USMC Camp Pendleton, 1951. Jackson Joseph MacKenzie, a seventeen-year-old with a calling, enlists in the US Army. He finds himself hip-deep in the muddy trenches, machine gun nests, human wave attacks, and artillery barrages in the Korean War. Does he have the resiliency to keep moving toward his dream after watching his friends die? Is he a leader or a follower? Will he fold under pressure? Or rise to the top? Questions he must answer before reaching for that coveted prize, an appointment to West Point.
Born into a well-off but strict family, eighteen-year-old Dakota Blackwater doesn’t appreciate his father’s plan for him. He wants to find his path through life and chase his own dreams. Instead of taking the easy road, he rebels, enlists in the US Army, and goes to war in a place foreign to him – Vietnam. He finds this choice may be the more difficult one, learning the pain of death, not only of his friends but his own hands. Will he keep his morality or slide down the rabbit hole of hate?
Duty. Honor. Country. The motto by which Major Harry Russell lived as a United States Army Special Forces officer. How does he move forward when his entire life has been turned on its head? Everything Harry worked toward all his life is gone. Gone like his foot in a nighttime mortar attack. Gone like his career since the Army kicked him out as worthless dead weight. Gone like his friends, missing on a secret mission. All he has now is himself. And as a Vietnam veteran, that may not be enough.
Major Frank Howard. Doctor. Surgeon. Army officer. 1971. At the 95th Evacuation Hospital, Da Nang, South Vietnam, he learns there is a difference in the moral code of war and peace. A conflict between a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath and his duty as a soldier. To allow some to live while others die. A balance depending on varying factors. Would he lose his soul, trying to live with his wartime decisions, stuck between the fluctuating moral compass of the military and civilian world?
War – What happens to the soldiers who fight them? Do they just go home and ride off into the sunset? Do they return to their families and a normal life? Or do they have an internal war? Trying to come to terms with what happened to them and their buddies in a war that no one wanted. Scars made not only outside but inside. Called baby killer, murderer and so many others vile names. Ignored and sometimes abused by the very system they gave their oath and sometimes their lives to protect. Lt. Colonel Jackson MacKenzie is one of those men. He gave all on many occasions and nearly gave his life to honor his oath and the men with which he served in Korea and Vietnam. Only to be betrayed by those above him. Those who know the truth but refuse to come forward. Honor, Duty, Country, Loyalty aren’t just words to him. They are his life. His problem, does he follow his heart and stand by his duty or disappear into his mind and let his demons take over? His other choice, live the rest of his life as a simple cowboy hiding out on a cattle ranch in Montana? It is a decision both hard and easy. And one he has to make or lose himself entirely.
War – What happens to the soldiers who fight them? Do they just go home and ride off into the sunset? Do they return to their families and a normal life? Or do they have an internal war? Trying to come to terms with what happened to them and their buddies in a war that no one wanted. Scars made not only outside but inside. Called baby killer, murderer and so many other vile names. Ignored and sometimes abused by the very system they gave their oath and sometimes their lives to protect. Lt. Colonel Jackson MacKenzie is one of those men. He gave all on many occasions and nearly gave his life to honor his oath and the men with which he served in Korea and Vietnam. Only to be betrayed by those above him. Those who know the truth but refuse to come forward. Honor, Duty, Country, Loyalty aren’t just words to him. They are his life. His problem, does he follow his heart and stand by his duty or disappear into his mind and let his demons take over? His other choice, live the rest of his life as a simple cowboy hiding out on a cattle ranch in Montana? It is a decision both hard and easy. And one he has to make or lose himself entirely.
Jackson MacKenzie’s life is about to change. After retiring a second time, the Marine Corps general takes his wife on an ocean adventure as a homecoming to renew their marriage vows. But he never expected what would happen next. He finds himself hip-deep in international intrigue. Who is after him? The Russian GRU, the FSB, maybe even someone closer to home. Will he be able to save his family, his friends, and himself? Or will the villains defeat him in the end? And he joins the fallen at Arlington.
Cathy Alexander’s journey began with a dream of becoming a doctor, but when she joined the Army and was sent to Vietnam, her dream quickly becomes a nightmare. As a nurse at the 95th Evac Hospital, she witnesses the brutal realities of war. She perseveres and graduates from medical school. Despite her achievements, the Vietnam War left a lasting mark on her psyche. She must confront the memories she’s been trying to forget. Will she overcome her past and find a way to move forward? "Angel’s book is a vivid depiction of the horrors of war. You find yourself drawn in from the very first page. Her character development puts you right inside their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Angel writes so you feel the intensity of the battles, the despair of the wounded as well as the survivors who process the guilt of surviving." - Patti Hendrix, Nurse, 85th Evac Hospital
American Military History provides the United States Army-in particular, its young officers, NCOs, and cadets-with a comprehensive but brief account of its past. The Center of Military History first published this work in 1956 as a textbook for senior ROTC courses. Since then it has gone through a number of updates and revisions, but the primary intent has remained the same. Support for military history education has always been a principal mission of the Center, and this new edition of an invaluable history furthers that purpose. The history of an active organization tends to expand rapidly as the organization grows larger and more complex. The period since the Vietnam War, at which point the most recent edition ended, has been a significant one for the Army, a busy period of expanding roles and missions and of fundamental organizational changes. In particular, the explosion of missions and deployments since 11 September 2001 has necessitated the creation of additional, open-ended chapters in the story of the U.S. Army in action. This first volume covers the Army's history from its birth in 1775 to the eve of World War I. By 1917, the United States was already a world power. The Army had sent large expeditionary forces beyond the American hemisphere, and at the beginning of the new century Secretary of War Elihu Root had proposed changes and reforms that within a generation would shape the Army of the future. But world war-global war-was still to come. The second volume of this new edition will take up that story and extend it into the twenty-first century and the early years of the war on terrorism and includes an analysis of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq up to January 2009.
A James Patterson Presents novel Only those from the most powerful magical families can attend Blackwater Academy, but new student Alka has them fooled. Now it's time to take down the oppressive wizard ruling class from the inside. Alka Chelrazi is on a mission: 1. Infiltrate Blackwater Academy 2. Win the Great Game 3. Burn Wizard society to the ground As a child, Alka witnessed her parents' brutal murder at the hands of Wizards before she was taken in by an underground rebel group. Now, Alka is deep under cover at the most prestigious school of magic in the Republic: Blackwater Academy, a place where status is everything, where decadent galas end in blood-splattered duels, where every student has their own agenda. To survive, Alka will have to lie, cheat, and kill to use every trick in her spy's toolkit. And for the first time in her life, the fiercely independent Alka will have to make friends, to recruit the misfits and the outcasts into her motley rebellion. But even as she draws closer to victory—to vengeance —she sinks deeper into danger as suspicious professors and murderous rivals seek the traitor in their midst, as dark revelations unravel her resolve. Can Alka destroy the twisted game... without becoming a part of it?
