Military Appreciation Month
Celebrate courage and honor with these books highlighting U.S. military appreciation, service, and achievements.
Victory at Sea: Naval Power And The Transformation Of The Global Order In World War II
A sweeping, lavish one-volume history of the rise of American naval power during World War II In this engaging narrative, historian Paul Kennedy grapples with the rise and fall of the Great Powers during World War II. Tracking the movements of the six major navies of the Second World War--the allied navies of Britain, France, and the United States and the Axis navies of Germany, Italy, and Japan--Kennedy tells a story of naval battles, maritime campaigns, convoys, amphibious landings, and strikes from the sea. From the elimination of the Italian, German, and Japanese fleets, and almost all of the French fleet, to the end of the era of the big-gunned surface vessel, the advent of the atomic bomb, and the rise of an American economic and military power larger than anything the world had ever seen, Kennedy shows how the strategic landscape for naval affairs was completely altered between 1936 and 1946.
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Digital Book Number: DB112546
The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal Of The Men Who Keep Us Free
Pete Hegseth joined the Army to fight extremists. Then that same Army called him one. The military Pete joined twenty years ago was fiercely focused on lethality, competency, and color blindness. Today our brass are following the rest of our country off the cliff of cultural chaos and weakness. Americans with common sense are fighting this on many fronts, but if we can't save the meritocracy of our military, we're definitely going to lose everywhere else. The War on Warriors uncovers the deep roots of our dysfunction--a society that has forgotten the men who take risks, cut through red tape, and get their hands dirty. The only kind of men prepared to face the dangers that the Left pretends don't exist. Unlike issues of education or taxes or crime, this problem doesn't have a zip code solution. We can't move away from it. We can't avoid it. We have only one Pentagon. Either we take it back or surrender it altogether. Combining his own war experiences, tales of outrage, and an incisive look at how the chain of command got so kinked, this book is the key to saving our warriors--and winning future wars. The War on Warriors must be won by the good guys, because when the shooting really starts, they're the only ones who can save us.
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Digital Book Number: Pete Hegseth
Under His Wings: How Faith on The Front Lines Has Protected American Troops
Emily Compagno explores the impact of faith on American soldiers throughout history. Drawing from her own military lineage and experiences visiting troops in Iraq and Kuwait, she shares stories of servicemen whose religious beliefs helped them endure wartime hardships, from World War I to current conflicts. The collection features firsthand accounts, heartfelt letters, and USO visits, serving as an inspiring tribute to the enduring power of faith and a thank-you to the troops.
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Digital Book Number: DB126211
American Heroes
U.S. soldiers who served in overseas conflicts--from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan--share true stories of the actions that earned them some of America's most distinguished military medals, up to and including the Medal of Honor. They never acted alone, but always in the spirit of camaraderie, patriotism, and for the good of our beloved country. There has never been a better time for all of us to think about duty, sacrifice, and what it means to be an American hero.
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Digital Book Number: DB125431
Patton: Ordeal and Triumph
The best Patton biography."- Military Bookman He is America's most famous general. He represents toughness, focus, determination, and the ideal of achievement in the face of overwhelming odds. He was the most feared and respected adversary to his enemies and an object of envy, admiration, and sometimes, scorn to his professional peers. An early proponent of tank warfare, George S. Patton moved from being a foresighted lieutenant in the First World War to commanding the Third Army in the next, leading armored divisions in the Allied offensive that broke the back of Nazi Germany. Patton was an enigmatic figure. His image among his troops and much of the press achieved legendary status through his bold and colorful comments and combat leadership, yet these same qualities nearly jeopardized his career and forced him out of the battle on several occasions. Victory was impossible without Patton, and returning to the field, his army was responsible for one of the most crushing advances in the history of warfare. In Ladislas Farago's masterpiece, Ordeal and Triumph , the complete story of this fascinating personality is revealed. Born into an aristocratic California family, Patton rose in military rank quickly and was tapped to lead the Allied landings in North Africa in 1942. Under Patton's direction, American troops cut their teeth against Rommel's Afrikakorps, advanced further and more quickly than British General Montgomery's army in the conquest of Sicily, and ultimately continued their exploits by punching into Germany and checking the Russian westward advance at the end of World War II. A sweeping, absorbing biography and critically hailed, Ordeal and Triumph provides unique insights into Patton's life and leadership style and is military history at its finest.
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Digital Book Number: DB123588
Brothers Down: Pearl Harbor and The Fate Of The Many Brothers Aboard The U.S.S. Arizona
A deeply personal and never-before-told account of one of America's darkest days, from the bestselling author of The Admirals and MacArthur at War . The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 remains one of the most traumatic events in American history. America's battleship fleet was crippled, thousands of lives were lost, and the United States was propelled into a world war. Few realize that aboard the iconic, ill-fated USS Arizona were an incredible 79 blood relatives. Tragically, in an era when family members serving together was an accepted, even encouraged, practice, sixty-three of the Arizona's 1,177 dead turned out to be brothers. In Brothers Down, acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman returns to that critical week of December, masterfully guiding us on an unforgettable journey of sacrifice and heroism, all told through the lives of these brothers and their fateful experience on the Arizona. Weaving in the heartbreaking stories of the parents, wives, and sweethearts who wrote to and worried about these men, Borneman draws from a treasure trove of unpublished source material to bring to vivid life the minor decisions that became a matter of life or death when the bombs began to fall. More than just an account of familial bonds and national heartbreak, what emerges promises to define a turning point in American military history.
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Digital Book Number: DB120285
Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II
The heart-pounding true story of the daring American women who piloted the most dangerous aircraft of World War II through the treacherous skies of Britain. They were crop dusters and debutantes, college girls and performers in flying circuses -- all of them trained as pilots. Because they were women, they were denied the opportunity to fly for their country when the United States entered the Second World War. But Great Britain, desperately fighting for survival, would let anyone -- even Americans, even women -- transport warplanes. Thus, twenty-five daring young aviators bolted for England in 1942, becoming the first American women to command military aircraft. In a faraway land, these "spitfires" lived like women decades ahead of their time. Risking their lives in one of the deadliest jobs of the war, they ferried new, barely tested fighters and bombers to air bases and returned shot-up wrecks for repair, never knowing what might go wrong until they were high in the sky. Many ferry pilots died in crashes or made spectacular saves. It was exciting, often terrifying work. The pilots broke new ground off duty as well, shocking their hosts with thoroughly modern behavior. With cinematic sweep, Becky Aikman follows the stories of nine of the women who served, drawing on unpublished diaries, letters, and records, along with her own interviews, to bring these forgotten heroines fully to life. Spitfires is a vivid, richly detailed account of war, ambition, and a group of remarkable women whose lives were as unconventional as their dreams.
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Digital Book Number: DB130474
Shots Heard Round the World: America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War
In April 1775, British troops marched to Lexington, where an armed group of Yankees awaited them. Despite an order to disperse, shots rang out. Militiamen were killed. The British continued marching, only to find even greater trouble in Concord and all the way down the road back to Boston. The Revolutionary War had begun. Shots Heard Round the World is a bold, comprehensive rendering of the world war that erupted out of America's battle for independence. Ferling highlights underestimated pivotal moments to reveal why the British should have put down the rebellion within a couple years of fighting. As European rivals France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic entered the fray, Britain's problems grew, but after seven long years, the war's outcome remained very much in doubt. Ferling assesses military and civilian leaders, the choices they faced, and the political, tactical, and strategic decisions they made as the war raged in North America, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Asia, and on the high seas, affecting peoples and countries miles from American soil. Long after the soldiers laid down their arms, future generations have reckoned with the Revolution and its far-reaching consequences. Shots Heard Round the World is the definitive account of the war and its monumental legacy.
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Digital Book Number: DB130246
The Vietnam War: A Military History
The Vietnam War cast a shadow over the American psyche from the moment it began. In its time it sparked budget deficits, campus protests, and an erosion of US influence around the world. Long after the last helicopter evacuated Saigon, Americans have continued to battle over whether it was ever a winnable war. Based on thousands of pages of military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, Geoffrey Wawro's The Vietnam War offers a definitive account of a war of choice that was doomed from its inception. In devastating detail, Wawro narrates campaigns where US troops struggled even to find the enemy in the South Vietnamese wilderness, let alone kill sufficient numbers to turn the tide in their favor. Yet the war dragged on, prolonged by presidents and military leaders who feared the political consequences of accepting defeat. In the end, no number of young lives lost or bombs dropped could prevent America's ally, the corrupt South Vietnamese regime, from collapsing the moment US troops retreated. Broad, definitive, and illuminating, The Vietnam War offers an unsettling, resonant story of the limitations of American power.
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Digital Book Number: DB129388
American Heroes
U.S. soldiers who served in overseas conflicts--from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan--share true stories of the actions that earned them some of America's most distinguished military medals, up to and including the Medal of Honor. They never acted alone, but always in the spirit of camaraderie, patriotism, and for the good of our beloved country. There has never been a better time for all of us to think about duty, sacrifice, and what it means to be an American hero.
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Digital Book Number: DB125431
No Ordinary Dog: My Partner from the Seal Teams to the Bin Laden Raid
The powerful true story of a SEAL Team Six member and military dog handler, and the dog that saved his life. Two dozen Navy SEALs descended on Osama bin Laden's compound in May 2011. After the mission, only one name was made public: Cairo, a Belgian Malinois and military working dog. This is Cairo's story, and that of his handler, Will Chesney, a member of SEAL Team Six whose life would be irrevocably tied to Cairo's. Starting in 2008, when Will was introduced to the DEVGRU canine program, he and Cairo worked side by side, depending on each other for survival on hundreds of critical operations in the war on terrorism. But their bond transcended their service. Then, in 2011, the call came: Pick up your dog and get back to Virginia. Now. What followed were several weeks of training for a secret mission. It soon became clear that this was no ordinary operation. Cairo was among the first members of the U.S. military on the ground in Pakistan as part of Operation Neptune Spear, which resulted in the successful elimination of bin Laden. As Cairo settled into a role as a reliable "spare dog," Will went back to his job as a DEVGRU operator, until a grenade blast in 2013 left him with a brain injury and PTSD. Unable to participate in further missions, he suffered from crippling migraines, chronic pain, memory issues, and depression. Modern medicine provided only modest relief. Instead, it was up to Cairo to save Will's life once more -- and then up to Will to be there when Cairo needed him the most.
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Digital Book Number: DB132996
Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness
The America we live in today was born, not on July 4, 1776, but on December 7, 1941, when almost four hundred Japanese planes attacked the US Pacific fleet, killing 2,400 men and sinking or damaging sixteen ships. In Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness, Nelson follows, moment by moment, the sailors, soldiers, pilots, admirals, generals, emperors, and presidents, all starting with a pre-polio Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, attending the laying of the keel at the Brooklyn Navy Yard of the USS Arizona, against the backdrop of the imperial, military, and civilian leaders of Japan lurching into ultranationalist fascism, all culminating into an insanely daring scheme to shock the Allies with a technologically-revolutionary mission in one of the boldest military stories ever told--one with consequences that continue to echo in our lives today. Besides the little understood history of how and why Japan attacked America, we can hear the abandoned record player endlessly repeating "Sunrise Serenade" as the Japanese bombs hit the deck of the California, we feel terror as Navy wives, helped by their Japanese maids, upturn couches for cover and hide with their children in caves from a rumored invasion, and we understand the mix of frustration and triumph as a lone American teenager shoots down a Japanese bomber. Backed by a research team's five years of efforts with archives and interviews producing nearly a million pages of documents, as well as a thorough re-examination of the original evidence produced by federal investigators, this definitive history provides a blow-by-blow account from both the Japanese and American perspectives and is a historical drama on the greatest scale.
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Digital Book Number: DB126963