In Katrina's Wake: The U.S. Coast Guard and the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005 (New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Katrina is quite possibly the most major disaster in the first decade of the 2000s. 'In Katrina's Wake: The U. S. Coast Guard and the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005" delves into events at the response of the coast guard during this catastrophic event in 2005. Devastating New Orleans, and faced with some bumbled political action, heroes were made as the Coast guard rushed to save lives and lessen the damage to the region, and how these events still ring strong today. "In Katrina's Wake" is a thoughtful analysis of the event and the importance of the coast guard, highly recommended.


Click Here to see more reviews about: In Katrina's Wake: The U.S. Coast Guard and the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005 (New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology)

Get 24% OFF

Click here for more information about In Katrina's Wake: The U.S. Coast Guard and the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005 (New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology)

Read More...

Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I'm almost done with a recently released book I was given for Christmas, "Ten Hours Until Dawn." I began reading it but two days ago and don't want to put it down! A great read for the winter house-bound mariners up here, or for the most uninitiated landlubber. It's one of, if not the, best sea tales I've ever read.

It's the true story of the disasterous "Great Blizzard of '78" here at Ground Zero on the North Shore of Massachusetts, the grounding of the oil tanker Global Hope about two or three miles from us, and the rescue attempt turned disaster in the worst winter storm in over 100 years.

Between the herculean and selfless efforts of our local Coast Guard out of Gloucester and pilot boat captain Frank Quirk and his volunteer crew of his Can Do, the nail-biting descriptions of the almost unbelievable conditions out there in my sailing grounds, histories of similar marine crises, and the detailed but easily comprehensible explanations, it's one of those books that keeps you awake after midnight to read "just one more chapter."
This story holds a special significance for me not only because I'm so familiar with the locale and sail it every weekend during the season. During that historic storm I was living-aboard an old wooden 46' power boat tied up to our slip on D dock at Beverly Harbor Marina. Conditions got so bad by early evening that a group of us live-aboards got together with all the lines we had among us and we could get our hands on, tied off our dock to pilings and telephone poles and buildings in the parking lot above us. Above us, until the high-tide surge, when our floating dock rose above the hinged ramp, above the stationary wharf thereby stranding us on our boats, above even the sea wall and parking lot. We watched helplessly from our "island" as the rollers swept across the parking lot to our snow-buried cars! Two of the nearby boat-laden docks broke lose! The snow was so deep that if you didn't walk carefully down the very center of the rolling dock in the howling wind, it'd tip and dump you off.

Word had passed around in our marina that an oil tanker was aground just outside Beverly Harbor and that a rescue effort was underway. We saw the Coast Guard's 41-footer make it in to the Jubilee Yacht Club just next door. But we didn't learn about the tragedy just a few miles out until a day or two later; we were too busy ourselves that night to think to turn on the VHF radio. This is the first time I've learned the details -- and they were incredible, horrific!

I probably knew a few of the Coast Guardsmen quoted throughout who were out there facing death. During the summer of 1977 the Coast Guard used to love "boarding" us. Our boat had become a magnet for some of the ladies of an all-women's college just up the coast, and we four young live-aboards usually had a contingent of them aboard. When off-duty, a few of the Coasties would sometimes come down to the boat for a visit and a few brewskies, hoping we had company aboard.

Reading the details of what happened that night is chilling even almost thirty years later. I clearly recall how bad things were that night, but had no idea how much worse they were just a couple miles out in Salem Sound, or the life-and-death drama that was taking place. That *anyone* survived out there is a miracle -- that anyone *went* out there is unimaginable.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do

Read More...

U.S. Air Force (Hugh Lauter Levin's Military History) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is quite possibly the ultimate U.S. Air Force History book. It is written under the general guidence of Lt. Col Dik Alan Daso, USAF (Ret), Curator of Modern Military Aircraft National Air and Space Museum. The individual contributors, some 35 in number vary from retired military, professional historians, librarians, and more. All in all, individual experts to write on particular subjects of interest.
This is a large format book, and it contains a lot of pages. It begins with the first flights taken by the military in balloons and concludes with operations in Iraq. The book is arranged like a diary, with significant events in chronological order. A particular point of interest is the little pictures of the medals of honor won on those dates, along with a description of the actions of the winner.
In addition there are periodic two page spreads that describe significant activities, technical advantages, or historical points of interst regarding the Air Force.
It's a beautiful book, one that belongs in every military library.

Click Here to see more reviews about: U.S. Air Force (Hugh Lauter Levin's Military History)

Click here for more information about U.S. Air Force (Hugh Lauter Levin's Military History)

Read More...

The Special Forces Guide to Escape and Evasion Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book is written by Will Fowler - not Chris McNab as shown.
When this book first arrived on my desk I considered long and hard the sort of person to whom it might be aimed. My first thoughts were no honest civilian - other than the noted Walter Mitty of course, would need to know anything about the art of escape and evasion. Then I realised my viewpoint was incorrect. Civilian advisors and workers are found in theatres of war all over the world - and a good number of them have been abducted over the years.
As far as HM Forces are concerned, I would suggest this book is essential reading for all service personnel.
Whilst I was never SAS trained, I did complete the first phase of that training in 1971. This part of the overall training scheme was called "Selection." As a young corporal, it was something I was required to complete before being posted to the Regiment as part of a team of "attached personnel." In other words, I was sent there to do a rather mundane job in support of the boys who were doing the real work - but first, they had to be satisfied I was fit enough. Now, having read this book, I do so wish it had been available to me all those years ago before that gruelling course began.
Every important topic is covered - ranging from the "will" to survive, the various techniques required when captured and those one needs to employ when foraging for food and covering one's tracks. With important contributions from the Special Forces of the UK, USA and even Russia, this is a book which will teach soldiers something extra about soldiering. It will also give them an excellent appraisal of what is required should they ever need help. Who knows when a single serviceman (or woman) might find themselves alone in a hostile climate where there are no doors on which to knock when thirsty.
Altogether, therefore, this book should be required reading for; (A) Those who are contemplating service with Special Forces; (B) Those who are about to be posted to such theatres of war as Afghanistan and Iraq; (C) Civilian workers in the same broad category and; (D) Just about anyone else with an interest in the subject.
There is much to learned from this book and I congratulate the author on a job well done.
NM


Click Here to see more reviews about: The Special Forces Guide to Escape and Evasion

The Special Forces Guide to Escape and Evation covers everything a combat soldier needs to know about evading capture and making a successful return to friendly territory. Beginning from the point where an individual finds himself trapped behind enemy lines, the book describes the many techniques that special force soldiers rely on to survive in enemy territory while evading capture. Key topics include the will to survive; handling stress in captivity; escape techniques; survival in a variety of environments including urban, rural, jungle, and desert; how to forage for food; tracking and covering your tracks; navigation with or without a map; and ultimately seeking recovery by friendly forces. It also includes many real life accounts of escape and evasion from World War II, Vietnam, and the Gulf War, as well as tips and advice from special force members around the world such as the SAS, the Green Berets, and the Russian Spetsnaz.

Click here for more information about The Special Forces Guide to Escape and Evasion

Read More...

Alive Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book was amazing. There's really no other way to describe it. Read captures magnificently the true story of a rugby team from Uruguay, along with a few relatives and close friends, whose plane crashed in the Andes Mountains on the way to Chile, where the boys were to play against another rugby team. Amidst a sea of death and horror, the people who survived the initial plane crash are forced to take immediate action in order to preserve their lives and the lives of others around them. Only the hope of a rescue that never comes carries the boys through their first few days on the mountain. When they realize that the rescue has been called off, their adventure truly begins. This is a story of brotherhood in the purest sense. Stranded in the freezing Andes, cold, hungry, weak and desperate, the survivors struggle against all odds to remain alive. They prove to be quite inventive and ingenious, using what remains of the plane to create a better world for themselves in the Andes. They maintain hope even as their friends continue to die and in their extreme hunger they are forced to consume the flesh of the corpses. It is their optimism and brightness of spirit that carries the final sixteen through to the end. In the meantime, their parents and families continue to search for the boys even when the countries of Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina abandon the search. Although many don't see how the boys could still be alive, they do not give up hope. At the end of the book, to see each boy reunited with his family is quite amazing. Words cannot express the depth of feeling that emerges from these pages. The story of the Andes survivors and their families is one that begs to be told. No work of fiction could compare to the inspirational quality of this work. It's a "must read," and once it has been read, it cannot easily be forgotten. This book will haunt your dreams and find its way back to your thoughts time and time again. More than anything it will allow you to project yourself ! into the conditions endured by the boys and ask yourself, "What would I have done?" Would you have been strong and believed you would be saved up until the end? Would you be destroyed by the absolute desperation of the situation? In truth you could not know until it happened to you. And it could happen to you. Perhaps the very knowledge of this is what makes the story of the Andes survivors shine. Their strength and will to live is extraordinary. It must be read to be believed.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Alive


On October 12, 1972, an Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players crashed in the remote snowy peaks of the Andes. Ten weeks later, only sixteen of the forty-five passengers were found alive. This is the story of those ten weeks spent in the shelter of the plane's fuselage without food and with scarcely any hope of a rescue. The survivors protected and helped one another, and came to the difficult conclusion that to live meant doing the unimaginable. Confronting nature at its most furious, two brave young men risked their lives to hike through the mountains looking for help -- and ultimately found it.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Get 33% OFF

Click here for more information about Alive

Read More...

Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A book I couldn't put down, literally. I had a vacation planned and was looking for a page turner, and found this incredibly gripping story on the recommendation of a friend. Like some of the other reviewers, I've never really been into the Deadliest Catch or that sort of reality television, but that didn't matter at all. Trust me, pick up this book even if it's not in your wheelhouse. I never knew how hardcore the Coasties were! It's a fast-moving, well-written book that can compete with the best of Krakauer or Junger, with a lot less pretense (and a few more fish).

Click Here to see more reviews about: Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History


Soon after 2:00 A.M. on Easter morning, March 23, 2008, the fishing trawler Alaska Ranger began taking on water in the middle of the frigid Bering Sea. While the first mate broadcast Mayday calls to a remote Coast Guard station more than eight hundred miles away, the men on the ship's icy deck scrambled to inflate life rafts and activate the beacon lights, which would guide rescuers to them in the water. By 4:30 A.M., the wheelhouse of the Ranger was just barely visible above the sea's surface, and most of the forty-seven crew members were in the water, wearing the red survival suits-a number of them torn or inadequately sized-that were supposed to keep them from freezing to death. Every minute in the twenty-foot swells was a fight for survival. Many knew that if they weren't rescued soon, they would drown or freeze to death.

Two Coast Guard helicopter rescue teams were woken up in the middle of the night to save the crew of the Alaska Ranger. Many of the men thought the mission would be routine. They were wrong. The helicopter teams battled snow squalls, enormous swells, and gale-force winds as they tried to fulfill one guiding principle: save as many as they could. Again and again, the helicopters lowered a rescue swimmer to the ocean's surface to bring the shipwrecked men, some delirious with hypothermia, some almost frozen to death, back to the helicopter and to safety. Before the break of dawn, the Coast Guard had lifted more than twenty men from the freezing waves-more than any other cold-water Coast Guard rescue in history.

Deadliest Sea is a daring and mesmerizing adventure tale that chronicles the power of nature against man, and explores the essence of the fear each man and woman must face when confronted with catastrophe. It also investigates the shocking negligence that leads to the sinking of dozens of ships each year, which could be prevented and makes commercial fishing one of the most dangerous occupations in the world.

With deft writing and technical knowledge, veteran journalist Kalee Thompson recounts the harrowing stories of both the rescuers and the rescued who survived the deadly ordeal in the Bering Sea. Along the way, she pays tribute to the courage, tenacity, and skill of dedicated service people who risk their own lives for the lives of others.

Get 34% OFF

Click here for more information about Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History

Read More...

Coast Guard Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a grand publication. I have been waiting patiently for this book and it exceeds all my expectations. This book can be kept with pride on any coffee table
A job superbly done by Mr Tom Beard. Thank You
Ken Laesser EMCM USCG (ret)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Coast Guard

Written by an outstanding team of historians and officers, the definitive story of the U.S. Coast Guard is recorded for the first time in this magnificently illustrated, large-format book published with the Foundation for Coast Guard History. Stories of the "Coastie" experience as well as essays on history, lighthouses, search and rescue, aviation, the drug war, and the war on terrorism all share one common focus: the highly trained and motivated people who make it all work.

Click here for more information about Coast Guard

Read More...