The Life and Times of a Cold War Serviceman PDF Download

Author: Maurice F. Mercure
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1466953861
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
This book may be dry in parts, but it is exactly how a serviceman's life unfolds. It may seem strange to some people that your day-to-day existence (daily life) is dictated by pieces of paper. It is not like a civilian that does not have a rigid routine with military precision. In one sense, it gives you a feeling of security, knowing what is laid out for you. On the other hand, it gives you the feeling that someone else is pulling the strings for you to act. As you retain copies of all these orders (paperwork) for your personal files, you have a running (chronological) history of your life. It covers all aspects the good, the bad, and the ugly. It may be hard for a civilian, nonmilitary person, who has not had any exposure to military life, to understand all the paperwork in this book. While reading this book, take a moment to see how different a serviceman's life is compared to a civilian's.

Author: Bob Kern
Publisher: Bob Kern
ISBN: 1508645299
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Finalist for Book of the Year Military Autobiography in 2015 A GRIPPING, TRUE STORY TOLD FROM THE FRONT LINES AS THE WORLD FACED THE POSSIBILITY OF NUCLEAR WAR This is a personal account of military service and the historical events that were happening during President Reagan's time in office as the world faced the possibility of nuclear war. The author was in the US Army from November 1980 until March 1988 which coincided with President Reagan's time in office. He quickly went from a naive seventeen year old boy to a dedicated die hard soldier ready to sacrifice his life for his country. An assignment that likely would have been at Ground Zero of a nuclear war. On the verge of World War 3 and nuclear war, "We Were Soldiers Too" is about the difficult job of serving in the infantry during a very critical time of the Cold War. Serving as the first line of defense for a Soviet invasion in Germany, he found himself assigned the responsibility of defending an area in the Fulda Gap with only one objective, to hold the advancing Soviets until reinforcements arrived. Read what other veterans think of "We Were Soldiers Too" "An excellent illustration of the lives and sacrifices of our Cold War enlisted service members. I recommend it to all. It brings back memories of those days and what we did during that era." Edward A. Chesky "I highly recommend this for anyone to read, especially for anyone that has served this great Nation. I suspect that my fellow Cold War Veterans will be able to relate to a lot of what this author writes about." Tracy A Stephens "An excellent book about those men who served during the Cold War. Excellent insight into how the Army prepared for a possible Soviet invasion. I highly recommend this book." Gary E. Earls "I too am a Cold War Reagan Soldier and I Enjoyed this Book very much. I think Bob did a great job by putting in writing how we all feel. We were highly Trained and Ready to meet any Challenge and Subdue any Threat. We were part of the Strongest Army in the history of the United States. We were and Still are Soldiers. I am Proud to have served with such fine members of the Military." Curtis Nazelrod Scroll up and grab a copy today!

Author: Terry Burke
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 155488960X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
The danger of participating in live-fire exercises and a Christmas spent in a military prison are described in detail in this graphic picture of military life at the height of the Cold War. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ’iron curtain’ has descended across the continent." These words, uttered by Winston Churchill in 1946, heralded the beginning of the Cold War. In this first-hand account of a NATO soldier, Terry Stoney Burke paints a graphic picture of military life at the height of the Cold War. From the trials and tribulations of basic training, through his progress of becoming an infantryman and explosive specialist, to his posting in Germany, his pull no punches narrative tells the sometimes humorous, often poignant, story of life as a common soldier. Cold War Soldieris not a book for veterans alone. Burkes explanations of military procedures, weapons, and army life strike a happy balance between reminding ex-servicemen of things they knew but may have forgotten, and creating a clear picture for the military novice.

Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 081296716X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
Even fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, it is still hard to grasp that we no longer live under its immense specter. For nearly half a century, from the end of World War II to the early 1990s, all world events hung in the balance of a simmering dispute between two of the greatest military powers in history. Hundreds of millions of people held their collective breath as the United States and the Soviet Union, two national ideological entities, waged proxy wars to determine spheres of influence–and millions of others perished in places like Korea, Vietnam, and Angola, where this cold war flared hot. Such a consideration of the Cold War–as a military event with sociopolitical and economic overtones–is the crux of this stellar collection of twenty-six essays compiled and edited by Robert Cowley, the longtime editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. Befitting such a complex and far-ranging period, the volume’s contributing writers cover myriad angles. John Prados, in “The War Scare of 1983,” shows just how close we were to escalating a war of words into a nuclear holocaust. Victor Davis Hanson offers “The Right Man,” his pungent reassessment of the bellicose air-power zealot Curtis LeMay as a man whose words were judged more critically than his actions. The secret war also gets its due in George Feiffer’s “The Berlin Tunnel,” which details the charismatic C.I.A. operative “Big Bill” Harvey’s effort to tunnel under East Berlin and tap Soviet phone lines–and the Soviets’ equally audacious reaction to the plan; while “The Truth About Overflights,” by R. Cargill Hall, sheds light on some of the Cold War’s best-kept secrets. The often overlooked human cost of fighting the Cold War finds a clear voice in “MIA” by Marilyn Elkins, the widow of a Navy airman, who details the struggle to learn the truth about her husband, Lt. Frank C. Elkins, whose A-4 Skyhawk disappeared over Vietnam in 1966. In addition there are profiles of the war’s “front lines”–Dien Bien Phu, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs–as well as of prominent military and civil leaders from both sides, including Harry S. Truman, Nikita Khrushchev, Dean Acheson, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Richard M. Nixon, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, and others. Encompassing so many perspectives and events, The Cold War succeeds at an impossible task: illuminating and explaining the history of an undeclared shadow war that threatened the very existence of humankind.

Author: Freddie Valenzuela
Publisher: BookPros, LLC
ISBN: 0979027586
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
No Greater Love is essential reading for both American civilians and past, present, and future military personnel. Written by Major General Freddie Valenzuela, who has served all over the world and throughout several wars, this book offers eye-opening discussions of:* Challenges faced by Hispanic soldiers in the U.S. Army.* The life and burial of the very first casualty of the Iraq War.* The relatively unknown lives of the other twenty-one casualties that General Valenzuela buried.* Advice for current and future soldiers in moving up the ranks in their military careers.* Life in a military family, as revealed through firsthand accounts by the general's wife and children.* And many other topics affecting today's soldiers.

Author: John R. Galvin
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813161029
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
When four-star general John Rogers Galvin retired from the US Army after forty-four years of distinguished service in 1992, the Washington Post hailed him as a man "without peer among living generals." In Fighting the Cold War: A Soldier's Memoir, the celebrated soldier, scholar, and statesman recounts his active participation in more than sixty years of international history -- from the onset of World War II through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the post--Cold War era. Galvin's illustrious tenure included the rare opportunity to lead two different Department of Defense unified commands: United States Southern Command in Panama from 1985 to 1987 and United States European Command from 1987 to 1992. In his memoir, he recounts fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes about his interactions with world leaders, describing encounters such as his experience of watching President José Napoleón Duarte argue eloquently against US intervention in El Salvador; a private conversation with Pope John Paul II in which the pontiff spoke to him about what it means to be a man of peace; and his discussion with General William Westmoreland about soldiers' conduct in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia. In addition, Galvin recalls his complex negotiations with a number of often difficult foreign heads of state, including Manuel Noriega, Augusto Pinochet, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ratko Mladić. As NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during the tumultuous five years that ended the Cold War, Galvin played a key role in shaping a new era. Fighting the Cold War illuminates his leadership and service as one of America's premier soldier-statesmen, revealing him to be not only a brilliant strategist and consummate diplomat but also a gifted historian and writer who taught and mentored generations of students.

Author: Robert R. Ulin
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1456736167
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
This book is a first person account of military service during the Cold War in Europe from the erection to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. It is also about combat in Vietnam as an artilleryman in the Central Highlands and as an infantry advisor in the Mekong Delta. The author participated in the investigation of a fragging incident that killed an NCO, he put down an attempted mutiny and directed the first artillery counter-battery attack on Soviet artillery manned by North Vietnamese regulars in the tri-border era of VietnamLaos, Cambodia and Vietnam. He worked with the CIA in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam managing the Phoenix Program while assigned to Tam Binh District where he met the legendary John Paul Vann and hosted visits by Sir Robert Thompson, the British guerrilla warfare expert and John Erlichman, advisor to President Richard Nixon. Between tours of duty in Vietnam, he returned to Germany with a Pershing Missile unit that experienced severe discipline problems including drugs, assault and attempted murder. This book is about a thirty-three year military career from private to colonel during a particularly difficult time for the US Army. He served in Germany, Vietnam and Belgium and conducted missions in Africa. While in Belgium he served at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the American Embassy and finally NATO headquarters. The author participated in a NATO Summit attended by President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher and completed his career on the faculty of the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he participated in the first uniformed visit to Warsaw, Prague and Budapest following the demise of the Warsaw Pact.

Author: Lou Schulist
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
ISBN: 1649793189
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
In the ’30s and ’40s, and throughout the ’80s, our country depended on news sources with no political spin. Without social media, people spoke face-to-face or by telephone. These were kinder times when the values of honesty and integrity were expected. WWII was soon followed by the Korean and Vietnam wars and, with Selective Service, all eligible males were subject to serving. Running concurrently with these “hot” wars was the long Cold War, which affected millions of Americans and our loyal allies. The world seemed to be teetering on the brink of a devastating nuclear war. Former enemies became our trusted allies, and our Western allies remained close. Life became less localized, and people who never expected to travel beyond a few states were suddenly seeing the world. Times were rapidly changing, and the simple life was fast fading. One thing did not change however—people still found ways to meet and fall in love. In this entertaining story spanning eighty years, two people, in countries separated by 4,000 miles of land and ocean, could never have imagined God’s plan for the series of seemingly random events in their lives that would someday bring them together. They would meet, fall in love, and together overcome obstacles and share a life of growing faith and continuous adventure.

Author: Richard E. Mack
Publisher: Kent State University Press
ISBN: 9780873386753
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
A career soldier, Richard E. Mack served in the US Army until 1976, when he retired as a colonel. In this volume he recalls his service in front-line combat units in Korea and Vietnam, commenting on the tasks, challenges, problems and concerns of all soldiers during these conflicts.

Author: Terry "Stoney" Burke
Publisher: Dundurn PressLtd
ISBN: 9781554889594
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
The danger of participating in live fire exercises, the realism of NATO manoeuvres in Western Europe, the sordid behaviour of soldiers on leave in Amsterdam, and a Christmas spent in a military prison are all described in detail in this graphic picture of military life at the height of the Cold War.