Beyond Hell and Back
Beyond Hell and Back

Author: Dwight Jon Zimmerman

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2013-12-03

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1466858427

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An inside look at seven of the most harrowing and significant Special Operations missions ever. Courage beyond reason. Loyalty beyond faith. Perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity. These are just some of the qualities of the members of the U.S. Special Operation Forces. BEYOND HELL AND BACK details the seven defining Special Ops missions that have made the Special Operation Forces the best fighting unit in the world, including: *THE RESCUE OF BAT-21: The largest and longest Combat Search and Rescue mission in the Vietnam War lasted 17 days and cost the lives of 13 Americans—all to rescue one man and the invaluable knowledge he alone possessed. * TASK FORCE NORMANDY: Planned in secrecy and executed with flawless efficiency, Task Force Normandy was an Army/Air Force Special Operations joint op that fired the opening shots behind enemy lines in Operation Desert Storm. *OPERATION EAGLE CLAW: The devastating Special Forces operation mounted to retrieve 52 American hostages in Iran resulted in the deaths of eight members of the rescue team. This failure ultimately led to the creation of Special Operations Command. *BASHER 52: Captain Scott O'Grady was shot down over the "no fly" zone above Bosnia, and his daring rescue was one of the Marine Corps' finest operations ever. These are a few of the dramatic true tales that represent the defining moments that helped shape the operational methods, planning, and deployment for all future Special Ops missions. BEYOND HELL AND BACK is the greatest collection of Spec Ops missions ever assembled.

War Made New
War Made New

Author: Max Boot

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-10-19

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13: 1101216832

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A monumental, groundbreaking work, now in paperback, that shows how technological and strategic revolutions have transformed the battlefield Combining gripping narrative history with wide-ranging analysis, War Made New focuses on four "revolutions" in military affairs and describes how inventions ranging from gunpowder to GPS-guided air strikes have remade the field of battle—and shaped the rise and fall of empires. War Made New begins with the Gunpowder Revolution and explains warfare's evolution from ritualistic, drawn-out engagements to much deadlier events, precipitating the rise of the modern nation-state. He next explores the triumph of steel and steam during the Industrial Revolution, showing how it powered the spread of European colonial empires. Moving into the twentieth century and the Second Industrial Revolution, Boot examines three critical clashes of World War II to illustrate how new technology such as the tank, radio, and airplane ushered in terrifying new forms of warfare and the rise of centralized, and even totalitarian, world powers. Finally, Boot focuses on the Gulf War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iraq War—arguing that even as cutting-edge technologies have made America the greatest military power in world history, advanced communications systems have allowed decentralized, "irregular" forces to become an increasingly significant threat.

Bandits Over Baghdad
Bandits Over Baghdad

Author: Warren Thompson

Publisher: Voyageur Press (MN)

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13:

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Subtitled: Personal Stories of Flying the F-117 Over Iraq. Fascinating accounts taken from pilots who flew the F-117 Nighthawk into the "mother of all battles" and returned without a scratch on their aircraft. Included are accounts of evading Iraqi fighters during the early days, fears of the "Golden BB," incredible secondary explosions, and reselection of targets well after the release of a guided bomb. Contains maps and full color images of special squadron emblems and Desert Storm Deployment patches. Hdbd., 6"x 9", 216 pgs., 107 b&w ill., 29 color.

War in a Time of Peace
War in a Time of Peace

Author: David Halberstam

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 554

ISBN-13: 0743202120

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"Halberstam evokes the internecine conflicts, the untrammeled egos, and the struggles for dominance among the key figures in the White House, the State Department, and the military.

Bandits Over Baghdad
Bandits Over Baghdad

Author: Warren E. Thompson

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9781857801132

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Provides insight into a high-tech war as seen through the eyes of the pilots who flew the black jets into the heart of Baghdad. Included are technical facts and details of the Lockheed F-117, better known as the stealth fighter, making this one of the most comprehensive books on the role of the Nighthawk in Desert Storm. For military aviation enthusiasts.

Stealth Fighter
Stealth Fighter

Author: William B. O'Connor

Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA

Published: 2012-04-15

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 1610584333

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The F-117 Stealth Nighthawk was a truly groundbreaking aircraft when introduced in the early 1980s. The strange shape of the jet, all flat panels and angles, rendered the aircraft nearly invisible to radar. This highly classified program wasn’t acknowledged publicly by the U.S. Air Force until 1988. The Nighthawk was retired in 2008 after twenty-five years of service, including bombing missions over Panama, Iraq during both Gulf Wars, andYugoslavia during the Kosovo war. Brad O’Connor flew the Nighthawk during the NATO bombing campaign over Kosovo in 1999. His first-person experience puts the reader in the cockpit of this revolutionary combat aircraft. From his F-117 assignment through training, deployment, mission planning, and combat flights, O’Connor relates the day-to-day life of a pilot in the world’s first stealth fighter.

When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad
When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad

Author: Mona Yahia

Publisher: Halban Publishers

Published: 2011-10-10

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 190555933X

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In Baghdad, Lina is trying to lead a normal life, but politics keep intruding. Violent government coups are almost annual events and it's difficult for a child to understand what's going on or who to believe. The need for secrecy means Lina cannot tell her best friend that they are just waiting for the right moment to flee. It is the 1960s and Lina is part of the dwindling Jewish community... Mona Yahia was born in Baghdad in 1954 and escaped with her family to Israel in 1970. In 1985 she moved to Germany to study fine arts and has remained there ever since. Winner of the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize for Fiction 2001 'Yahia rolls Baghdad around her tongue, savouring its suks, smells, and sweetmeats (reading her makes one hungry). This is a truly exotic novel, but it's also a coming-of-age work in which the almost imperceptible transformation from childhood to adolescence is saltily observed and never sentimentalised. Yahia's prose courses with insight and wit. Her deftness of touch means that, despite its subject-matter, this novel never becomes a bleak tale of religious persecution, but remains a fresh story about adolescent experience in adversity - with parallels in the most unlikely places.' Anne Karpf, The Guardian 'The novel powerfully conveys the author's outrage, as well as her nostalgia for her native land.' The Times 'Yahia's writing evokes both the sensuality of domestic intimacy...alongside the horror of public hangings...When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad is most politically sophisticated, and also most poignant, when it explores questions of language and identity.' Alev Adil, Times Literary Supplement

Eye of the Viper
Eye of the Viper

Author: Peter Aleshire

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2005-11-01

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1599217228

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Hand-picked, pressure-tested, and full of astronaut gung ho, the young pilots of Eye of the Viper are poised for the toughest assignment of their career: the exhaustive six-month training course at Arizona's Luke Air Force Base, at a cost of $2 million each. Luke, the world's largest fighter wing, is the only F-16 fighter training base in the United States, and each year it produces one thousand pilots who will fly the F-16 from Korea to Afghanistan to Iraq. But being among the elite pilots who are selected for the course is by no means a guarantee that they will earn the right to fly the F-16. Only a few select individuals will have what it takes. Award-winning journalist Peter Aleshire provides a full blast of the rigors and intensity of the course--the personalities, the incredible machines, the irreverence, the bravado, and the toughness, not only of the hand-picked students seeking a place in the warrior subculture, but of the veteran pilots who must teach them how to stay alive.

F-117 Stealth Fighter Units of Operation Desert Storm
F-117 Stealth Fighter Units of Operation Desert Storm

Author: Warren Thompson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-11-20

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1782006796

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The history and combat experience of the most secretive plane ever built, illustrated with stunning colour photographs of the plane as it stalked the skies above Iraq. During the final years of the 20th century, the most significant break-through in military weaponry was the concept of Stealth technology, and the first mass-produced weapon to utilize this to perfection was the F-117 Nighthawk. Originally delivered in 1982, its existence was officially denied until the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, when it entered the public spotlight over the skies of Baghdad. Illustrated with stunning color photographs of the F-117 above Iraq, and complemented by numerous personal accounts from the pilots themselves, this book explores the most classified aircraft ever constructed.