Three decades of Coast Guard service, one powerful lesson: do what's right, no matter what the cost.Close's book pulls readers into the heart of the Coast Guard experience-covering lifesaving rescues, the 9/11 attacks, environmental crises, and a hurricane that forever changed the lives of so many."During my career, I developed what I call the 'Coast Guard option,'" said Close, a U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduate who served as Captain of the Port in St. Petersburg/Tampa, Fl...

Reviews key developments in understanding crop physiology and genetic diversity and how they have informed advances in breeding new varietiesCoverage of advances across the value chain for grain legume cultivation, from variety selection to post-harvest storageDiscusses the latest trends in disease, insect pest and weed management

Col. Ray "Frenchy" L'Heureux always dreamed of bring a pilot. Growing up, he built airplane models and dreamed about soaring over the earth. When he was twelve, his mom treated him to a flying lesson at the local airfield. Taken on a short flight by an instructor and allowed to operate the controls for part of the flight, he was hooked forever. It wasn't until he was running low on college funds and saw a recruiter at his college that he joined the Marines and began the journey towards his...

This memoir of James Stavridis' two years in command of the destroyer USS Barry reveals the human side of what it is like to be in charge of a warship—for the first time and in the midst of international crisis. From Haiti to the Balkans to the Arabian GulfBarry was involved in operations throughout the world during his 1993–1995 tour. Drawing on daily journals he kept for the entire period, the author reveals the complex nature of those deployments in a "real time...

A submariner who served on the USS Archerfish presents a lively biography of the legendary WWII fighting vessel and its crew.She looked just like the other Balao-class submarines crafted in the 1940s. But the Archerfish--named for a fish that kills its victims with a lethal blast of water from below--survived fierce combat, fires, and earthquake, and much more. It holds a uniquely heroic place in military history and the hearts of her crew.H...

On April 16, 1947, a small fire broke out among bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the hold of the ship Grandcamp as it lay docked at Texas City, Texas. Despite immediate attempts to extinguish the fire, it rapidly intensified until the Grandcamp exploded in a blast that caused massive loss of life and property. In the ensuing chaos, no one gave much thought to the ship in the next slip, the High Flyer. It exploded sixteen hours later. The story of the Texas City explosions—America's w...

This book follows the author's experiences in the United States Navy from 1966 through 1972. They include a personal background, boot camp, electrician's school, the U.S. Naval Nuclear Program, assignment to the USS Henry Clay during an overhaul in Charleston, South Carolina, subsequent transit to Hawaii, and deterrent patrols out of Guam. The work begins with the crew of one of the most powerful weapons on earth, the fleet ballistic missile submarine USS Henry Clay, mann...

". . . the authors sound a pessimistic note about society's short-term memory in their sobering, able history of Camille" --Booklist"This highly readable account aimed at a general audience excels at telling the plight of the victims and how local political authorities reacted. The saddest lesson is how little the public and the government learned from Camille. Highly recommended for all public libraries, especially those on the Gulf and East coasts."—Library Journal

Alaska represents twenty percent of the land area, twenty percent of the oil production, forty percent of the fresh water of the United States, but after Wyoming, its the least populated state.Despite that contradiction, the state has an abundance of natural resources, history, and adventureespecially for the members of the Coast Guard that oversee its massive coastline.Captain Jeffrey Hartman served four tours of duty in Alaska with the Coast Guard. He outlines the history...

From the sinkings of the El Faro to the Andrea Doria, with dozens of similar maritime tragedies in between, the vague explanation of “human error” has been cited as the reason for the tragedies. For the first time, a 40-year safety consultant challenges much of that causation theory as too simple.The captain and crew, too often, in modern maritime history have become the scapegoats for far deeper failures of ship design, ship inspection and maintenance, shipping t...

Named a Notable Naval Book of 2012 by Proceedings Magazine Their stories needed to be told. And classmates working together, under a blanket of trust and friendship, was the only way to allow people to open up. It was a three year journey into the hearts and souls of America's youngest heroes to gather these important historical accounts, but it was worth every hour spent. Inside this book are the voices the first Annapolis graduates into a decade of war and they remind us that America is ...