the film starring Orlando Bloom and Scott Eastwood, The Outpost is the heartbreaking and inspiring story of one of America's deadliest battles during the war in Afghanistan, acclaimed by critics everywhere as a classic. At 5:58 AM on October 3rd, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating, located in frighteningly vulnerable terrain in Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistani border, was viciously attacked. Though the 53 Americans there prevailed against nearly 400 Taliban fighters, their casualties made it the deadliest fight of the war for the U.S. that year. Four months after the battle, a Pentagon review revealed that there was no reason for the troops at Keating to have been there in the first place. In The Outpost, Jake Tapper gives us the powerful saga of COP Keating, from its establishment to eventual destruction, introducing us to an unforgettable cast of soldiers and their families, and to a place and war that has remained profoundly distant to most Americans. A runaway bestseller, it makes a savage war real, and American courage manifest. "The Outpost is a mind-boggling, all-too-true story of heroism, hubris, failed strategy, and heartbreaking sacrifice. If you want to understand how the war in Afghanistan went off the rails, you need to read this book." -- Jon Krakauer

Download or read book Flutter in Action written by Eric Windmill and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summary In 2017, consumers downloaded 178 billion apps, and analysts predict growth to 258 billion by 2022. Mobile customers are demanding more—and better—apps, and it’s up to developers like you to write them! Flutter, a revolutionary new cross-platform software development kit created by Google, makes it easier than ever to write secure, high-performance native apps for iOS and Android. Flutter apps are blazingly fast because this open source solution compiles your Dart code to platform-specific programs with no JavaScript bridge! Flutter also supports hot reloading to update changes instantly. And thanks to its built-in widgets and rich motion APIs, Flutter’s apps are not just highly responsive, they’re stunning! Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the technology With Flutter, you can build mobile applications using a single, feature-rich SDK that includes everything from a rendering engine to a testing environment. Flutter compiles programs written in Google’s intuitive Dart language to platform-specific code so your iOS and Android games, utilities, and shopping platforms all run like native Java or Swift apps. About the book Flutter in Action teaches you to build professional-quality mobile applications using the Flutter SDK and the Dart programming language. You’ll begin with a quick tour of Dart essentials and then dive into engaging, well-described techniques for building beautiful user interfaces using Flutter’s huge collection of built-in widgets. The combination of diagrams, code examples, and annotations makes learning a snap. As you go, you’ll appreciate how the author makes easy reading of complex topics like routing, state management, and async programming. What's inside Understanding the Flutter approach to the UI All the Dart you need to get started Creating custom animations Testing and debugging About the reader You’ll need basic web or mobile app development skills. About the author Eric Windmill is a professional Dart developer and a contributor to open-source Flutter projects. His work is featured on the Flutter Showcase page. Table of Contents: PART 1 - MEET FLUTTER 1 ¦ Meet Flutter 2 ¦ A brief intro to Dart 3 ¦ Breaking into Flutter PART 2 - FLUTTER USER INTERACTION, STYLES, AND ANIMATIONS 4 ¦ Flutter UI: Important widgets, themes, and layout 5 ¦ User interaction: Forms and gestures 6 ¦ Pushing pixels: Flutter animations and using the canvas PART 3 - STATE MANAGEMENT AND ASYNCHRONOUS DART 7 ¦ Flutter routing in depth 8 ¦ Flutter state management 9 ¦ Async Dart and Flutter and infinite scrolling PART 4 - BEYOND FOUNDATIONS 10 ¦ Working with data: HTTP, Firestore, and JSON 11 ¦ Testing Flutter apps

Download or read book Soldiering On in a Dying War written by William J. Shkurti and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2022-07-05 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the autumn of 1971 a war-weary American public had endured a steady stream of bad news about the conduct of its soldiers in Vietnam. It included reports of fraggings, massacres, and cover-ups, mutinies, increased racial tensions, and soaring drug abuse. Then six soldiers at Fire Support Base Pace, a besieged U.S. artillery outpost near the Cambodian border, balked at an order to conduct a nighttime ambush patrol. Four days later, twenty soldiers from a second unit objected to patrolling even in daylight. The sensation these events triggered in the media, along with calls for a congressional investigation, reinforced for the American public the image of a dysfunctional military on the edge of collapse. For a time Pace became the face of all that was wrong with American troops during the extended withdrawal from Vietnam. William Shkurti, however, argues that the incidents at Firebase Pace have been misunderstood for four decades. Shkurti, who served as an artillery officer not far from Pace, uses declassified reports, first-person interviews, and other sources to reveal that these incidents were only temporary disputes involving veteran soldiers exercising common sense. Shkurti also uses the Pace incidents to bring an entire war and our withdrawal from it into much sharper focus. He reevaluates the performance and motivation of U.S. ground troops and their commanders during this period, as well as that of their South Vietnamese allies and North Vietnamese adversaries; reassesses the media and its coverage of this phase of the war; and shows how some historians have helped foster misguided notions about what actually happened at Pace. By taking a closer look at what we thought we knew, Shkurti persuasively demonstrates how combat units still in harm's way adapted to the challenges before them and soldiered on in a war everyone else wanted to be over. In doing so, he also suggests a context to better understand the challenges that may lie ahead in the drawdown of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Download or read book The Afghanistan Papers written by Craig Whitlock and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 ​The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock. Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives. Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military become mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains “fast-paced and vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground. Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn’t know the name of his Afghanistan war commander—and didn’t want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had “no visibility into who the bad guys are.” His successor, Robert Gates, said: “We didn’t know jack shit about al-Qaeda.” The Afghanistan Papers is a “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials” (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

Download or read book Matterhorn written by Karl Marlantes and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever. Written by a highly decorated Marine veteran over the course of thirty years, Matterhorn is a spellbinding and unforgettable novel that brings to life an entire world—both its horrors and its thrills—and seems destined to become a classic of combat literature.

Download or read book Cherries written by John Podlaski and published by John Podlaski. This book was released on 2010-04-20 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1970, John Kowalski was among the many young, inexperienced soldiers sent to Vietnam to participate in a contentious war. Referred to as “Cherries” by their veteran counterparts, these recruits were plunged into a horrific reality. The on-the-job training was rigorous, yet most of these youths were ill-prepared to handle the severe mental, emotional, and physical demands of combat. Experiencing enemy fire and observing death up close initiates a profound transformation that is irreversible. The author excels at storytelling. Readers affirm feeling immersed alongside the characters, partaking in their struggle for survival, experiencing the fear, awe, drama, and grief, observing acts of courage, and occasionally sharing in their humor. "Cherries" presents an unvarnished account, and upon completion, readers will gain a deeper appreciation for the trials these young men faced over a year. It's a narrative that grips the reader throughout.