A Time to Kill, a Time to Heal: An Israeli Navy Seal's Journey


Book Description

"Looking ahead into the dark, my compass, depth gauge and diving watch confirmed that we were headed towards our target in enemy waters. The mission was clear: to eliminate ships at anchor, ships that were planned to carry out an attack against civilians in Israel. Onboard them were Zodiac rubber boats, AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, RPG anti-tank rockets and plenty of ammunition. The Palestinian terrorists who had been trained for their deadly mission were set to execute their attack two nights later. This was a race against time. After a stealth approach into the harbor, I identified my target and attached the explosives. For a moment, my memories took me back in time. I was hiding in a bush, an 11-year-old boy, during a terrorist attack, escaping sure death. Activating the time-controlled detonators, I felt the closure of another circle of destiny. An attack against my home, was thwarted. Yotam Dagan, an Israeli navy SEAL, shares his personal journey from being a soldier and fighting wars to healing the invisible wounds of psychological trauma and PTSD. This book is an important account of how human courage and determination, followed by suffering and vulnerability could leverage growth on an individual, community and national level."




One Step at a Time


Book Description

Greg Burham, a Navy SEAL Vietnam combat veteran came home to an ungrateful nation. Carrying the invisible wounds of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Greg struggled to take the next steps in his life. This book traces his journey of discovery and healing as he walks from Alaska to Mexico.




A Raid on the Red Sea


Book Description

A Raid on the Red Sea is the thrilling, real-life tale of illegal gun-running in the Middle East. In this firsthand account, Amos Gilboa gives the harrowing details of the secret close-working relations between Israeli and American intelligence in the seizure of the Karine A ship, the most successful Israeli intelligence operation since the legendary Entebbe hostage rescue. At 0400 hours, January 3, 2002, two fast boats of Israel's naval commando unit closed in on the stern of the Palestinian Authority's Karine A. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had clandestinely loaded its cargo: fifty-six tons of high-grade, long-range weapons destined for the Gaza Strip. The Israelis' plan to seize it went awry when they found nothing but a confused group of Egyptians, Jordanians, and Palestinians. Had they boarded the wrong ship? Was there going to be an international incident disgracing Israel? This drama has more than its share of plot twists. The story's hero, a low-level female intelligence analyst, was the first to grasp the grave danger posed by the Karine A. Analyzing piles of disinformation, she kept on the scent of the ship, tracking it from Egypt to Sudan to Dubai. Only through the joint efforts of Israeli and U.S. naval intelligence, Mossad and the CIA, was the ship stopped and calamity averted. Seizing the ship led to a fateful reorientation of U.S. policy regarding the Middle East with consequences to this day, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the 2020 assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani.




For Every Soldier There Is a to Kill and a Time to Heal


Book Description

oming home from the battlefield doesn't mean the war is over. For most veterans a new battle begins. The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported that twenty-two Veterans commit suicide every day. That's one every 65 minutes. War Veterans are at very high risk of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Some are plagued with "Survivor's Guilt."After leaving the killing fields, even of a "Just War," every Soldier needs to heal. The title and the concept of this book, A Time To Kill and A Time To Heal come directly from the pages of ancient manuscripts that have been vetted and verified through centuries, Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3, The Bible.This vivid "Gift Book" is written for Veterans. In it they will discover the way to genuine healing. Consider gifting this book to someone you know and love or even a soldier you don't know personally but he or she has been on duty guarding your life and freedoms. I think we would all agree it is time for these soldiers to heal. Will you help them?




No Easy Day


Book Description

Mark Owen is a pseudonym for Matt Bissonnette.




Alpha


Book Description

An “infuriating, fast-paced” (The Washington Post) account of the Navy SEALs of Alpha platoon, the startling accusations against their chief, Eddie Gallagher, and the courtroom battle that exposed the dark underbelly of America’s special forces—from a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter WINNER OF THE COLORADO BOOK AWARD • “Nearly impossible to put down.”—Jon Krakauer, New York Times bestselling author of Where Men Win Glory and Into the Wild In this “brilliantly written” (The New York Times Book Review) and startling account, Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times correspondent David Philipps reveals a powerful moral crucible, one that would define the American military during the years of combat that became known as “the forever war.” When the Navy SEALs of Alpha platoon returned from their 2017 deployment to Iraq, a group of them reported their chief, Eddie Gallagher, for war crimes, alleging that he’d stabbed a prisoner in cold blood and taken lethal sniper shots at unarmed civilians. The story of Alpha’s war, both in Iraq and in the shocking trial that followed the men’s accusations, would complicate the SEALs’ post-9/11 hero narrative, turning brothers-in-arms against one another and bringing into stark relief the choice that elite soldiers face between loyalty to their unit and to their country. One of the great stories written about American special forces, Alpha is by turns a battlefield drama, a courtroom thriller, and a compelling examination of how soldiers define themselves and live with the decisions in the heat of combat.




Friendly Fire


Book Description

FINALIST -- The National Jewish Book Award In this deeply personal journey of discovery, Ami Ayalon seeks input and perspective from Palestinians and Israelis whose experiences differ from his own. As head of the Shin Bet security agency, he gained empathy for "the enemy" and learned that when Israel carries out anti-terrorist operations in a political context of hopelessness, the Palestinian public will support violence, because they have nothing to lose. Researching and writing Friendly Fire, he came to understand that his patriotic life had blinded him to the self-defeating nature of policies that have undermined Israel's civil society while heaping humiliation upon its Palestinian neighbors. "If Israel becomes an Orwellian dystopia," Ayalon writes, "it won't be thanks to a handful of theologians dragging us into the dark past. The secular majority will lead us there motivated by fear and propelled by silence." Ayalon is a realist, not an idealist, and many who consider themselves Zionists will regard as radical his conclusions about what Israel must do to achieve relative peace and security and to sustain itself as a Jewish homeland and a liberal democracy.




Lone Survivor


Book Description

This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the Afghanistan mountains in 2005, that led to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history.




American Sniper


Book Description

The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir of U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle, and the source for Clint Eastwood’s blockbuster, Academy-Award nominated movie. “An amazingly detailed account of fighting in Iraq--a humanizing, brave story that’s extremely readable.” — PATRICIA CORNWELL, New York Times Book Review "Jaw-dropping...Undeniably riveting." —RICHARD ROEPER, Chicago Sun-Times From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.




The Final Mission of Extortion 17


Book Description

On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter approached a landing zone in Afghanistan 40 miles southwest of Kabul. The helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was on a mission to reinforce American and coalition special operations troops. It would never return. Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of its rear rotor blades, and brought it crashing to the ground. All 38 onboard perished instantly in the single greatest moment of sacrifice for Americans in the war in Afghanistan. Those killed were some of the U.S.'s most highly trained and battle-honed commandos, including 15 men from the Gold Squadron of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known popularly as SEAL Team 6, which had raided a Pakistan compound and killed Osama bin Laden just three months earlier. The downing of Extortion 17 spurred a number of conspiracy theories, such as the idea that the shootdown was revenge for bin Laden's death. In The Final Mission of Extortion 17, Ed Darack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind this mysterious tragedy. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 and the events of that fateful day is interwoven into a rich, complex narrative that also discusses modern joint combat operations, the history of the Afghan war to that date, U.S. helicopter use in Afghanistan, and the new and evolving military technologies and tactics being developed to mitigate such tragedies now and in the future. Amazon Best History Book of the Month - September 2017