military

I was looking for a mystery for this month’s Mystery Boot Camp, and I came across Alpha, the kind of book I love to read—suspense/thriller. Jad Bell, an experienced Delta Force operative, has been in many tough and dangerous situations fighting “bad guys.”  Tracking the whisper of a large scale threat, Jad goes undercover at a theme park. At first, it seems like just another assignment, gathering information and waiting for the word to go into action. Then he finds out that his ex-wife and daughter will be at the park on a field trip. Is it a set-up? Could anyone possibly have known that he

I became fascinated with Blackwater as I heard so much about the connection between the Administration and this private company’s relationship and lucrative contract with the United States.

This is a story of a government hiring contractors to do much of what the military does, but for a much larger salary. It gives several stories of the competitive nature of the contractors’ hiring and the search for foreign mercenaries to supplement the contractor rosters. The main subject, of course, is Blackwater and the controversy surrounding the first of contract companies to go to Iraq. It reveals

Robert Gates provides a thorough, no-holds-barred accounting of his 4 ½ years as Secretary of Defense – 2 years under George Bush and 2 ½ years under Barack Obama.   I was most interested to read his thoughts about our current president and, potentially, a future president (Hilary Clinton).  Although Gates and Obama had their differences, he describes Obama as “presidential,” a man of personal integrity with whom he developed a strong relationship, one in which they “largely saw eye to eye”.

For Hillary Clinton, Gates has only the highest praise: “Before she joined the Obama administration

When reading a Mary Roach book, always bring a strong stomach and a sense of humor. Grunt, Roach’s bestselling follow-up to Gulp, is filled with anecdotes about pretty much every aspect of military science that you can imagine. Inside you’ll find a chapter on failed shark repellents, another on surviving IEDs through science, one on stink bombs and weaponized odors, and another where the author offered herself up as a guinea pig to have her sweat collected and analyzed. When covering the horrifying topics of amputations and urogenital wounds, she retains her humor while not being disrespectful

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Lutrell

A gripping read, this is the true story of a military operation in Afghanistan that went terribly awry. Lone Survivor recounts the details of a mission to capture an al Qaeda leader who was working with the Taliban in a remote region of Afghanistan. Four members of a Navy SEAL team were sent in to perform the mission. They were ambushed by a Taliban force consisting of at least 150 men. Though vastly outnumbered, the team members heroically fought off their attackers. Marcus

James R. Hannibal’s novel titled Shadow Catcher reads like a Clancy thriller.

Nick Baron is an Air Force Major in charge of a failed B-2 stealth bomber mission that lands the fighter jet at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Nick leads his Triple Chase team to find and dispose of the lost bomber before the enemy can get their hands on it.

Danger lurks around the corner as a US soldier sends a distress signal from the deep interior region of China, another far off country.  The only plane that can handle this mission is the Shadow Catcher, a highly-equipped, state of the art fighter plane.

In this ebook exclusive, we go back to Georgia in 1989. An officer is shot on a deserted road, and while local police have a suspect in custody, MP Jack Reacher is assigned the case. Newly assigned to his post the same day, this case will be a test for Reacher. The murdered officer, Army Lt. Colonel Caroline Crawford, is an up-and-coming young woman, a hotshot in military circles. Reacher wonders how he'll accomplish anything with the staff he's tasked to oversee, so he calls in Frances Neagley to assist his investigation. Reacher and Neagley will have to work with local Georgia police, the

“To those trained in Explosive Ordinance Disposal, the last-resort tactic for defusing bombs is known as the Long Walk: a soldier dealing with the device up close, alone, with no margin for error.” Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit in Iraq where he earned a Bronze Star. He speaks with candor about the excruciating trauma of war, the daily battles against a constant and unknown hidden danger, the likelihood of death around every corner, and finally his return home to his wife and family. Diagnosed