Only a Soldier Understands - Book 5: Lessons I Learned in the Army


Book Description

Clay Lifto knows what it's like to be a soldier - not the great hero, but an ordinary guy performing his duty, raising his family and trying to live the Christian life. In this 5th book in his series, Only A Soldier Understands, he becomes a bit reflective in his personal story as he shares some life lessons he learned as he enters the Army a second time. He branches out into a new phase of his military experience, past the Middle East, past Vietnam, and into the spy games of the European Cold War. As the chapters of Clay's life continue, he shares amazing things that can happen in a soldier's life when he makes a commitment. Not a lecture, not a Bible study, just a personal story of God's grace. Clay explores not only the physical realities of deployment, but also the emotional and psychological growth and challenges that come from experiences ranging from finding the woman of his life to frustrations with civilian life to the relationship with his family back home to breaking up with his wife to surrendering to the truth about himself and his own life to getting into a job far over his head to finding his true calling in life. As Clay's stories bring back memories of your own experience, each chapter ends with a reflection of a major lesson in life that he learned - maybe a lesson you could apply to your own personal journey in life. The Only a Soldier Understands series is for the new recruit, the career soldier, and the veteran. It's for anyone who has served in the military-and they are great books to share with friends, to exchange stories and thoughts. You don't even need to read this book in chronological order...the Table of Contents provides detailed guidance if you'd like to target a specific area of your career. And if you enjoy this book, go back and read Books 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the series, and look forward to new books by Clay Lifto, coming soon.




Only A Soldier Understands: Books 1 - 5 Collection: The Search for Life


Book Description

You may already know Clay Lifto from other books in the Only a Soldier Can Truly Understand series. You may know him as a valued mentor about what to expect from military life, or as a warm and empathetic guide to help you cope with PTSD and other challenges. You might know him as a stalwart source of tough love and straight talk-the guy who tells it like it is. In this volume of the series, Lifto gets personal, and teaches you one of the hardest and most necessary lessons of all: that in vulnerability lies the greatest strength, and it's through making mistakes that we learn the most powerful lessons. Born and raised on a small Minnesota farm by an Appalachian mom and a factory-worker dad, Clay Lifto escapes his bitter childhood by joining the Army. Filled with angst and naivete, he tries desperately to cope as he is forced into places, situation, and problems he is ill-equipped to deal with. Journey with him through life as each episode shapes his direction, his mind, and eventually . . . his heart. Imagine with him what life is really about and what his role could be, as he trips and stumbles toward his soul's purpose. Explore the strangeness of military life in basic training, the cultures of military training, the exotic worlds of the Middle East, Vietnam, Australia, and Germany. And dream with him about what God might have in store for him when it's all over . . . because the story is still being told. In his journey, you may see a mirror of your own path, because . . . Only a Soldier Can Truly Understand.




Only a Soldier Understands - A Military Devotional and Bible Study for Warriors with a Story Book 2: Training


Book Description

Nobody understands what it feels like to be a soldier - except another soldier. In Only a Soldier Understands Volume 2: Training, Vietnam veteran Dr. Clay Lifto continues to examine his early days in the Army, sharing feelings and milestones that are universal to young men and women entering the military and finding their identity. This book takes a look at the deeply personal journey of a new soldier. It's about family back home, and gaining their respect. It's about living far from home and feeling lonely. It's about good and bad bosses. It's about successes and failures, excitement and frustration. But most of all, it's about gaining insight and perspective about your life-changing experiences. Told in a series of short anecdotes full of humor and honesty, this book offers you the opportunity to compare and contrast your own feelings and facts, and provides questions designed to help you delve deeper, as well as compassionate advice from the best Commander of all. If you're stuck in a particular place in your career, the Table of Contents can guide you to the section you need most right now. But each of the 38 stories has something valuable for you. Equally relevant to both the new recruit and the career soldier, Only a Soldier Understands gives you a mentor you can trust, and a colleague who's been where you are. About the Author: Dr. Clay Lifto, Professor Emeritus of Marketing and Management, has served at Kirkwood College since 1982. Among his many professional accomplishments, he has founded a property management company operating in three states, and established a college program focused on supervisory management. He holds a BS in business management, a BA in Russian studies, a master's in education, and a doctorate in pastoral leadership. Currently he is pursuing his second doctorate, as well as an MBA in global management. Since 1993, Dr. Lifto and his wife Ruth have been involved with missionary humanitarian projects in Ukraine, where they have been teach




Only a Soldier Understands


Book Description

This book is personal. And it's about you. Nobody understands what it feels like to be a soldier except another soldier. It's about your family back home. It's about trying to gain respect. It's about achieving something important after feeling like a failure. It's about living far from home and feeling lonely. It's about discovering women. It's about good and bad bosses. It's about successes and failures, excitement and frustration. Sound like you yet? And the book will bring back memories. I'll share my story while you reflect upon your own. In fact, it will draw you back to your childhood, and spur visions of your future. No soldier's story is dull if you have a sense of humor. And you'll laugh at my story as well as your own as we quickly turn the pages together. It's an easy read, too. Stories of my life in the military are a quick, two-page read for the most part. I follow up with a few questions directed to you about your own story. That's why sometimes a bunch of guys might get together over lunch and read some of these together. It gets you laughing and sharing about your own journey down the road. This book is a chronological collection beginning with the decision to join the military, and continues the trip in 37 short pieces. There's a pretty good table of contents if you want to target a special spot in your career. Volumes 2-4 continue the journey if you'd like to travel on! This book is for the new recruit. This book is for the naive soldier. This book is for the career guys. It's for the lonely guy who needs a quick read. It's for hooch-mates to laugh about. It's food for the soul, like having a chaplain in your pocket. I'd like to be like your secret big brother, who comes from the same thread, who has been on the same road trip with you, and won't leave your side. One more thing. If you've had a hard time of it, if your life hasn't gone the way you had hoped, if you screwed it all up - then you need t




Only a Soldier Understands


Book Description

Invaluable Insight Into Your Military Experience... This book is personal. And it's about you. Nobody understands what it feels like to be a soldier except another soldier. It's about your family back home. It's about trying to gain respect. It's about achieving something important after feeling like a failure. It's about living far from home and feeling lonely. It's about discovering women. It's about good and bad bosses. It's about successes and failures, excitement and frustration. Sound like you yet? And the book will bring back memories. I'll share my story while you reflect upon your own. In fact, it will draw you back to your childhood, and spur visions of your future. No soldier's story is dull if you have a sense of humor. And you'll laugh at my story as well as your own as we quickly turn the pages together. It's an easy read, too. Stories of my life in the military are a quick, two-page read for the most part. I follow up with a few questions directed to you about your own story. That's why sometimes a bunch of guys might get together over lunch and read some of these together. It gets you laughing and sharing about your own journey down the road.




Only a Soldier Understands


Book Description

Only A Soldier Understands Book 4: Vietnam ... Clay Lifto knows what it's like to be a soldier. In Book 4 of Only a Soldier Understands, he branches out into a new phase of his military experience, past the Middle East, and into deployment...in Vietnam. In 38 short anecdotes, Clay explores not only the physical realities of deployment, but also the emotional and psychological growth and challenges that come from experiences ranging from being under fire from the enemy to discovering a disheartening need for dental work. Money management, a last visit home, a girlfriend, R & R in Australia, homesickness, and fear and panic in combat are all discussed with Clay's trademark warmth and candor. The topic of Vietnam vets' horrible homecoming is a particularly important piece of Book 4. As Clay's stories bring back memories of your own experience, each anecdote ends with a series of thought-provoking questions designed to allow reflection on your personal journey. The Only a Soldier Understands series is for the new recruit, the career soldier, and the veteran. It's for anyone who has served in the military-and they are great books to share with friends, to exchange stories and thoughts. You don't even need to read this book in chronological order...the Table of Contents provides detailed guidance if you'd like to target a specific area of your career. And if you enjoy this book, go back and read Books 1, 2, and 3 in the series, and look forward to new books by Clay Lifto, coming soon.




Only a Soldier Knows


Book Description

On a gloomy Sunday afternoon at the height of the Troubles, rookie bomb disposal officer Ray Lane was called to the Border to defuse a 1,000kg bomb planted by the IRA. This was the beginning of an extraordinary career. From 10 beer kegs filled to the brim with explosives, to fiendish homemade devices designed to maim and murder, Ray's job was the very definition of hazardous. Developing unparalleled skills in wartime diplomacy, he went on to spend perilous stints on the front line of conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Ukraine. He witnessed the horrors of war up close and was left with deep personal scars. From the darkest depths of humanity to the pinnacle of bravery, this gripping memoir explores the nature of warfare, duty and the courage and mental strength it takes to be the person who overrides every natural human instinct and walks towards a 1,000kg bomb. 'A truly amazing story told with strength and courage' Ray Goggins 'A compelling story of outstanding courage' Ivan Yates




A Soldier's Duty


Book Description

From one of America’s most esteemed military correspondents and the author of Making the Corps comes a “briskly paced, engrossing tale” (Los Angeles Times) about a brutal brushfire war in Afghanistan that sets off a titanic struggle for the soul of the twenty-first-century American military.




The Things They Cannot Say


Book Description

American Legacy Book Awards Winner “The harrowing accounts detail the experiencesof 11 US soldiers and Marines who have been ravaged by modern warfare and its psychological aftermath. What makes Kevin’s reporting unique and essential is that it didn’t stop on the battlefield—he followed his subjects home.” — Vice An important look at the unspoken and unknown truths of war and its impact, told through the personal stories of those who have been there. In The Things They Cannot Say, eleven soldiers and Marines display a courage that transcends battlefield heroics—they share the truth about their wars. For each it means something different: one struggles to recover from a head injury he believes has stolen his ability to love, another attempts to make amends for the killing of an innocent man, while yet another finds respect for the enemy fighter who tried to kill him. Award-winning journalist and author Kevin Sites asks the difficult questions of these combatants, many of whom he first met while in Afghanistan and Iraq and others he sought out from different wars: What is it like to kill? What is it like to be under fire? How do you know what’s right? What can you never forget? Sites compiles the accounts of soldiers, Marines, their families and friends, and also shares the narrative of his own failures during war (including complicity in a murder) and the redemptive powers of storytelling in arresting a spiraling path of self-destruction. He learns that war both gives and takes from those most involved in it. Some struggle in disequilibrium, while others find balance, usually with the help of communities who have learned to listen, without judgment, to the real stories of the men and women it has sent to fight its battles.




I Am a Soldier, Too


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author lends his remarkable narrative skills to the story of the most famous POW this country has known. In I Am a Soldier, Too, Bragg lets Jessica Lynch tell the story of her capture in the Iraq War in her own words--not the sensationalized ones of the media's initial reports. Here we see how a humble rural upbringing leads to a stint in the military, one of the most exciting job options for a young person in Palestine, West Virginia. We see the real story behind the ambush in the Iraqi Desert that led to Lynch's capture. And we gain new perspective on her rescue from an Iraqi hospital where she had been receiving care. Here Lynch’s true heroism and above all, modesty, is allowed to emerge, as we're shown how she managed her physical recovery from her debilitating wounds and contended with the misinformation--both deliberate and unintended--surrounding her highly publicized rescue. In the end, what we see is a uniquely American story of courage and true heroism.