Yes, Sir! No, Sir! No Excuse, Sir!


Book Description

The book chronicles a patriotic American boy on the difficult journey to manhood. During high school, he walked away from faith and in college survived the rigorous discipline of The Citadel. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an Air Force officer spending a year at war, where the loss of close friends, duplicitous politicians and the chaos in America left him angry, disillusioned and confrontive to authority. Newly married, he became a Los Angeles policeman where untreated PTSD left him divorced and depressed eight years later. Each season of life is illustrated with pithy stories from a myriad of life experiences and flawed choices which ultimately led to the brink of suicide. Thankfully, the story doesn't end there.




West Point Way of Leadership


Book Description

West Point has bred more CEOs than any business school, and the leadership skills taught there are truly matters of life and death. Bolder than Sun Tzu, savvier than Gracian -- THE book on learning to lead.




Duty


Book Description

"Will leave you spellbound. Mayer’s long suit is detail, giving the reader an in-depth view of the inner workings of the Army and West Point." Book News An epic series in the vein of HBO's Rome, following two ordinary men through extraordinary times; from West Point, through the Mexican War, into the Civil War. Elijah Cord and Lucius Rumble swore oaths, both personal and professional. They were fighting for country, for a way of life and for family. Classmates carried more than rifles and sabers into battle. They had friendships, memories, children and wives. They had innocence lost, promises broken and glory found. Duty, Honor, Country is history told epic and personal so we can understand what happened, but more importantly feel the heart-wrenching clash of duty, honor, country and loyalty. And realize that sometimes, the people who changed history, weren’t recorded by it. Our story starts in 1840, in Benny Havens tavern, just outside post limits of the United States Military Academy. With William Tecumseh Sherman, Cord, and Benny Havens’ daughter coming together in a crucible of honor and loyalty. On post, in the West Point stables, Ulysses S. Grant and Rumble are preparing to saddle the Hell-Beast, a horse with which Grant would eventually set an academy record. On this day, all make fateful decisions that will change the course of their lives and history. We follow these men forward to the eve of the Mexican War, tracing their steps at West Point and ranging to a plantation at Natchez on the Mississippi, Major Lee at Arlington, and Charleston, SC. We travel aboard the USS Somers and the US Navy mutiny that led to the founding of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. We end with Grant and Rumble in New Orleans, preparing to sale to Mexico and war, and Cord with Kit Carson and Fremont at Pilot Peak in Utah during his great expedition west. This is book 1 in the Duty, Honor, Country series. (Formerly titles West Point to Mexico)




It's Not Who You Know, It's Who You Are


Book Description

We live in a culture obsessed with celebrity. When we're not trying to make a name for ourselves, we're following the big names on Twitter, liking them on Facebook, and taking selfies with them if we are lucky enough to run into them in real life. We love winners and we want to be winners. But take it from a man who knows more famous people than most of us will ever meet--it's not who you know that's important, it's who you are inside. With short, story-driven readings, Pat Williams draws from over fifty years of brushing shoulders with the greats, offering readers motivation to do their best, be themselves, and continually strive to be the people God made them to be. He shows that being a "winner" is more about character, attitudes, values, and faith than it is about coming out on top. Stories from legendary sports figures, leaders, and fascinating people from all walks of life help readers develop true character that speaks for itself.




Killing on Command


Book Description

This book explores the unique social and environmental factors which influence soldiers to commit war crimes. With a focus on decision-making processes, this monograph provides a significant interdisciplinary analysis of how soldiers decide to follow the commands of their superior officers, even if that means acting illegally. Making the key distinction between normal civilian society and the shocking realities of war, the author facilitates the reader with a comprehensive understanding of what a front-line soldier faces in contemporary combat situations. Killing on Command presents the limits of the law in preventing the occurrence of war crimes. Realistic and practical measures for armed conflict, including the regulation and prevention of violence, and the just implementation of legal standards are all questioned and examined in depth. Given a current focus on the regulation of conduct in war, and the recent prosecution of soldiers, this book will be of particular interest to scholars in the fields of criminology and international relations, as well as policy-makers.




On My Way Home


Book Description

"This is not a detailed autobiography or a comprehensive anthology, because my life demands neither. It is, however, a brief account of certain people and events in what has been an entertaining and unusual life not yet completed. The story begins during the early years of my immigrant father's life, who was born in 1889, and it spans my life through 2009."--p.xi.




Throw Your Stuff Off the Plane


Book Description

A guide to making the leap from imposed accountability to personal commitment for both individuals and organizations. Accountability — we all want the people around us to be responsible, reveal genuine commitment, keep their word, and stay away from blaming others. But organizational systems that aim to institutionalize accountability don’t quite go all the way. People are people. They have their own wants and needs, their own psychological tangles, and they often don’t particularly want to be held accountable, let alone confront others who have let them down. Throw Your Stuff Off the Plane is here to help. It reveals the missing ingredient organizations usually overlook: personal responsibility. It’s an approach to self-improvement for each reader, centring on untangling the conflicting thoughts that block personal responsibility. And it’s a guide for every leader who wants to go all the way.




First Class


Book Description

When Sharon Hanley Disher entered the U.S. Naval Academy with eighty other young women in 1976, she helped end a 131-year all-male tradition at Annapolis. Her entertaining and shocking account of the women's four-year effort to join the academy's elite fraternity and become commissioned naval officers is a valuable chronicle of the times, and her insights have been credited with helping us understand the challenges of integrating women into the military services. From the punishing crucible of plebe summer to the triumph of graduation, she describes their search for ways to survive the mental and physical hurdles they had to overcome. Unflinchingly frank, she freely discusses the prejudice and abuse they encountered that often went unpunished or unreported. A loyal Navy supporter, nevertheless, Disher provides a balanced account of life behind the academy's storied walls for that first group of teenaged women who charted the way for future female midshipmen. Lively, well researched, and amazingly good humored, the book seems as fresh today as it was when first published in hardcover in 1998.




The Unforgiving Minute


Book Description

“The Unforgiving Minute is one of the most compelling memoirs yet to emerge from America's 9/11 era. Craig Mullaney has given us an unusually honest, funny, accessible, and vivid account of a soldier's coming of age. This is more than a soldier's story; it is a work of literature." —Steve Coll, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens "One of the most thoughtful and honest accounts ever written by a young Army officer confronting all the tests of life." —Bob Woodward In this surprise bestseller, West Point grad, Rhodes scholar, Airborne Ranger, and U. S. Army Captain Craig Mullaney recounts his unparalleled education and the hard lessons that only war can teach. While stationed in Afghanistan, a deadly firefight with al-Qaeda leads to the loss of one of his soldiers. Years later, after that excruciating experience, he returns to the United States to teach future officers at the Naval Academy. Written with unflinching honesty, this is an unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the weight of war while coming to terms with what it means to be a man.




A-Train


Book Description

The autobiography of a black American graduate of Tuskegee Army Flying School who served as a pilot in the 99th Pursuit Squadron, offering a personal account of what it was like to be a black pilot in WWII and the Korean War. For general readers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR