LITMIR.BIZ

The Unseen War offers a comprehensive assessment of the air contribution to the three weeks of major combat that ended the rule of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003. Unlike in the earlier instance of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the role of allied air power in the nation’s second war against Iraq was not apparent to most observers, since the land offensive began concurrently with the air offensive and the overwhelming majority of the reporters who accompanied allied forces into combat were embedded with ground units. Even today, the air war history of Operation Iraqi Freedom remains largely unreported, despite the fact that American air assets, aided substantially by the air contributions of the United Kingdom and Australia, played a key role in enabling the prompt achievement of the coalition’s immediate campaign goals. Lambeth’s work fills a long-standing gap in the literature on modern warfare by telling that story of the role of airpower for the first time in the fullest detail.

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THE MILITARY ADVANTAGE, 2012 EDITION is the most up-to-date annual guide to military benefits for active duty service members, veterans, military retirees, and family members. These valuable benefits include billions of dollars in scholarships, educational benefits, home loan guarantees, and military discounts. This year THE MILITARY ADVANTAGE provides detailed information about the following key benefit changes:*GI Bill Housing Stipend Payments for Online Students*Education Benefits for Active-Duty and Dependents*GI Bill Tuition and Fee Coverage*GI Bill Benefits to Cover Vocational Training*Cost-of-Living Adjustment for Retirees and Vets*TRICARE Premiums and Co-Pays*Pay Raises for 2012*And much, much more…THE MILITARY ADVANTAGE is published in partnership with Military.com, the nation s largest military membership organization.

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While there is a vast amount of literature available on Iraqi operations, until now little has been written about the counterinsurgency and stabilization operations in Afghanistan. With this book, a Canadian military historian, who has observed field operations in Afghanistan since 2003, offers a clear view of what is happening in that country. It is the first to look at units unknown to most Americans—the provincial reconstruction teams, the embedded training teams, the strategic advisory team, among others—that helped the Afghan people establish a government. Working shoulder to shoulder with Afghans at all levels of society and at great personal risk, these international teams, the author argues, helped stave off a civil war and prevented the insurgents from exploiting the chaos.Dr. Maloney observed the efforts of these teams as they unfolded in 2004 and 2005. His personal story takes readers on a journey from Badkashan province, the exotic and poppy-laden land in the north; to Kabul, the intrigued-filled capital; to Kandahar province in the south, where the threat of IED attacks was a daily occurrence. His astute observations about this international effort and how the Taliban has evolved are certain to help readers better understand the situation in Afghanistan today. His book is the first to provide details about how the reconstruction teams were organized, how they worked, and the problems they encountered while attempting to stabilize the provinces. Maloney argues that the war in Afghanistan is unique and the country and its people, as well as its insurgents, must be taken on their own terms, not in relationship to the American experience in Iraq, Vietnam, or any other conflict.

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Bill Lawrence served his country for thirty-seven years in a remarkable naval career filled with triumphs and adversities. A naval aviator and test pilot who commanded a fighter squadron in the Vietnam War, he was shot down in combat and held by the North Vietnamese at the notorious Hanoi Hilton prison for six years. During his imprisonment he became a hero among heroes, demonstrating superior qualities of leadership, physical strength, and mental acumen, tap-coding messages to keep his sanity while withstanding solitary confinement and regular torture sessions. Upon release from captivity, Lawrence learned that his wife and the mother of their children had divorced him and remarried. Although these events had a severe emotional impact on him, he resumed his distinguished naval career, rising swiftly through the ranks, remarrying, and being named to such prestigious positions as Commander of the Third Fleet, Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and Chief of Naval Personnel. In this autobiography, Lawrence credits much of his resolve and ability to overcome difficulties to his strong and nurturing parents, his youth in Nashville, Tennessee, his experiences at the U.S. Naval Academy (where he served as brigade commander and earned letters in three varsity sports), and to the love and support of his wife Diane. With the help of his friend and writer Zip Rausa, the admiral tells his story without glossing over the darker elements. This recounting of his path on an extraordinary journey through life is uniquely American and filled with lessons for us all.

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Frank G. Tinker, Jr. was the top American ace flying under contract with the Spanish Republican Air Force in the Spanish Civil War. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Class of 1933, he went into combat with Soviet airmen during the war. Through sheer perseverance, he rose from a teenage enlisted seaman, through the U.S. Naval Academy, to the officer’s wardroom—then pressed on to claim the wings of a naval aviator and to become a top-flight fighter pilot and a published author. Tinker possessed extraordinary people skills—skills that allowed him to move with relative ease among common seamen, naval officers, foreign combat pilots, left-wing literati in Madrid and Paris, and the rural folk of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, who embraced him as “one of their own.” While in Spain, Tinker socialized with Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Robert Hale Merriman, the leader of the American Volunteers of the Lincoln Brigade and Milton Wolff, Merriman’s successor, who led the 15th International Brigade during the Battle of the Ebro. This first in-depth biography of Tinker covers his experience in combat, culminating with his commanding a Soviet squadron and terminating his contract with the government of Spain. Tinker would become the top American ace during the Spanish Civil War after downing eight enemy airplanes in combat. After returning to the United States, he wrote a memoir about fighting for Republican Spain and in June 1939 died under mysterious circumstances in Little Rock, Arkansas. The authors, well-known aviation historians, also offer a rare discussion of the aerial tactics introduced in the Spanish Civil War that became standard procedures in World War II and firmly establish Tinker’s aviation feats for the historical record. Five Down, No Glory includes an introduction by Richard P. Hallion.

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Call To Arms is the fourth novel in the award-winning historical / nautical fiction series from William C. Hammond. Along with the other novels in the Cutler Family Chronicles – most recently For Love of Country and The Power and the Glory – it features the epic saga of the seafaring Cutler family of Hingham, Massachusetts and an ever expanding cast of characters. Among these characters are real historical figures including Capt. Edward Preble, Lt. Stephen Decatur, Lt. Richard Somers, Samuel Coleridge, Bashaw Yusuf Qaramanli, and Adm. Horatio Lord Nelson. Interwoven with these historical characters is a fast-paced and gripping plot that takes the reader from Java in the Dutch East Indies to New England at the start of the nineteenth century, and on to Gibraltar, Tripoli, Malta, Sicily, Alexandria and Cairo. Historic events depicted in the novel have been subjected to intense research and have been vetted by historians.

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One of the leading voices on national security issues in the U.S. Congress demonstrates how words have been sharp and powerful weapons of victory in this compilation of great military speeches that helped turn the tide of history. Among the dozens of inspirational speeches featured are: Moses instructing his followers to cross the Jordan River without him. . . Queen Elizabeth pledging to die with her soldiers as they faced the Spanish Armada. . . Patrick Henry choosing between liberty and death. . . Napoleon exhorting his troops as they marched on Egypt. . . Winston Churchill rallying his nation to victory. . . General Sir Montgomery refusing to retreat from Rommel. . . President Roosevelt preparing the American people for World War II. . . General Eisenhower fortifying his troops for the invasion of Normandy. . . President Reagan demanding that Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall. . . President George W. Bush encouraging America after 9/11. . . and more.Congressman Israel has included speeches that have motivated and mobilized, challenged and comforted. Some were blurted in the heat of combat, others were carefully written in places far removed from the brutality of the battlefield, but all will inspire readers with the courage that moved people forward against all odds. Each speech is introduced with an insightful historic context. This dramatic sweep of military history in the words of history's military leaders serves to reinforce the concept that the pen is mightier than the sword.

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This book recounts how the Wake Island garrison survived nearly daily bombings and repulsed the first Japanese attempt to take the atoll. The author uses extensive Japanese materials–many never before used or available– to identify the enemy order of battle and the roles each unit played in the drama.

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The men of the U.S. Navy's brown-water force played a vital but often overlooked role in the Vietnam War. Known for their black berets and limitless courage, they maneuvered their aging, makeshift craft along shallow coastal waters and twisting inland waterways to search out the enemy. In this moving tribute to their contributions and sacrifices, Tom Cutler records their dramatic story as only a participant could. His own Vietnam experience enables him to add a striking human dimension to the account. The terror of firefights along the jungle-lined rivers, the rigors of camp life, and the sudden perils of guerrilla warfare are conveyed with authenticity. At the same time, the author's training as a historian allows him to objectively describe the scope of the navy's operations and evaluate their effectiveness.Winner of the Navy League's Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement in 1988 when the book was first published, Cutler is credited with having written the definitive history of the brown-water sailors, an effort that has helped readers better understand the nature of U.S. involvement in the war.

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This book is the first to document the vital role played by Americans, not of Japanese ancestry, who served as Japanese language officers in World War II. Covering the period 1940-1945, it describes their selection, training, and service in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps during the war and their contributions toward maintaining good relations between America and Japan thereafter. Author Roger Dingman argues that their service as codebreakers and combat interpreters hastened victory and that their cross-cultural experience and linguistic knowledge facilitated the successful dismantling of the Japanese empire and the peaceful occupation of Japan. He shows how the war changed relations between the Navy and academia, transformed the lives of these 1,200 men and women, and set onetime enemies on a course to enduring friendship. The book s purpose is twofold: to reveal an exciting and previously unknown aspect of the Pacific War and to demonstrate the enduring importance of linguistic and cross-cultural knowledge within America s armed forces in war and peace. The book is meant for general readers interested in World War II, as well as those with an interest in America's intelligence establishment and those fascinated by Japan and its relations with the United States. Based on extensive interviews with the language officers and on their wartime letters and unpublished memoirs, this history reveals how brains and a devotion to duty allowed these officers to learn an extraordinarily difficult language and use it to hasten Japan s defeat as well as to assist the transformation of the Japanese from enemy to friend of America. It is also, the author notes, a telling example of how empathy and cross-cultural understanding rather than brute force and coercion can lead to greater production of valuable intelligence and active collaboration.

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