Søgeresultater: 24

Summary: The first and only book to ever be written by a member of America's most secret military unit?an explosive and unlikely story of service and sacrifice. Inside our military is a team of operators whose work is so secretive that the name of the unit itself is classified. Highly-trained in warfare, self-defense, infiltration, and deep surveillance, "the Unit," as the Department of Defense has asked us to refer to it, has been responsible for preventing dozens of terrorist attacks in the Western world. Never before has a member of this unit shared their story — until now. From Adam Gamal, one of the only Muslim Arab Americans to serve inside "the Unit," comes an incisive firsthand account of our nation's most secretive military group. When Adam arrived in the United States at the age of twenty, he spoke no English, and at 5'1" and 112 pounds, he was far from what you might expect of a soldier. But compelled into service by a debt he felt he owed to his new country, he rose through the ranks of the military to become one of its most elite and skilled operators. With humor and humility, Adam shares stories of life-threatening injuries, of the camaraderie and capabilities of his team, and of the incredible missions?but also of the growth he experienced as he learned to understand his own moderate faith. Enthralling and eye-opening, The Unit is at once a gripping account of the fight against terror, an urgent examination of the need for diversity, and an inside look at how America fights its battles abroad in the modern age of terrorism. This edition includes a 16 page color photo insert

Summary: An Indie Next Pick! "A haunting, beautifully written celebration of found sisterhood." — Publishers Weekly , starred review "A fearless, engaging, and important memoir." — Library Journal , starred review "A gorgeously rendered peek behind the curtain of military life." — Booklist , starred review A captivating memoir that tells the story of one woman's experience of joining a community of army wives after leaving her New York City job—a profoundly intimate look at marriage, friendship, and today's America. When her new husband joins an elite Army unit, Simone Gorrindo is uprooted from New York City and dropped into Columbus, Georgia—a town so foreign she might as well have landed on the moon. With her husband frequently deployed, Simone is left to find her place in this new world, alone—until she meets the wives. Gorrindo gives us an intimate look into the inner lives of a remarkable group of women and a tender, unflinching portrait of a marriage. A love story, an unforgettable coming-of-age tale, and a bracing tour of the intractable divisions that plague our country today, The Wives offers a rare and powerful gift: a hopeful stitch in the fabric of a torn America

Summary: This new account explores the most notorious pirates in history and how their rise and fall can be traced back to a single pirate haven, Nassau. Angus Konstam, one of the world's leading pirate experts, has brought his 30 years of research to create the definitive book on the Golden Age of Piracy. Many of the privateers the British had used to prey on French and Spanish shipping during the War of the Spanish Succession turned to piracy. The pirates took over Nassau on the Bahamian island of New Providence and turned it into their own pirate haven, where shady merchants were happy to buy their plunder. It became the hub of a pirate network that included some of the most notorious pirates in history: Blackbeard, "Calico Jack" Rackam, Charles Vane and Bartholomew Roberts. The growth of piracy led to a major surge in attacks in the Caribbean and along North America's Atlantic seaboard. With the fragile maritime economy of the Americas threatened with collapse, major ports were threatened and trade brought to a standstill, the British government finally declared war on the pirates. The Pirate Menace draws on extensive research, as well as a wide range of first-hand accounts, to produce a new history of the heyday of historical piracy

Summary: 'Ugly' is the military callsign for the Apache attack helicopter. Getting Ugly is a memoir of the author's service flying close-support helicopters with the AAC, from patrolling 'Bandit Country' in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, in the late 1990s, to taking out Taliban fighters in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in the mid to late 2000s, with active service in the Balkans and Iraq along the way; he was decorated for rescuing other soldiers from a helicopter that had crashed and caught fire. The author, Steve Jones, was a WO1; that is, a warrant officer class 1, the highest rank of non-commissioned officer in the British Army, equivalent to a senior sergeant-major. He was also a qualified instructor on the Apache, and as such helped to teach Prince Harry - the then Lieutenant H. Wales - to fly and fight the aircraft. (Spoiler alert: 'A good soldier and a good man.')

Summary: From bestselling historian Saul David, a riveting new history of the British airborne experience across the Second World War. The legendary 'Red Devils' were among the finest combat troops of the Second World War. Created at Churchill's instigation in June 1940, they began as a single parachute battalion of 500 men and grew into three 10,000-strong airborne divisions: the 1st, 6th and 44th Indian, each composed of parachutists and glider-borne troops. Wearing their distinctive maroon berets, steel helmets and Dennison smocks, they served with distinction in every major theatre of the conflict – including North Africa, Sicily, mainland Europe and the Far East – and played a starring role in some most iconic airborne operations in history: the Bruneval Raid of February 1942; the capture of the Primasole, Pegasus and Arnhem Bridges in July 1943, June 1944 and September 1944 respectively; and Operation Varsity, the biggest parachute drop in history, near Wesel in Germany in March 1945

Summary: There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States.   Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.   Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency

Summary: We live in a dangerous world. And the stories of war and terrorism that fill our screens are brought to us by brave journalists who put their lives on the line. They will always face peril, but now they can work in much greater safety, thanks to the determination and dedication of one remarkable man. Tony Loughran's life has been all about risk - taking it, preventing it. He survived a tough childhood in working-class Liverpool, then joined the navy, where he excelled. Next came a career as an elite commando medic, a demanding role that required doctor-level training. He dealt with serious physical injury and a stint in Belfast left him with psychological scars. His life changed when he took responsibility for safety and security at the BBC. In his years with the world-famous broadcaster, Mr Death and Destruction, as he became known, revolutionised the protective gear and strategies used by foreign correspondents and introduced ground-breaking training that has saved many lives. Among much else, he provided the security for the notorious Martin Bashir interview with Princess Diana and protected Panorama journalists in Northern Ireland. Then came a new life in Australia and the establishment of his own security consultancy company, ZeroRisk International. The work is always challenging: investigating the deaths of well-known journalist John Schofield and cameraman Nazeh Darwazeh, escaping when he came close to being captured in Kabul, advising media during the Lindt Café siege and getting people out of Afghanistan when the Taliban returned. This page-turning, hard-to-put-down account of an extraordinary career is full of nail-biting excitement, engaging humour, compassion and brutal honesty. Once you read Zero Risk , the world will never seem quite the same again

Summary: The internationally bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a slow-burning crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fuelled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln's election and the Confederacy's shelling of Sumter – a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were 'so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them'. At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter's commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardour at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable – one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans. Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink – a dark reminder that we often don't see a cataclysm coming until it's too late

Summary: The Holocaust has given rise to many accounts of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the remarkable, untold story of 'Countess Janina Suchodolska', a Jewish woman named Janina Mehlberg who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by their country's Nazi occupiers. Janina Mehlberg operated in Lublin, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, 'the Countess' persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food, clothing and medicine for thousands more of the camp's prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned at Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, survived the war and eventually emigrated to the USA. Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg's own unpublished memoir, supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this extraordinary woman. They interweave Mehlberg's sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Unsparing yet inspiring, The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of selfless courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty, and a major addition to the history of the Holocaust

Summary: “Compelling . . . . Even those who know the details of Trump’s impeachment will find it chilling to hear them related by one of the event’s chief figures. . . . The story of an ordinary man placed in extraordinary circumstances who did the right thing.” — New York Times Book Review “Vindman reminds us of what genuine patriotism can look like. . . . Vindman’s regional knowledge allows him to unpack the reasons that so many Democrats thought Trump’s phone conversation should be the basis of the nation’s third presidential impeachment. In meticulous fashion, he details the stunning number of high-ranking officials—such as Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union—who were in on the game.” — Washington Post “An important book from a true patriot whose oath to the Constitution could not allow him to look away.” — Kirkus Reviews "Compelling." — Christian Science Monitor

Summary: #1 New York Times bestselling author Craig Whitlock's masterful account of one of the biggest public corruption scandals in American history—exposing how a charismatic Malaysian defense contractor bribed scores of high-ranking military officers, defrauded the US Navy of tens of millions of dollars, and jeopardized our nation's security. All the admirals in the US Navy knew Leonard Glenn Francis—either personally or by his legendary reputation. He was the larger-than-life defense contractor who greeted them on the pier whenever they visited ports in Asia, ready to show them a good time after weeks at sea while his company resupplied their ships and submarines. He was famed throughout the fleet for the gluttonous parties he hosted for officers: $1,000-per-person dinners at Asia's swankiest restaurants, featuring unlimited Dom Pérignon, Cuban cigars, and sexy young women. On the surface, with his flawless American accent, he seemed like a true friend of the Navy. What the brass didn't realize, until far too late, was that Francis had seduced them by exploiting their entitlement and hubris. While he was bribing them with gifts, lavish meals, and booze-fueled orgies, he was making himself obscenely wealthy by bilking American taxpayers. Worse, he was stealing military secrets from under the admirals' noses and compromising national security. Based on reams of confidential documents—including the blackmail files that Francis kept on Navy officers— Fat Leonard is the full, unvarnished story of a world-class con man and a captivating testament to the corrosive influence of greed within the ranks of the American military

Summary: From New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton comes the gripping, untold story of a vital s ecret mission set during the darkest days of the Second World War. In the dark days after the devastating Pearl Harbor attacks during the spring of 1942, the United States was determined to show the world that the Axis was not invincible. Their bold plan? Bomb Tokyo. On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25s, known as the Doolittle Raiders, hit targets across Japan before escaping to China. The eighth plane, however, did not follow the other raiders. Instead, Plane 8's pilots, Captain Edward "Ski" York and Lieutenant Bob Emmens, never attacked Tokyo, but headed across Japan to the Soviet Union, supposedly due to low fuel. Yet, this bomber was the only plane on the mission with maps of the Soviet Union aboard. And why did Plane 8's route, recently discovered in the Japanese Imperial Archives, show them nowhere near their target? Uncovered facts reveal that bombing Tokyo was merely a cover for Plane 8's real mission, but what was their secret objective? No one, aside from the two pilots and whomever sent them on this mission, truly knew why they were there, nor has the reason ever been revealed. Until now. In Vanishing Act, for the first time, New York Times bestselling author and former fighter pilot Dan Hampton definitively solves the final mystery of the Doolittle Raid with never-before-published documents and photographs in exclusive collaboration with Japanese researchers and the Raiders' descendants