"All Present and Accounted For"
Number 1 book seller - Coast Guard Cutter Jarvis grounding and near sinking, in November of 1972: "All Present and Accounted For" by Steven J Craig
He Charged Alone: World War I Medal of Honor Recipient Private First Class Frank Gaffney
The second-bravest man in the Army.
China: Coronavirus and the Loss of Freedoms
If you are interested in the history of the coronavirus and how it spread; if you are interested in reading scholarly opinions of how the People's Republic of China has taken actions against Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghurs, the people of Hong Kong and Christians, you will want to read this book. It is written by one who has traveled to China many times and has many friends there. He utilizes testimonies before Congress, scholarly writings and Chinese sources in his analysis. Viewing results, he proposes a symposium where alternate views may be challenged, and steps may be taken to improve world security and the well-being of the people ....
Angels in Afghanistan
Has anyone here seen angels?
Mashala
Hello Spencer. This is Naveed Safi from Kabul. As you may know, the situation in Afghanistan is very bad. Me and my family are in danger and I need your help. Spencer Sekyer was not a soldier, government official, or aid worker. A small-town Canadian school teacher, his passions, besides teaching, were animal rescue and exploring the world, making strong connections with people of other cultures. He was known for his rescue of a chimpanzee in an Iraqi zoo that, with the help of Jane Goodall, was rehomed in a sanctuary in Africa. That story became the subject of his bestselling book Saving Manno. In the summer of 2021, as the world’s eyes were riveted by heartbreaking scenes of desperate Afghans trying to leave their country as Western troops departed and the Taliban took over, Spencer received a chilling email from an old friend. So begins Mashala, the harrowing adventure of an everyman’s efforts to rescue the Safi family, which pulls him from rural Canada to Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and into the clutches of the Taliban. The dilemma that is at the center of the book: How does a Westerner navigate the gray area between helping and harming? Between interference, with its echoes of colonialism, and the moral obligation to harness privilege to uplift, to rescue? The book moves from the receipt of Naveed’s email, back in time to 2010 Afghanistan, where Spencer spent his summer vacation teaching street children at Aschiana, a school in Kabul. This is where Spencer befriends Naveed, the handsome, charismatic school administrator, as well as Sayed, one of his housemates, and a family of stray dogs. Sayed informs Spencer that the Taliban is trying to track him down and asks for Spencer’s help in bringing him and his family to North America. Back home in rural Canada, Spencer throws himself into efforts to help both Sayed and the dogs. He goes through the channels of the Canadian government but is unsuccessful in bringing Sayed to the country. Sayed ultimately finds refuge in the U.S., but his father, who is left behind, is killed by the Taliban. Spencer successfully rescues the dogs, attracting some scorn from those who accuse him of putting more value in animal lives than human ones. The book jumps to August 2021 and the email from Naveed and then invites Naveed and his wife Mashala, to tell their own stories, in their points of view, in two separate chapters. Naveed recounts his life as both an administrator and a lawyer, the go-to man to lead important dignitaries and VIPs like Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Angelina Jolie on tours of the school. He describes finding his perfect partner in the beautiful Mashala, the blissful years of their family life. Mashala, a schoolteacher at Aschiana, takes up the family story nine years after her marriage, when threats from the Taliban for teaching girls culminates in a vicious attack when she is walking home. The threats continue including one particularly sinister text: “See what we did with you? Next will be your children.” Determined to get the Safi family asylum, Spencer assembles an unlikely team of animal rescuers, government officials, and mercenary groups to assist him in evacuating them from the sinister and perilous clutches of the rogue regime taking over the country. Spencer must interpret and navigate a complicated series of warnings, counter warnings, and contradictory directions, in an attempt to guide the family onto a plane in Kabul in the last days of the American evacuation. Naveed tells a harrowing account of the Taliban’s arrival in Kabul, and his family’s success at reaching the airport only to be caught in the crossfire between the Taliban forces and the Americans. Facing resistance at every turn, and with Taliban closing in, Spencer returns to Afghanistan to accompany the family to a safe house in Pakistan, but things do not go as planned. The danger persists. While many stories of Afghan rescue and survival are entering bookshelves and media outlets, Mashala will be told from the perspective of an ordinary person whose empathy transforms to action. It is a testament to the bonds of friendship across time and countries, what teamwork can accomplish, and the truth that every one of us has the power to save lives and make a difference.
American Airman: A Memoir of a Wounded Veteran
American Airman is a story of vulnerability and resiliency. This story bears witness to the men and women who, in fighting for our rights and freedoms, make unimaginable sacrifices and then must search for a new normal after that sacrifice becomes reality.
Into the Upper Country
Historical fiction in the vein of Bernard Cornwell and Wilbur Smith. This fast-paced adventure dives into a period of Colonial America much overlooked and often forgotten.
The Armed Forces and American Social Change: An Unwritten Truce
"The Armed Forces and American Social Change: An Unwritten Truce" is a powerful depiction of black Americans’ struggle for equality told through the lens of uniformed military service. Troy Mosley uses superb storytelling, personal vignettes, and historical examples to show how millions of Americans have lifted themselves from oppression through opportunities gleaned from military service. Collectively, these efforts exerted positive outward pressure on American society, which by and large has resisted social change.
Dearest Babe, Letters from a World War II Flight Surgeon
Epistolary memoir of Capt. Joe W. King, M.C.
My Spiritual Markers
While leading my squad on patrol, I hear a faint metallic click at my foot...then the explosion. Instantly, I am traveling through the air, my helmet is traveling in one direction, my rucksack previously strapped to my body is traveling in another direction. I can see visions of my life moving slowly before my eyes in what seemed like an eternity. I feel suspended in time. There is no sound around me. My body is stunned as I go in and out of consciousness. While in this state of life and death, I remember praying, “God, please don’t let me die!...I will devote my life to you and humanity!”