A smart and surprising political inventory for how America can reunite and revitalize in a time of crisis. Written by an admired leader of the Republican party, Rally Point: Five Tasks to Unite the Country and Revitalize the American Dream looks past the 2016 election, past the finger pointing and conventional political thinking, to focus on clear, primary principles that conservatives must debate and defend to protect the future of America. Raised in a working-class family in upstate New York, the first in his family to go to college, paid for in part by his service in the National Guard, Chris Gibson rose from Private to Colonel in the Army, including combat command in the storied 82nd Airborne Division. RALLY POINT is his story: what he's learned from the "School of Hard Knocks" and how he's applied those precious life lessons during his service in Iraq and in Congress. Drawn from a deep appreciation of history and American exceptionalism, Gibson provides incisive and frank analysis of the current political environment, including President Trump, and provides a roadmap based on time-tested Founding principles to help unite our country and revitalize the American Dream. RALLY POINT is a thoughtful, compelling, enjoyable read - a must for serious-minded Americans looking for answers in this challenging political environment.
When an EMP over the eastern third of the US knocks out the power grid and disables cars near the detonation point, it takes a while for people to realize this is bigger than a normal power outage. But Sue and her family acted right away. Sue was 2,000 miles from their home in Montana. She was on a cross-country bicycle trip with a friend, and immediately headed for home. Her story is told in the book "The Long Ride Home". In this book, "The Rally Point: Bugging Home", read about Sue's husband, Walter, who readies things at home and prepares for the kids and grandkids to arrive, while worrying about Sue. The kids had humored their parents by making bug-out plans, and now they put them into action. They make their way to the rally point at the family homestead, arriving by car, truck, horse, motorcycle, bicycle, or on foot. When plans went askew, they relied on back-up plans or quick thinking to keep moving toward their goal: Home!Written as a sequel to "The Long Ride Home", this is also a stand-alone book.
Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From an award-winning journalist at The Atlantic, these searing essays make a powerful case that “real hope lies not in a sunny nostalgia for American greatness but in seeing this history plain—in all of its brutality, unadorned by euphemism” (The New York Times). NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • “No writer better demonstrates how American dreams are so often sabotaged by American history. Adam Serwer is essential.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates To many, our most shocking political crises appear unprecedented—un-American, even. But they are not, writes The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer in this prescient essay collection, which dissects the most devastating moments in recent memory to reveal deeply entrenched dynamics, patterns as old as the country itself. The January 6 insurrection, anti-immigrant sentiment, and American authoritarianism all have historic roots that explain their continued power with or without President Donald Trump—a fact borne out by what has happened since his departure from the White House. Serwer argues that Trump is not the cause, he is a symptom. Serwer’s phrase “the cruelty is the point” became among the most-used descriptions of Trump’s era, but as this book demonstrates, it resonates across centuries. The essays here combine revelatory reporting, searing analysis, and a clarity that’s bracing. In this new, expanded version of his bestselling debut, Serwer elegantly dissects white supremacy’s profound influence on our political system, looking at the persistence of the Lost Cause, the past and present of police unions, the mythology of migration, and the many faces of anti-Semitism. In so doing, he offers abundant proof that our past is present and demonstrates the devastating costs of continuing to pretend it’s not. The Cruelty Is the Point dares us, the reader, to not look away.
Over 5,300 total pages .... MARINE RECON Reconnaissance units are the commander’s eyes and ears on the battlefield. They are task organized as a highly trained six man team capable of conducting specific missions behind enemy lines. Employed as part of the Marine Air- Ground Task Force, reconnaissance teams provide timely information to the supported commander to shape and influence the battlefield. The varying types of missions a Reconnaissance team conduct depends on how deep in the battle space they are operating. Division Reconnaissance units support the close and distant battlespace, while Force Reconnaissance units conduct deep reconnaissance in support of a landing force. Common missions include, but are not limited to: Plan, coordinate, and conduct amphibious-ground reconnaissance and surveillance to observe, identify, and report enemy activity, and collect other information of military significance. Conduct specialized surveying to include: underwater reconnaissance and/or demolitions, beach permeability and topography, routes, bridges, structures, urban/rural areas, helicopter landing zones (LZ), parachute drop zones (DZ), aircraft forward operating sites, and mechanized reconnaissance missions. When properly task organized with other forces, equipment or personnel, assist in specialized engineer, radio, and other special reconnaissance missions. Infiltrate mission areas by necessary means to include: surface, subsurface and airborne operations. Conduct Initial Terminal Guidance (ITG) for helicopters, landing craft, parachutists, air-delivery, and re-supply. Designate and engage selected targets with organic weapons and force fires to support battlespace shaping. This includes designation and terminal guidance of precision-guided munitions. Conduct post-strike reconnaissance to determine and report battle damage assessment on a specified target or area. Conduct limited scale raids and ambushes. Just a SAMPLE of the included publications: BASIC RECONNAISSANCE COURSE PREPARATION GUIDE RECONNAISSANCE (RECON) TRAINING AND READINESS (T&R) MANUAL RECONNAISSANCE REPORTS GUIDE GROUND RECONNAISSANCE OPERATIONS GROUND COMBAT OPERATIONS Supporting Arms Observer, Spotter and Controller DEEP AIR SUPPORT SCOUTING AND PATROLLING Civil Affairs Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures MAGTF Intelligence Production and Analysis Counterintelligence Close Air Support Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) Convoy Operations Handbook TRAINING SUPPORT PACKAGE FOR: CONVOY SURVIVABILITY Convoy Operations Battle Book Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Training, Planning and Executing Convoy Operations Urban Attacks
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This is history at its most immediate and moving…A marvelous and memorable book.” —Jon Meacham “Remarkable…A priceless civic gift…On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken.” —The Wall Street Journal “Visceral...I repeatedly cried…This book captures the emotions and unspooling horror of the day.” —NPR “Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat…There’s been a lot written about 9/11, but nothing like this. I urge you to read it.” —Katie Couric The first comprehensive oral history of September 11, 2001—a panoramic narrative woven from the voices of Americans on the front lines of an unprecedented national trauma. Over the past eighteen years, monumental literature has been published about 9/11, from Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower, which traced the rise of al-Qaeda, to The 9/11 Commission Report, the government’s definitive factual retrospective of the attacks. But one perspective has been missing up to this point—a 360-degree account of the day told through the voices of the people who experienced it. Now, in The Only Plane in the Sky, award-winning journalist and bestselling historian Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet. Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York City, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker underneath the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard the small number of unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United Flight 93 make the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then, as the day moves forward and flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid. More than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies, The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father and son working in the North Tower, caught on different ends of the impact zone; the firefighter searching for his wife who works at the World Trade Center; the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs last rites for the dying, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; and the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try to rescue their colleagues. At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of the men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama. The result is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives.
COMBAT HUNTER TRAINER COURSE Purpose: The purpose of the Combat Hunter Trainer Course is to produce a Marine capable of training a more ethically minded, tactically cunning, and situational aware Marine capable of proactively identifying threats in any environment. Scope: The Combat Hunter Trainer Course enhances the safety and security of Marines across the range of military operations, whether in garrison, on liberty, or on the battlefield. Marines are trained to observe and recognize human behaviors, patterns and trends that are indicative of a threat and to act on that threat quickly and decisively through an improved and matured decision-making process. The Marine receives training in planning, conducting, and evaluating training events to include classes on small unit training and unit training management. Combat Hunter training includes Introduction to Combat Hunter, Observation Devices, Criminal and Insurgent Networks, Decision Cycle, Enhanced Observation, KIM Technique, Introduction to Profiling, Heuristics, Profiling Domains, Terrorist Planning Cycle, Tactical Questioning, Analyze and Interpret Spoor, Individual Actions in a Tracking Team, Track Exploitation, Leading a Tracking Team, and Tactical Site Exploitation. DEFINITION AND MISSION OF THE COMBAT HUNTER. A combat hunter selects, uses, and maximizes the appropriate optics available to see objects and events, both hidden and distant. These optics range from the naked eye to advanced optical systems. A combat hunter, through attention to detail, establishes a baseline of an environment and detects the anomalies located within that environment. A combat hunter tracks humans and vehicles by reading the natural terrain. He pursues an armed enemy and gathers data that may suggest the enemy’s action and intent. The combat hunter is the creation of a mindset through the integration of enhanced observation, combat profiling, and combat tracking. This mindset will enable Marines to locate, close with, and destroy an elusive enemy that hides among the population and uses asymmetric tactics to attack our forces. By utilizing enhanced observation, combat profiling, and combat tracking, a Marine is more lethal, survivable, and tactically cunning. He becomes a force multiplier to his unit’s operations. OBSERVATION. Observation begins with the gathering and processing of information obtained through the senses. The five sensory systems are sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste that allow information to be collected from the environment. Perception is the process that the mind uses to organize the sensory information into an understandable interpretation of the environment. Central to all these skills is a critically-thinking Marine whose decisions can be affected by numerous factors, both external and internal. The Marine refines his decision making capabilities by understanding the decision cycle process and his awareness of the physical and biological responses he goes through when faced with a dynamic situation. Refining these skills and understanding the effects they have on his mind and body make him more capable and more lethal.
