Displaying the top 100 results that match your query. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/rssapi.jsp?Re=3295&N=3+3475+4294966744 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1668508 This book tells the story of an inspirational journey from tragedy to triumph In 2003, at age nineteen the author was on a routine patrol when the Humvee he was driving hit an antitank mine in Iraq, resulting in severe injuries and burns on his face and more than one-third of his body. Out of that tragedy came an improbable journey of inspiration, motivation, and dreams come true. In this memoir he shares his story in intimate detail, from his upbringing in the American South and his time in the Army to his recovery and the indomitable spirit that has made him an inspiration to countless fans. He always had a strong spirit. Raised in Bossier City, Louisiana, and then Hope, Arkansas, by a single mother from El Salvador, he was well known at school for his good looks and his smart mouth. At seventeen, showing an early determination and drive that would become one of his trademark qualities, he convinced his mom to move to Dalton, Georgia, where he believed he would have a better chance of being recruited to play college football. His positive attitude earned him a spot on a competitive high school football squad, but when his college dreams collapsed, he turned to the U.S. Army. A few months later, he found himself serving in Iraq. When his humvee hit a mine and exploded, just one month into his deployment, he was immediately evacuated to a San Antonio medical center, where he spent the next thirty-four months in grueling recovery. Seeing his disfigured face for the first time after the accident threw him into a crushing period of confusion and anger. His spirits were low, until he was asked to speak to another young burn victim. He then realized how valuable and gratifying it was to share his experiences with other patients and listen to theirs. He had found a calling. His fellow soldiers, along with the local and then national media, soon latched onto his spirit and strength. His resilience, optimism, and charm were also noted by Hollywood and scored him roles on All My Children and Dancing with the Stars, where he was the season thirteen champion. Today, he tours the country sharing his story and his lessons for overcoming challenges and embracing hope, lessons that abound in this book. This an unforgettable story of a man who never gave up on his dreams. He now lives in Los Angeles. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1565874 A U.S. Marine who served two combat tours in Iraq, an actor on The Wire, and son of novelist Frederick Busch reflects on his childhood in rural New York, his experiences as a Marine, and the nature of mortality. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1564183 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1665609 Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. He and his team would venture out in convoys from their Forward Operating Base to engage in the nerve-racking yet strangely exhilarating work of disarming the deadly improvised explosive devices that had been discovered --or to pick up the pieces when the alert came too late. They relied on an army of remote-controlled cameras and robots, but if that technology failed, a technician would don the eighty-pound Kevlar suit and take the Long Walk to disarm the bomb. When Castner returned home, he began a struggle with an unshakable feeling of fear, confusion and survivors guilt that he terms the Crazy. His thrilling, heartbreaking, stunningly honest book immerses the reader in two harrowing and simultaneous realities: the terror, excitement and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the enemy within--the haunting memories that will not fade the survival instincts that will not switch off. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1580477 This memoir describes the professional challenges faced by Secret Service agents as well as the physical and emotional toll that can be inflicted on both agents and their families. Within arms length also shares firsthand details about the duties and challenges of conducting presidential advances, dealing with the media, driving the president in a bullet-proof limousine, running alongside him through the streets of Washington, and flying with him on Air Force One--Book jacket. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1609823 Rubio, U.S. senator and son of Cuban immigrants, tells his American dream story as he speaks on the national stage about the challenges we face and the better future thats possible if we return to our founding principles. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1647791 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1480516 Congresswoman Giffords and her astronaut husband recount her early years, their marriage, the assassination attempt that left her gravely wounded and took the lives of six others, and her rehabilitation. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1556250 Follows the courageous actions of the U.S. Armys 10th Mountain Division as they engaged in sixteen months of continuous battle against Pakistani-based insurgents in Afghanistan, showing how close combat reshaped all of their lives. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1548498 For four years, from the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in November 1960 until after the election of Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent assigned to guard the glamorous and intensely private Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. During those four years, he went from being a reluctant guardian to a fiercely loyal watchdog and, in many ways, her closest friend-- http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1364958 In a moving and inspiring memoir told with genuine humility, Eric Greitens offers something new in the history of military memoirs. A warrior who wanted to be strong to be good, only to discover that he had to be good to be strong. Throughout his SEAL training and deployments in Kenya, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the lessons of his humanitarian work bore fruit. The result is a lesson for all. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1226710 The Massachusetts senator who was elected to succeed the late Edward Kennedy recounts the story of his neglect- and abuse-marked childhood, military and career successes, and unexpected entry into politics. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1306839 In a moving and inspiring memoir told with genuine humility, Eric Greitens offers something new in the history of military memoirs. A warrior who wanted to be strong to be good, only to discover that he had to be good to be strong. Throughout his SEAL training and deployments in Kenya, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the lessons of his humanitarian work bore fruit. The result is a lesson for all. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1426654 Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, showed Americans how optimism, an adventurous spirit, and a call to service can help change the world. Their arrival in the spotlight came under the worst of circumstances. On January 8, 2011, while meeting with constituents in Tucson, Arizona, Gabby was the victim of an assassination attempt that left six people dead and thirteen wounded. Gabby was shot in the head; doctors called her survival miraculous. As the nation grieved and sought to understand the attack, Gabby remained focused on her against-all-odds recovery. Mark spent every possible moment by her side, as he also prepared for his final mission as commander of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Now, as Gabbys health continues to improve, the couple is sharing their remarkable untold story, an unflinching look at the overwhelming challenges of brain injury, the painstaking process of learning to communicate again, and the responsibilities that fall to a loving spouse who wants the best possible treatment for his wife.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1298953 The Massachusetts senator who was elected to succeed the late Edward Kennedy recounts the story of his neglect- and abuse-marked childhood, military and career successes, and unexpected entry into politics. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1213694 With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfelds memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfelds unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1260722 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1365624 The former vice president of the United States reflects on his influential tenure in a memoir which also includes details from his personal life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1235559 The Massachusetts senator who was elected to succeed the late Edward Kennedy recounts the story of his neglect- and abuse-marked childhood, military and career successes, and unexpected entry into politics. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1481103 Tells the inspiring story of Sergeant Mike Dowling and his bomb-snifing dog, Rex, as they navigated the always-dangerous Triangle of Death region in Iraq in 2004. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1131329 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1127545 This memoir recounts the experiences of a Marine Corps officer. Each chapter describes a specific event, a story of emotion, or a remarkable person. The reader lives the experience alongside the authors memory, gaining a sense of the pulse-pounding contact, surrealism, pathos, humor, and beauty that defined one of the low points of the American experience--Provided by publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1212352 For the first time ever, the true story of the critical events leading up to and following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, by the Secret Service agents who were firsthand witnesses to one of Americas greatest tragedies. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1187571 The Secret Service are an elite team of men who share a single mission: to protect the president of the United States. On November 22, 1963, these men failed, and a country would never be the same. Now, for the first time, a member of JFKs Secret Service detail reveals the inside story of the assassination, the weeks and days that led to it and its heartrending aftermath. This book is a portrait of dedication, courage, and loss. Drawing on the memories of his fellow agents, the author captures the energetic, crowd-loving young president, who banned agents from his car and often plunged into raucous crowds with little warning. He describes the careful planning that went into JFKs Texas swing, the worries and concerns that agents, working long hours with little food or rest, had during the trip. And he describes the intensely private first lady making her first ever political appearance with her husband, just months after losing a newborn baby. Here are vivid scenes that could come only from inside the Kennedy detail: JFKs last words to his tearful son when he left Washington for the last time; how a sudden change of weather led to the choice of the open air convertible limousine that day; Mrs. Kennedy standing blood soaked outside a Dallas hospital room; the sudden interruption of six-year-old Carolines long anticipated sleepover with a friend at home; the exhausted team of agents immediately reacting to the presidents death with a shift to LBJ and other key governmental figures; the agents dismay at Jackies decision to walk openly from the White House to St. Matthews Cathedral at the state funeral. Most of all, this is a look into the lives of men who devoted their entire beings to protecting the presidential family: the stress of the secrecy they kept, the emotional bonds that developed, the terrible impact on agents psyches and families, and their astonishment at the countrys obsession with far fetched conspiracy theories and finger pointing. This book is a portrait of camaraderie and heartbreak, a true story of heroism in its most complex and human form. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1127470 The charismatic former Senator, actor, and presidential hopeful turns the page on his storied life in this long-awaited autobiography, discussing his dual professions in Hollywood and politics while revealing the values that have shaped him. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1170085 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1007550 A searing memoir of recovery and triumph by one of Americas finest patriots, detailing his remarkable journey from smalltown Georgia to Vietnam to a U.S. Senate seat, his trajectory serving as scaffolding for a withering critique of the Bush administrations handling of September 11. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1022297 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1006689 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1058593 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=930240 An unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the weight of his hard-earned knowledge, while at last coming to terms with what it means to be a man--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=956475 A West Point grad, Rhodes scholar, and Army Ranger recounts his unparalleled education in the art of war and reckons with the hard wisdom that only battle itself can bestow. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1023668 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=945906 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=765310 Carolyn Jourdan spent many years as a congressional lawyer in Washington, D.C. Then she was called home to fill in for her mother as receptionist at her fathers rural Tennessee doctors office--assured it would only be for a few days. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=547263 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=626452 The reader will find no war stories of combat missions. This is an account of the intense training for such missions during World War II, the Korean confict, and the Cold War--Foreward. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=610719 As his father nears death in his retirement home in Mexico, author John H. Richardson begins to unravel a life filled with drama and secrecy. In the first years of World War II, his father, then an idealistic student of literature and sociology, was recruited into military intelligence and thrown into action in Europe, getting his education on the fly as he roamed the battlefields of Italy and Austria, hunting spies and saboteurs. One of the founding members of the CIA, he quickly emerged as a seasoned chief of station in some of the hottest assignments of the cold war, from the back alleys of occupied Vienna to the ballrooms of Athens to the jungles of the Philippines - and especially Saigon, where he became a pivotal player in the event most historians see as the turning point of the Vietnam War, the overthrow of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem. He had also become a family man, with a wife and two children. As John Jr. and his sister came of age in exotic postings across the world, they struggled to accommodate themselves to their father, by now a rigid and distant cold warrior, and their conflict opens a window on the tumult of the sixties and Vietnam. Only years after the CIA called John Sr. back to the States to teach other spies did father and son repair their relationship, developing a profound emotional and intellectual connection. Through the daily happenings at home, and his fathers actions, reconstructed from declassified documents and extensive interviews with former spies and government officials, Richardson reveals both the innermost workings of a family that played an important role in the clandestine wrangling of the cold war and the deeper war that turns the world of the fathers into the world of the sons.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=297488 In 1942 Fred Rochlin joined the Army Air Corps. After eight months of training, he was stationed in Italy, serving as the navigator on a B-24 bomber and flying missions over Germany. Fifty such missions were required for a successful tour of duty. This was the first time that Fred Rochlin had been away from home. He was nineteen years old.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=275030 On December 7, 1941, as U.S. battleships lie paralyzed and burning at Pearl Harbor, a crack team of Navy divers was flown to the island of Oahu tasked with rescuing sailors and marines trapped below. The author, the chief diver of the Pearl Harbor salvage operations, tells the story of men who entered the completely black interior of shipwrecks and attempted untested and potentially deadly diving techniques to save their comrades. The author brings their mission vividly to life in a long overdue salute to courageous men who performed a Herculean task. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=277412 Until now, Union army colonel Nathan W. Daniels (1832-1867) has been a forgotten man with a forgotten regiment. The white commanding officer of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guard Volunteers, a black regiment, he was removed with his men from mainland military activity and confined to obscure duty on Ship Island, ten miles off the coast of Mississippi. However, as Daniels intriguing diary documents, despite an unrenowned existence that has resulted in little attention from historians, the 2nd Native Guards represent a pioneering stage in the history of black troops at war. The story of the Louisiana Native Guards is essentially the story of the first black commissioned officers in the Civil War. Ordered by General Benjamin F. Butler, the promotion of seventy-six educated, free blacks of mixed ancestry was an experimental step taken during the early days of black enlistment. However, within one year, nearly all the officers, as well as their white colonels, were forced out or had resigned in frustration. Daniels lived the tale of these removals and confided his thoughts to his diary, a rare surviving narrative from someone of his rank and position. The diary also provides never-before-published pictures from wartime Ship Island, including photographs of members of Daniels regiment, visiting ship captains, and Major Francis E. Dumas - the highest-ranking black officer to see combat during the war. A superb resource in themselves, these photographs will fascinate Civil War enthusiasts. The first published personal narrative by a regimental commander of free black troops, Thank God My Regiment an African One offers a unique glimpse into the daily lives of white leaders of the earliest black soldiers.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=229492 World War II fighter planes were more akin to the Spads and Fokkers of the First World War than they were to todays combat jets. Eddie Rickenbacker and the Red Baron could immediately relate to the likes of Gentile, Bong, and Yeager. World War II fighter pilots in all branches of service, Army, Marines, and Navy, in Europe and the Pacific theaters still flew by the seat of their pants. Combat quickly became a one-on-one deadly duel. After the battle was over and the various squadron elements were scattered widely over enemy terrain, the fighter pilots then became navigators. Each pilot had to traverse the 500 or so miles back to home base, surely to be diverted only by possible enemy aircraft encounters, or to escort a struggling, defenseless allied bomber home to friendly territory. Dead Reckoning describes how it was in the cockpit of a Mustang fighter plane as a member of the 357th Fighter Group which scored a record 56 victories on January 14, 1945.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=27037 The young daughter of an English-born U.S. infantry officer on the post Civil War frontier, Mary Leefe had the childhood of an army nomad, accompanying the regiment from south Texas to the boundary with Canada. In faithfully recording her varied experiences as a camp follower, she offers extensive and unique memoirs on life as a child and adolescent in the twilight of the Indian-fighting army. She considered herself a part of her fathers unit, ever-mindful of the heritage of noblesse oblige. . . the honor of the army and esprit de corps of the regiment. . . . We were part and parcel of this and must never disgrace it. Leefes formative memories were of the death of the regimental colonel in battle with the Cheyennes and of the dangerous thrill of watching an Ute war dance. When her fathers company was assigned to guard Apache prisoners of war in Alabama, she came to know and fear Geronimo, whose terrible eyes haunted my dreams, but she developed a lasting respect and admiration for such leaders as Chihuahua, Nana, and Naiche. Leefe offers the reader much more than frontier anecdotes of a youth who comes of age in the fading West. A largely uncritical observer, Leefe was indeed a product of her place and time and so can report on the military community with affection, humor, and sympathetic understanding.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=215155 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=263118 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=262601 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1706549