In 1968, eighteen-year-old Ian Christian is a typical kid of his generation. Stoned on a regular basis, he lives by the popular motto, "Make love, not war." But when he is drafted into the army at the height of the Vietnam War, his future suddenly changes. Ian Christian is about to be transformed into a killing machine. As he heads toward Southeast Asia, Ian's naivete fades as the reality of his nightmare quickly unfolds. Thrust into the horrors of battle for over a year, Ian finally returns home-both emotionally and physically disabled-but still optimistic enough to search for happiness. Unfortunately, he soon encounters a life far from what he ever imagined. His trek to the truth takes him on a revealing, fact-finding mission that eventually unravels the lies of a government that has turned its back on him. Now in the midst of a cover-up that only he can expose, Ian must find the key to unlock the mystery, which means reliving a past he would rather forget. As Ian travels from Vietnam to Rio de Janeiro and finally to California wine country to search for answers, only time will tell if he will discover his true destiny before it is too late.

Ordinary Americans in the armed services and at home face the poignancy and the raw emotions of wartime. In this, the third volume of The Soldiers Trilogy, members of the Henderson and Martin families put on military uniforms to defend their country after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, We follow them through training and watch some of the family at war in the Pacific. The major characters, however, serve in Europe. There through the eyes of a foot soldier, an airman, a paratrooper, a ranking officer at Supreme Headquarters, and a spy behind enemy lines we see preparations and training for the assault on Hitler''s Fortress Europe, the carrying out of the assault on D-Day, and its aftermath.

The New Cadet is a coming of age story about eighteen year old Alicia Randall, who enters The College of Armed Forces, CAF, as the second class of women. During her first year, she is faced with the rigorous challenges of the Tick Line and attempts to juggle her life within the college while staying connected to her old life. When her life outside the school shatters, Alicia begins walking the plank between falling apart and surviving.

What ends up saving Alicia is a new found relationship with a woman, Cathleen, who introduces a variety of books, which expands Alicia's awareness and puts her on a new path of self discovery and spiritual awareness.

The trials and tribulations from the school extend beyond the Tick Line when Alicia is accused of participating in behavior that is "unbecoming of an officer," and it takes every last ounce of strength to survive the school she had promised her brother she would never leave.

In using the new concepts Cathleen taught her, it is those ideas that consequently give Alicia the tools for fighting a system and keeping her at a school she conflictingly loves.

When Johnathan Traver joined the Union Army in October of 1861, he imagined a glorious and noble death awash in crimson. Eight months later, a survivor of Shiloh, Johnathan is still alive, serving as a master sergeant. To the dismay of his superiors, he makes it his mission to update battle training techniques, even if it means becoming an outlaw. He believes modern weapons should dictate modern battle strategies, but the army still trains men as if they had muskets.

Johnathan-the disowned son of a wealthy Vermont Squire who endured an abusive childhood-meets Esher, an illiterate orphan from the prairie, and they become warrior companions. Adventure is Johnathan's word for their union; love is Esher's. What's more, the vast difference in their backgrounds forms an obstacle for them. Esher belabors this difference; Johnathan doesn't.

Sharing a tale of the Union soldiers in the midst of the Civil War, "Sweetgrass: Book II" remembers them for their bravery and communicates a triumph of the spirit.

Synopsis

The Liberty Ship Murder on Hull # 13, it will not be remembered for the murder which was of no importance except to the participants.

What will be remembered are the antics of the shipyard stud by many of the young women on their lonely nights?

My job was as an agent sent to the ship yard to investigate the demise of a woman worker. My interest was soon diverted to this brawny and horny young rigger named Kelley.

Kelley worked hard at getting the ships ready for war. He also was very interested in helping as many girls and young women as possible from going man hungry. His dedication to the Liberty Ships and the ladies make interesting reading.

Dead, she is dead. The man shook Ernest to reality. The slow learner had stood guard on the topside of the liberty ship. A man had gone down and forward to visit a woman worker reputed to be selling favors through the back door opening of her drawers.

The man covered his badge nu-mber on his shirt with the bib of his overalls from Ernest and hurried away quickly. He went toward the huge gangway exit. This was to fool the retard. Ernest saw the man turn aft to his job aboard the ship but did not know the worker. His overall figure looked no different to describe than of a hundred other workers on the liberty ship.

Ernest went on with his business as usual. When he was walking around below he saw the body of a dead woman. Ernest was confused, but finally came up and reported finding the dead woman.

The shipyard officials called the police and they sent me to find out how the woman had been killed and who had done it.

The End

John Frazer has always known his destiny is to be a Royal Air Force pilot. As a young man, he zealously studies vast amounts of technical information on ships and aircraft and their operation. By the time he is trained to fly in Rhodesia, it is July 1951, and John is ready for anything-or so he thinks.

As John trains over the vast grasslands of Africa, he feels far removed from Europe, where storm clouds are gathering and a Cold War is brewing. After John graduates at the top of his flying class and wins an aerobatic prize, he moves on to serve in his first tour of duty as a fighter pilot in Germany. But John has no idea he has been noticed by his instructors for his innate flying abilities and is being unknowingly groomed to eventually carry out clandestine duties. Suddenly, John finds himself thrust into the midst of international tension as a dangerous war is fought in the shadows.

"A Deniable Asset" shares fascinating insight into the dramatic years of the Cold War, the advanced technology of that time, and the life of a Royal Air Force Pilot immersed in a great struggle for supremacy.

A young Kuban Kazachka named Marina Orlova, must find a way to survive after wandering into World War I, and later the Russian Civil War.

When a motion picture maker is hospitalized in a small Wisconsin town, he's asked to make a movie about events that took place in Imperial Russia during World War I and the Russian Civil War.

The crux of the action begins when a young Kuban Kazak maiden named Marina Orlova wanders into the midst of World War I on the Armenian front. There, she suffers a serious leg wound, and struggles to recover.

With the Russians advancing on Sivas, Turkey, Maria becomes a truck driver for a Red Cross unit helping the Imperial Army evacuate the wounded from the Persian front.

Eventually, Maria is injured again, this time quite seriously. As she moves from hospital to hospital, she witnesses the developing Russian Civil War, and in Kazan, by a fluke of battle, becomes a soldier in the White Army.

Join Maria as she finds the courage to navigate through a key period of world history, traveling from Kazan to Omsk, to Irkutsk, to Mukden and beyond in "Beyond Chez Vicalle: The Volunteer."

As the ground war struggled for success in Vietnam, it became intensely clear that the skies had to be owned by the allies for victory to have a chance. It was the F-4 and its pilots that made that possible. The author, a Phantom pilot himself, details intense stories of undaunted and valiant American pilots with their legendary fierce Phantom. These are personal stories of intrepid courage and self-sacrifice to get the mission done - whatever the cost. Fierce, unflinching battles to save friendlies and destroy a ruthless enemy are all recorded 40 years later. True tales of war at 500 knots!

Flying rescue missions is part of George Young's job, and he accepts the risks of a night flight through a blizzard to a remote Canadian village, despite a finicky engine. Although dicey, the long journey provides George with time to reminisce:

The lure of flight to a 17-year-old boy, proud to have earned his pilot's license. The exciting, terrifying disruption of World War II to everything he's known. Insane flying missions in the Aleutians, where less than ten percent of the weather is fit for aircraft or airmen. A suicide sortie after intelligence on a prototype Japanese bomber with a range that threatens US soil. The bittersweet success of a guerilla movement in the Philippine jungles. Dynamic pilots who taught George how to survive, whose dedication to duty cost them their lives. And a patchwork love, never fully realized, always just out of reach.

As he wrestles his aircraft and the storm on this errand of mercy, George also wrestles with eternal questions of destiny. What is his purpose, that he should live and others die? Is he doomed to drift, his heart hardening as he struggles to survive in civilian life even more than he did during the war?

Summer wheat, heavy with grain, waved in the July wind, and when touched by the afternoon sun, cast a golden glow on the rocks of Cemetery Ridge. Jonathan stood with his countrymen, rifle drawn, wiping sweat from his eyes with the sleeve of a ragged Confederate uniform. Then the nod, Longstreet to Pickett, whose men charged screaming the blood-curdling Rebel yell. Brave soldiers, strength pressed to the breach, fell like autumn leaves. Blood ran freely down the hill. Gettysburg was a trough. Jonathan could see with horrifying clarity from the hillside that Kemper, Armistead, and Semmes were dead. Garnett, already wounded in the leg, gallantly rode his horse in the charge facing certain death, and it was so. Jonathan reached the crest of the hill, slashing Union soldiers with every move, the grotesqueness of the hour searing his consciousness. He took a saber slash through the leg, grabbed the rogue Yank, and pulled him from his horse. With his bowie knife, he put an end to the savagery. But Jonathan was a savage himself. Both countries had gone mad and, in madness, had taken along every southern gentleman.

Retired Navy SEAL Jake Boucher returns to stop a terrorist plot against New York City. Al Qaeda and the South American terrorist organization FARC have aligned their interests and are operating together. Israel is on the verge of attacking Iran's weapon development facilities. Europe is crashing, Russia is surging, and confusion reigns as to the make-up of this new terror-alliance and its apparent intent. Tossed into this boiling cauldron, tasked with killing the master puppeteer, Boucher must alone determine whom, if anyone, he can trust. Some of his enemies may lie on his side of the firing line.