To preserve the memory of their service during the tumultuous decade since their commissioning as Army officers, members of the West Point class of 2004 have written The Strong Gray Line. This class suffered the highest casualty rate since those that graduated during the Vietnam War. In this book, thirteen of their classmates who lost their lives fighting the Global War on Terror are profiled to help the reader gain an understanding of the bond forged between classmates during time at West...

Explosive SAS action in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.The command came: 'Stop those vehicles!'It was like a red rag to a bull. Instantly streams of 7.62 mm tracer and 50 mm calibre machine gun rounds arced across the night sky and smashed into the bus and truck.Elite SAS Patrol Commander Stuart 'Nev' Bonner takes us inside the extraordinary and dangerous world of secret combat operations in this explosive, behind-the-scenes look at life inside the...

The true story of Australia's SAS and the soldier who was there from the start.Clint Palmer has spent much of his adult life in the SAS and has fought in this elite military unit as it developed from its fledgling beginnings into the highly trained, specialised fighting force it is today. He is an insider with the long view and this is his unique story of life in the SAS.As a bush kid in the Northern Territory of Australia, growing up in a one dog mining to...

Following on from the stunning success of the novel Matterhorn as well as Osprey's own Tonight We Die as Men, this book follows the trials and tribulations of a group of Vietnam draftees from basic training to the rice paddies of Vietnam.In the spring of 1966 the Vietnam War was intensifying, driven by the US military build up, under which the 9th Infantry Division was reactivated. Charlie Company was part of the 9th and representative of the melt...

The definitive biography of Harold G. Moore, hero of the Vietnam War and author of the bestselling memoir of the battle at Ia Drang.Hal Moore, one of the most admired American combat leaders of the last fifty years, has until now been best known to the public for being portrayed by Mel Gibson in the movie We Were Soldiers. In this first-ever, fully illustrated biography, we finally learn the full story of one of America's true military heroes.A 1945 ...

One of the most important memoirs of the American Civil War, this is also one of the few to describe what life was really like for the common soldier. The author, a Union veteran of the Army of the Potomac, tells of how the men enlisted or were conscripted; how they lived in camp and on the march; what they ate and foraged; how they were equipped and provided for; how they lived, amused themselves, were disciplined and punished, cared for and healed, and ultimately how they died. Written w...

At the age of seventeen, Marco Martinez was a thug—a gun-toting, car-stealing gang member. At the age of twenty-two, he was a hero—the recipient of the Navy Cross, the second-highest honor a U.S. Marine can receive, for extraordinary heroism under fire in the Iraq War. Hard Corps tells the story of his incredible transformation and of his experiences on the front lines of the War on Terror.Writing with passion and candor, Martinez brings us back to his gang days, detailing experie...

This book reveals the evolving US, Viet Cong and NVA tactics at battalion level and below throughout the Vietnam War.Beginning with a description of the terrain, climate and the unique nature of operations in this theatre of war, the author, a Vietnam veteran himself, goes on to explain how unit organisation was broken down by combatant forces and the impact this had on the kind of tactics they employed. In particular, the author highlights how units were organised...

Wearing the remnants of a WWI uniform and pulling a water-cooled 30-caliber machine-gun, Spencer Wurst marched through his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1940 as a member of the National Guard. He was 15 years old. Five years later he was a hardened platoon sergeant leading his troopers through the frozen killing fields of "Death Valley" in Germany's Heurtgen Forest. A squad leader in Company F, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82d Airborne, for most of the war, Wurst jumped into Italy...

At the heart of the story of America's wars are our "citizen soldiers" -- those hometown heroes who fought and sacrificed from Bunker Hill at Charlestown to Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, and beyond, without expectation of recognition or recompense. Americans like to think that the service of its citizen volunteers is, and always has been, of momentous importance in our politics and society. But though this has made for good storytelling, the reality of America's relationship to its veterans i...

'One of our fellows, while a German flare lit up his trench as it shot over it, saw half a dozen of our raw Irishmen on their knees, praying to the Virgin as if their last hour had come.' Captain Gerald Burgoyne, C Company, 4th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles The Western Front tells the human story at the heart of a war that cost the lives of 35,000 Irishmen. Compiled by one of Ireland's leading military historians, it recounts the experiences of the many ordinary Irishmen from all religions...

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Thank You for Your Service tells you what you need to know—before or after you read David Finkel's book.Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.This short summary and analysis of Thank You for Your Service includes:Historical contextChapter-by-chapter overviewsP...