Christina Preston is an American exchange student who has gone against the advice of her Texas billionaire father and decided to attend a prestigious college in Santa Marta, the capital of Magdalena, Colombia. But when masked gunmen storm the university tour bus en route to Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino on a cold October morning, she is kidnapped, shattering her dreams of becoming a research scientist. Mike Preston is devastated when he learns of his daughter?s fate and hires retired United States Navy Seal, John Bradley, to find Christina. Desperate, Preston also implores help from an influential Washington figure to exert pressure on Colombian authorities. After Bradley pledges to free Christina and make her captors pay, he heads to Colombia, traveling through jungles and swamps filled with venomous snakes and other hazards. But just when Bradley thinks he is getting somewhere, his efforts to find Christina are thwarted by radical guerrillas who have infiltrated the upper echelons of a key military establishment. While her father anxiously awaits news, now only time will tell if Bradley can overcome his obstacles in enough time to rescue Christina from a ruthless group of rebels. . In this gripping international tale, the daughter of a Texas billionaire is kidnapped in Colombia, leaving her future in the hands of a former Navy Seal.
WWII has broken out and the Japanese are sweeping down through the Pacific Islands towards Australia and are seemingly unstoppable. Utilising the specialised skills in tracking and bush survival Joe had learnt in his youth going walkabout with the aboriginals on his fathers 4 million acre cattle station in far north Western Australia, Joe is made an officer and put in command of a team of twelve highly trained men. These men are part of an elite force called the Australian Jungle Survival and Rescue Detachment. Their missions are to rescue any Allied airmen shot down by the enemy over New Guinea and surrounding Pacific islands. They are flown to the crash sites in a C47 transport plane with an escort of fighter planes, and under cover of night parachute into enemy held territory to search for and rescue any survivors, who they then take to the coast for extraction by submarine, seaplane or destroyer. Extract from novel...The night was so sultry and humid I could have cut it with a knife, and so dark it was impossible to see my hand in front of my face as I parachuted towards the invisible jungle somewhere two thousand feet below me. My chute was made from black silk and it was invisible against the night sky above me, and with no moon and stars to illuminate the night, I felt like I was falling down a bottomless, black well. The drone of the perfectly good aeroplane we had just jumped from was gradually diminishing into the distance, until the only sounds were the sigh and rush of wind passing through the many cords attached to the parachute. Somewhere above and behind me were twelve other men, my team of highly trained specialists in jungle warfare and survival, and in all likelihood experiencing the same emotions and trepidation as I was. Our mission was to locate and extract any survivors from a crashed American bomber that had been shot down by Japanese zeros yesterday. If any survivors were found, we would make our way to the coast for extraction by submarine that was hopefully heading towards the coordinates of the pickup point at this very moment. Since I had jumped from the C47 I had been mentally counting down the seconds, and with the jungle canopy now racing towards me at break neck speed, I braced myself as I stalled the parachute to lessen the impact of colliding with the trees and branches any second. As the sudden and violent impact drove the wind from my lungs I was unaware I had been holding my breath until I exhaled loudly. I tried to curl myself into a ball to avoid injuring myself as I fell through the tree canopy with a loud crash and crack of breaking branches and covered my face with one arm as I was whipped and slashed by the passing branches and leaves. The parachute finally became snagged in the high branches and I jerked to a sudden stop and hung suspended from my harness. I fumbled for the quick release catches on my pack strapped to my front and letting it fall listened intently for the sound of impact with the ground. Counting the seconds I was surprised to only count to five before I heard the dull thud. I was closer to the ground than I would have thought and thanked my lucky stars the chute got caught up just when it did. My next task was to release the chute harness and climb down the tree I was caught in without falling and injuring myself. I had a small torch in one of the pockets of my flak jacket and when I shone it around and below me, I saw what I was looking for. Just off to my right, and ten feet below, was a stout branch that I hoped would support my weight. I took a deep breath and then put the torch between my teeth before punching the quick release catch of my harness. As I fell the branch flashed past me and I grabbed at it with both hands and hung onto it tightly for dear life. My arms felt like they had been ripped from their sockets and I quickly swung a leg over the branch and hauled myself up onto it and sat astride it while I caught my breath and tried to calm my madly racing heart. I adjusted the straps securing the Sten gun to my chest then began to slide and pull myself along the branch to the trunk of the massive rainforest tree. Ten minutes later I was safely on the ground, none the worse for my descent except for some skin missing off my left knee, which must have happened when I first hit the branches plummeting through the canopy. I removed the gun from around my neck and cocking it held it at the ready as I shone the torch about in case I had fallen into the midst of a Japanese patrol, as had happened on one of my rescue missions several months ago. Luckily the six Japanese soldiers at the time were so startled and terrified by my sudden and noisy appearance from above, I had been able to quickly despatch them with my machine gun before they could even get a shot off. Luckily I was alone, and breathing a sigh of relief I then searched for my survival pack with my spare ammunition, medical kit, water and food rations. Quickly locating it near the trunk, I put it on my back then pulled my compass out from beneath my shirt. I always hung it from my neck on a strong piece of leather thonging so I didnt lose it, as it would be easy to get hopelessly lost in the dense jungle, especially when it was overcast. From the coordinates sent out to base by the radio operator of the mortally hit bomber, I knew I had to maintain a course of 280 degrees from my location, and walk for at least a mile or so before hopefully finding the wrecked plane and any survivors. But first I had to find all of my team members before beginning the search. That was usually a difficult and time-consuming task, as we would be scattered across the jungle in a long line. We had a method of finding each other that had worked perfectly on the hundreds of missions we had so far accomplished. We each had a small, round, tin fox-whistle hanging from the dog tags around our necks, and when it was blown it made the sound of a rabbit in distress. To the enemy it would be just another of the hundreds of animal noises to be heard in the jungle at night, but to us it was like a beacon in the night as the shrill, distinctive sound carried a long way.
Join the PAW Patrol in this action-packed adventure that comes with Chase's spyglass viewer pre loaded with six images that work with the story! Uh-oh! A pet parrot has gone missing and the PAW Patrol must scour the jungle to find him. So grab your spy scope and get ready to help the pups on this ruff ruff rescue! Whether they are searching on land or in the air, the PAW Patrol is always ready for action.
Josh finds a mysterious stone capable of transporting him and his siblings back in time. In the series opener, the Time Stone sends the crew deep into the Mayan jungle where the darkness isn't just caused by the heavy, lush hungle foliage. They soon learn they are there for a reason - to rescue a young girl who is forced to live her life in service to a pagan god. Kids will love the adventure and the quirky characteristics of this unlikely band of spiritual warriors.
Get ready to join these courageous canines on two exciting adventures! With the PAW Patrol Movie Theater Storybook & Movie Projector, all the action and energy of the popular animated TV show is re-created right in your child’s room! First, the team solves a fishy mystery on Cap'n Turbot's boat in “Pups Save the Penguins.” Then, journey to the jungle as the PAW Patrol chases a mischievous monkey all the way to a cursed temple in “Pups’ Jungle Trouble!” Children will marvel as they read along with the stories while projecting the thrilling images onto a wall. PAW Patrol is on a roll!
The uplifting true story of an extreme athlete, a stray dog, and how they found each other. “Heroic and heartwarming” (Forbes), this unbelievable adventure will make readers laugh, gasp, cry, and see rescue dogs with a whole new perspective. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MARK WAHLBERG—STREAMING ON STARZ When you're racing 435 miles through the jungles and mountains of South America, the last thing you need is a stray dog tagging along. But that's exactly what happened to Mikael Lindnord, captain of a Swedish adventure racing team, when he threw a scruffy but dignified mongrel a meatball one afternoon. When the team left the next day, the dog followed. Try as they might, they couldn't lose him—and soon Mikael realized that he didn't want to. Crossing rivers, battling illness and injury, and struggling through some of the toughest terrain on the planet, the team and the dog walked, kayaked, cycled, and climbed together toward the finish line, where Mikael decided he would save the dog, now named Arthur, and bring him back to his family in Sweden, whatever it took. Illustrated with candid photographs, Arthur provides a testament to the amazing bond between dogs and people.
In "Out of Captivity, " Gonsalves, Stansell, and Howes recount for the first time their amazing tale of survival, friendship, and, ultimately, rescue, tracing their five and a half years as hostages of the FARC--a Colombian terrorist and Marxist rebel organization.
Beginning with the birth of combat aircraft in World War I and the early attempts to rescue warriors trapped behind enemy lines, Leave No Man Behind chronicles in depth nearly one hundred years of combat search and rescue (CSAR). All major U.S. combat operations from World War II to the early years of the Iraq War are covered, including previously classified missions and several Medal-of-Honor-winning operations. Authors George Galdorisi and Tom Phillips (both veteran U.S. Navy helicopter pilots) highlight individual acts of heroism while telling the big-picture story of the creation and development of modern CSAR. Although individual missions have their successes and failures, CSAR, as an institution, would seem beyond reproach, an obvious necessity. The organizational history of CSAR, however, is not entirely positive. The armed services, particularly the U.S. Air Force and Navy, have a tendency to cut CSAR at the end of a conflict, leaving no infrastructure prepared for the next time that the brave men and women of our armed forces find themselves behind enemy lines. The final chapter has not yet been written for U.S. combat search and rescue, but in view of the life-saving potential of these forces, an open and forthright review of U.S. military CSAR plans and policies is long overdue. Beyond the exciting stories of heroic victories and heartrending defeats, Leave No Man Behind stimulates debate on this important subject.
