Most war narratives suffer from a fatal flaw: readers know how they end. But the story of Hammer 4, Combat Replacement Platoon of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, Lima Company, isn't about inevitable victory or defeat-it's about survival, brotherhood, and the absurd simplicity of war's daily reality.These replacement Marines, overlooked and unheralded, fought through Iraq's battlegrounds not for glory or country, but for each other. Hailing from different corners of America, they forged...

In The Finishing School, former Navy SEAL Dick Couch, author of the acclaimed Warrior Elite, follows SEALs on the ground and in the water as they undergo SEAL Tactical Training.In America’s new war, the first guns in the fight are special operations forces, including the Navy SEALs, specially trained warriors who operate with precision, swiftness, and lethal force. In the constantly shifting war on terror, SEAL units—small in number, flexible, ste...

IN combating terror, America can no longer depend on its conventional military superiority and the use of sophisticated technology. We are fighting guerrilla wars, against insurgents hidden in remote regions, often deep among the local population. In battles such as these, squadrons of billion-dollar bombers and naval fleets mean much less than on-the-ground intelligence and the ability to organize local forces. That’s why, more than ever before, we need men like those of the Army Special ...

After graduating from Princeton, Donovan Campbell wanted to give back to his country, engage in the world, and learn to lead. So he joined the service, becoming a commander of a forty-man infantry platoon called Joker One. Campbell had just months to train and transform a ragtag group of brand-new Marines into a first-rate cohesive fighting unit, men who would become his family. They were assigned to Ramadi, the capital of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province that was an exp...

A riveting true story of tank warfare in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm under the command of Captain H. R. McMaster.As a new generation of main battle tanks came onto the line during the 1980s, neither the United States nor the USSR had the chance to pit them in combat. But once the Cold War between the superpowers waned, Iraq's Saddam Hussein provided the chance with his invasion of Kuwait. Finally the new US M1A1 tank would see how it fared against the vaunted...

“No matter how skilled the writer of nonfiction, you are always getting the story secondhand. Here’s a chance to go right to the source. . . . These men were there.”–MARK BOWDEN (from the Foreword)It started as a mission to capture a Somali warlord. It turned into a disastrous urban firefight and death-defying rescue operation that shocked the world and rattled a great nation. Now the 1993 battle for Mogadishu, Somalia–the incident that was the basis of the book and film

Both a uniquely intimate look at what makes a sniper tick and a harrowing read filled with dramatic war tales, Trigger Men is a book about killing and what it takes to be the ultimate warrior.Hans Halberstadt takes readers deeper inside the elusive world of snipers than ever before, from recruitment and training to the brutality of the killing fields. Mixed into the thrilling narrative, for the first time ever in their own words, American combat snipers ta...

Sua SponteLatin for “Of Their Own Accord”The 75th Ranger Regiment’s MottoArmy Rangers are not born. They are made. The modern 75th Ranger Regiment represents the culmination of 250 years of American soldiering. As a fighting force with our nation’s oldest and deepest tradition, the Regiment traces its origins to Richard Rogers’s Rangers during the prerevolutionary French and Indian War, through the likes of Francis Ma...

One bomb hit the Japanese carrier Akagi amidships, ripping through the hangar deck and exploding amidst the stored torpedoes, carelessly stowed bombs and refuelling tanks, setting off secondary explosions. A second set the planes on the flight deck ablaze. The stern was shattered, the rudder useless and, as the huge ship lurched drunkenly around, Japanese officers begged the stunned admiral to abandon the blazing hulk...Read about the dramatic Battle of Midway in the Pacific Ocean ...

An in-depth look at the United States Marine Corps-in the New York Times bestselling tradition of Submarine, Armored Cav, and Fighter WingOnly the best of the best can be Marines. And only Tom Clancy can tell their story--thefascinating real-life facts more compelling than any fiction. Clancy presents a uniqueinsider's look at the most hallowed branch of the Armed Forces, and the men and women...

In Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Marine Corps’ ground campaign up the Tigris and Euphrates was notable for speed and aggressiveness unparalleled in military history. Little has been written, however, of the air support that guaranteed the drive’s success. Paving the way for the rush to Baghdad was “the hammer from above”–in the form of attack helicopters, jet fighters, transport, and other support aircraft. Now a former Marine fighter pilot shares the gripping never-before-told stories of t...

On 26 February 1991, cavalry troops of “Cougar Squadron,” the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, charged out of a sandstorm during Operation Desert Storm and caught Iraq’s Republican Guard Corps in the open desert along the North-South grid line of a military map referred to as the “73 Easting.” Taken by surprise, the defending Iraqi armor brigade was swept away in salvos of American tank and missile fire in what became the U.S. Army’s largest tank battle since World War II....