This is the story of the author's introduction to Africa at a time when much of the continent was in the grips of Cold War skirmishes between the free world and the communist forces of China and the Soviet Union. Frayed from three years of service during the Vietnam War, Hubbard traveled to Africa intending to become a rural policeman in a quiet area of what was then Rhodesia. The counterinsurgency war flared soon after, a conflict that bor ...
Commodore David Dixon Porter made history when he took the Essex into the Pacific and crippled the British whaling industry in the War of 1812. He was the first to suggest that the U.S. Navy force open Japan. He was also court-martialed and convicted on charges arising out of his unauthorized invasion of Spanish Puerto Rico. He later sought to reverse his fortunes in the Mexican Navy, and consistently suffered chaos in his personal and financial ...
His family says he was a great story teller. Yet Vice Admiral Allan Rockwell McCann left no reminisces that might reveal a deeper sense of his extraordinary service to the nation. In his four-decade military career spanning two world wars, he rarely discussed for the record the many historic circumstances that enveloped him. If you were to judge the admiral by his military awards and ribbons, they would not suggest the career he led. His signatu ...
When the China Clipper shattered aviation records on its maiden six-day flight from California to the Orient in 1935, the flying boat became an instant celebrity. This lively history by Robert Gandt traces the development of the great flying boats as both a triumph of technology and a stirring human drama. He examines the political, military, and economic forces that drove its development and explains the aeronautical advances that made the airc ...
“Wheel books” were once found in the uniform pockets of virtually all junior officers and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a substitute for experience among neophytes and as a portable library of reference information for more ...
Lt. General Frank E. Petersen’s autobiography provides a critical examination of this remarkable Marine’s career, from his accomplishments as the first black pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps to his promotion to Lieutenant General and final service as Commander U.S. Marine Corp Base Quantico, Virginia. At the time of his retirement in 1988, General Petersen was the first and only black pilot to hold command and the only black ge ...
This is the remarkable story of an airplane that became a legend–with a sleek silhouette and bent wings, it doubled as a day and night fighter, could fly off carriers or from land, and served both as a dive bomber and reconnaissance plane. Filled with facts and figures, this fast-paced history begins with the nerve-wracking test flights of the 1940s and concludes with the F4Us that were active thirty-eight years later. Placed skillfully in betwe ...
Between 1793 and 1815 two decades of unrelenting naval warfare raised the sailing man of war to the zenith of its effectiveness as a weapon of war. Every significant sea power was involved in this conflict, and at some point virtually all of them were arrayed against Great Britain. A large number of enemy warships were captured in battle and the Admiralty ordered accurate drafts to be made of many of these prizes. Consequently, ships from the na ...
