This book constitutes the proceedings of the International Conference on Integrable Systems in memory of J.-L. Verdier. It was held on July 1-5, 1991 at the Centre International de Recherches Mathematiques (C.I.R.M.) at Luminy, near Marseille (France). This collection of articles, covering many aspects of the theory of integrable Hamiltonian systems, both finite- and infinite-dimensional, with an emphasis on the algebro-geometric meth- ods, is published here as a tribute to Verdier who had planned this confer- ence before his death in 1989 and whose active involvement with this topic brought integrable systems to the fore as a subject for active research in France. The death of Verdier and his wife on August 25, 1989, in a car accident near their country house, was a shock to all of us who were acquainted with them, and was very deeply felt in the mathematics community. We knew of no better way to honor Verdier's memory than to proceed with both the School on Integrable Systems at the C.I.M.P.A. (Centre International de Mathematiques Pures et Appliquees in Nice), and the Conference on the same theme that was to follow it, as he himself had planned them.

The present book contains fourteen expository contributions on various topics connected to Number Theory, or Arithmetics, and its relationships to Theoreti cal Physics. The first part is mathematically oriented; it deals mostly with ellip tic curves, modular forms, zeta functions, Galois theory, Riemann surfaces, and p-adic analysis. The second part reports on matters with more direct physical interest, such as periodic and quasiperiodic lattices, or classical and quantum dynamical systems. The contribution of each author represents a short self-contained course on a specific subject. With very few prerequisites, the reader is offered a didactic exposition, which follows the author's original viewpoints, and often incorpo rates the most recent developments. As we shall explain below, there are strong relationships between the different chapters, even though every single contri bution can be read independently of the others. This volume originates in a meeting entitled Number Theory and Physics, which took place at the Centre de Physique, Les Houches (Haute-Savoie, France), on March 7 - 16, 1989. The aim of this interdisciplinary meeting was to gather physicists and mathematicians, and to give to members of both com munities the opportunity of exchanging ideas, and to benefit from each other's specific knowledge, in the area of Number Theory, and of its applications to the physical sciences. Physicists have been given, mostly through the program of lectures, an exposition of some of the basic methods and results of Num ber Theory which are the most actively used in their branch."

The present book contains fourteen expository contributions on various topics connected to Number Theory, or Arithmetics, and its relationships to Theoreti cal Physics. The first part is mathematically oriented; it deals mostly with ellip tic curves, modular forms, zeta functions, Galois theory, Riemann surfaces, and p-adic analysis. The second part reports on matters with more direct physical interest, such as periodic and quasiperiodic lattices, or classical and quantum dynamical systems. The contribution of each author represents a short self-contained course on a specific subject. With very few prerequisites, the reader is offered a didactic exposition, which follows the author's original viewpoints, and often incorpo rates the most recent developments. As we shall explain below, there are strong relationships between the different chapters, even though every single contri bution can be read independently of the others. This volume originates in a meeting entitled Number Theory and Physics, which took place at the Centre de Physique, Les Houches (Haute-Savoie, France), on March 7 - 16, 1989. The aim of this interdisciplinary meeting was to gather physicists and mathematicians, and to give to members of both com munities the opportunity of exchanging ideas, and to benefit from each other's specific knowledge, in the area of Number Theory, and of its applications to the physical sciences. Physicists have been given, mostly through the program of lectures, an exposition of some of the basic methods and results of Num ber Theory which are the most actively used in their branch."

This is the story of one of those past Air Commandos one of the greatest Air Commandos in history: Major General (retired) John R. Alison, the father of the lst Air Commandos and Air Force Special Operations. Remarkably, Alison's Air Commandos began their legendary operations nearly 59 years to the day before the IRAQI FREEDOM mission, doing exactly the same types of operations -- transporting and escorting British Special Forces deep behind enemy lines enabling small-scale tactical operations to have strategic effects.